2. ABIOTIC FACTORS
The tropical rainforest is very warm and it has a
wet climate. This biome is located very close to
the equator and this causes little seasonal change
in temperature and in the length of a day. Also it
has a lot more sunlight hitting the land and sea.
This helps the growth of plants that live in the
Tropical Rainforest. The tall trees branches can
create a canopy or shield that prevents the rain
and sun from reaching the ground. The soil in the
topical forest is nutrient-poor and acidic. The
decomposition is very quick and soils are known
for heavy leaching. The latitude is 10 ° N and 10 °
S latitude at elevations below 3,000 feet.
3. ANIMALS
There are many different animals that live in Tropical
Rainforests all over the world for example in South
America there are insects such as the morpho butterfly,
mammals like the jaguar, birds such as hummingbirds,
reptiles like snakes and fishes. In Australia, Southeast
Africa, West Africa all have similar creatures as listed
up above. All these animals all have different adaptions
to survive in the rainforest. For example the jaguar
they have jaws and a large head to pierce the skull of
their prey with their canines. Their long tail help them
keep their balance when they are running, making
sharp turns, and climbing. There are so many other
adaptions jaguars have to survive in the rainforest.
4. PLANTS
There are so many different types of plants that live in the
Tropical Rainforest for example the Coconut Tree, the
Kapok Tree and many more. There is little light below the
canopy so most trees do not have branches or leaves below
this level. The plants the grow below the canopy, such as
mosses and ferns adapt to the lack of sunlight and can
grow quite well along the floor of the forest. About one
quarter of all the medicines we use today come from the
rainforest plants and many varieties of tropical plants are
believed to be potential cures for cancer. Like animals
plants also have adaptions for example the Bengal bamboo,
it is extremely adapted to the climate in the biome because
it requires a lot of water to survive, so the excessive rain is
great. It also grows really quick, which is a good trait
because as the plant grows older and bigger it requires a lot
more sunlight and since the plant is growing tall it reaches
more sunlight at a rapid pace.
5. CLIMATE
The climate in the Tropical Rainforest has an
average temperature of 20-34 degrees Celsius,
the annual rainfall is 250 centimeters or more
and the average humidity is between 77% and
88% . In a month the rain forest gets 4 inches of
rain. The tropical rainforest is different from
other biomes because 50 % of the precipitation
comes from its own evaporation. It rains more
than ninety days a year in the rainforest, and inbetween all these rain storms, the warm sun
comes out and heats up the biome. With the little
sunlight they have, the warm air and lots of rain
make it a great climate for trees to grow, and
because of this the trees can grow large and tall.
6.
7. WORLD DISTRIBUTION
There are 3 major tropical forests:
Neotropical (Amazonia into Central
America)
African (Zaire Basin with an outlier in West
Africa; also eastern Madagascar)
Indo- Malaysian (west coast of India, Assam,
southeast Asia, New Guinea and Queensland,
Australia.
8.
9. BIOACCUMULATION
Gold, copper, diamonds, and other metals and
gemstones are found in rainforests around the
world. The process consists on hydraulic mining
techniques, it blasts away at the river banks,
clearing floodplain forests, and using heavy
machinery to find the gold in the gravel. The gold
is removed from this gravel by using a sluice box
to separate heavier sediment and mercury for
amalgamating the precious metal. While most of
the mercury is removed some still ends up in
rivers. There are no studies showing that there is
a contamination of mercury in the Tropical
Rainforest but biologist Michael Goulding says it
is causing problems in these ecosystems.
10. INTRUSIVE SPECIES
One intrusive specie is the tropical ash tree. This
tree is taller than most trees in the rainforests,
therefore allowing it receive less heat from the
sun. The native Hawaiian trees are rotting which
is changing the rainforest in a rapid way. The
tropical ash was brought into the world in 1930's
as a timber species it was produced to create
wood products. Sadly, it rapidly went around the
tropical rainforest and it killed off many native
trees.
11. ENERGY FLOWS
The tropical rainforest receives a lot mores
sunlight and rainfall and this causes bigger,
taller and stronger plants than any other biome
in the world. Because these plants are so large it
doesn’t allow the sunlight to reach the bottom
layer of the rainforest. In the picture in the next
slide it shows 100% of the rainfall reaches the
rainforest, 50% of that rainfall is consumed, 25%
of it evaporates, and the other 25% of it is surface
runoff. This is known as the water cycle and it
happens everyday and produces rainfall and
water to the plants and animals that live in this
biome.
12. ENERGY FLOWS: TROPHIC LEVELS
The primary producer usually are the ferns,
bamboo, moss, palm trees and other vegetation.
The primary consumers are the herbivores that
eat all these producers.
Secondary consumers, such as bats, amphibians,
some reptiles and predator insects eat all the
small herbivores. And finally the consumers are
at the top of the food web and are the snakes and
carnivorous mammals such as jaguars
13.
14. BIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS
Mutualism: The relationship between the capuchin monkeys and
flowering trees : when the capuchin monkey feeds on the nectar from
these flowers, it creates a mess of pollen on its face, afterwards it
moves to other flowers because the capuchin monkey feeds on other
flowers process. In this way, the trees provide the capuchin species
with food, while the capuchin monkey helps the pollination of flowers
of this tree.
Commensalism: The relationship between army ants and ant birds :
army ants are best known for the way they take on anything that
comes in their way. The antbirds, follow these ants, and eat on
whatever is left behind. When the ants march they manage to shake
the floor which results in insects on the floor to fly away, afterwards
these insects are eaten up by the antbirds. So in conculsion the
antbirds are benefited by the army ants, but the army ants do not
benefit from the antbirds.
Paratism: The dependence of phorid fly on leaf-cutter ants: When the
leaf-cutter ants collect leaves, the phorid flies attack the leaf cutter
ants, after the attack they lay their eggs in the crevices of ant's head.
When the eggs hatch, the larvae feeds into the ant's body which leads
to the death of the ant. So, the phorid fly benefits from the leaf-cutter
ants, and the ants get the short end of the stick in this realtionship.
15. SUCCESSION THAT HAPPEN IN THE
TROPICAL RAINFOREST
Primary Succession:
In tropical rainforest, flooding happens quite
often from the heavy rain. This strips the top
layer of soil which leads to the environment must
creating a new soil.
Secondary Succession:
Farmers in the rainforest cut down a lot of trees
to grow their crops, after a couple years the soil
becomes infertile. When the farmer moves,
secondary succession sets in and the soil becomes
fertilized, it also starts growing small plants and
trees until the forest (after hundreds of years)
grows back to the way it was before.
16. PREDATOR PREY INTERACTION
Since there are many different plants and animals
that live in this biome there are many different types
of predator and prey interaction. Also there are many
different adaptions animals make to capture their
prey. For example herbivores walk, swim or fly up to
the plants they eat on, carnivores have two options
pursuit and ambush, some others use camouflage and
then ambush their prey and some others use
chemicals to attack their prey. An example of an
interaction between predator and prey are the
Anaconda and Capybara, the Capybara is a rodent
that lives in/near water, the Anaconda is a water
snake that can eat a single Capybara in one bite.
