Tropical Rainforest - features and facts about the tropical rain forest

The Tropical Rainforest is the earth's most complex ecosystem. The tropical rain forests are forests with tall tress, warm climate, and lots of rain It is characterized by abundant of precipitation and year round warmth. According to Wikipedia "A Tropical rainforest is a tropic ecosystem and are usually found around the equator. They are common in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Central America, and Southern Mexico and on many of the Pacific Islands"

The tropical rain forest is a hot, humid forest biome near the equator, with much rainfall and a wide variety of organisms. Temperature in the tropical rain forest is always warm and rain falls year round Benefits of tropical Rain forest

Features/characteristics of the Tropical Rain Forest

1. The tropical rain forest lie in the tropics

2. The rain forests receive at least 80 inches of rain every year

3. The tropical rain forest has a canopy formed by ranches and leaves of trees in the forest.

4. There is a very high level of biological diversity in the tropical rain forest.

5. Great symbiotic relationship exists in the tropical rain forest.

Facts about the tropical Rain forest

• The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon rainforest.
• Amazon rainforests produce about 40% of the world's oxygen
• One in four pharmaceuticals comes from a plant in the tropical rainforests
• 1400 rainforest plants are believed to offer cures for cancer
• 40% of tropical rainforests have already been lost in Latin America and Southeast Asia

Important Facts about the Tropical Rain Forest

Despite covering only 2% of our planet's surface, over half of the earth's animal, insect species, and flora live there.

Within a four mile square area of a tropical rainforest, you would find:

• Over 750 species of trees
• 1500 different kinds of flowering plants
• 125 species of mammals
• 400 species of birds
• 100 reptiles
• 60 amphibians
• countless insects
• 150 species of butterflies **Only 1% of these species has ever been studied**

Source: - library.thinkquest.org/11353/trforest

Important quote on Tropical Rain Forest

-"My personal love of the tropical forest is older than my realization of their scientific importance. It started when I lived for six months in the cathedral-like splendor of the forests of the upper Iriri in central Brazil, a shadowy world of great beauty without direct sunlight. That was then a region unexplored by Western man, teeming with wildlife, where you could push through dense undergrowth to broad rivers that had never been seen by any non-Indian.. More recently, on the Maraca Rainforest Project at the northern edge of the Amazon basin, I witnessed the amazing wealth of another uninhabited and undisturbed forest. We found several hundred species of creatures new to science - and indication of the amazing genetic wealth that remains to be discovered, and a reminder of the need to protect all types of forest. To protect the forests, we must protect the tribal people who have evolved a way of life in sustainable harmony with their habitat. I have studied the tragic history of countless tribes that have fought and suffered and are now extinct. During the two years that I have worked with Brazilian Indians, I have experienced the absolute quiet of sleeping in communal huts, fishing with Mehinaku, trying to keep up with walking Chavante, and the idyllic life in an Asurini village. Their struggle for survival must become our struggle too."- John Hemming - Director and Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in London

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Read More on Tropical Rainforest Food Web and chain

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Tropical Rainforest food web and chain

The tropical rainforest food web is all about who eats who in the rain forest. The tropical food web describes the chain of events every organism goes through to obtain nutrition, or energy, in order to survive in the rain forest. A food web is a network of food chains.

The tropical rainforest food chain lies in the very critical concept of interdependence. Each organism in the food web depends upon all other organisms in the chain for basic survival. For example, if an insect becomes extinct, plants that it consumes will proliferate and equilibrium in the rainforest will be disturbed. In addition, members of the food web that rank above the insect in question will be affected because it will no longer be available for consumption. This disruption leads to further extinction of species and ultimately the entire food web is drastically changed if not completely obliterated.

Key Concepts for the Tropical Rainforest Food Web/chain

Everything about the tropical rainforest is about the flow of energy and the cycling of matter in the ecosystem.

• All energy comes from the sun (solar system).
• Plants capture some of this energy by the process of photosynthesis to enable them make food.
• Plant-eating animals obtain this energy from plants and meat-eating animals, in turn, take energy from them.
• Death and decay recycles matter and energy to help begin the process anew.
• All living things need a "home"--a place that provides shelter, food, air, and water.
• Living things need one another to survive. the connections are different and comprise the "Web of Life." Some relationships involve eating or being eaten, but many other "cooperative" relationships exist--e.g. providing a place to grow, helping pollinate flowers or scatter seeds.
• Damaging the strands in the Web can have unforeseen and far-reaching consequences.

There are some things we need to know about the Tropical rainforest food web.

• Each level in the tropical rainforest food web or chain is dependent on the adjoining levels.
• In the tropical rainforest food chain, autotrophs make their food from sun.
• These primary producers in the rain forest are eaten by herbivores. herbivores are known as plant eating organisms that are eaten by carnivores and omnivores.
• The secondary consumers in the tropical rainforest may be eaten by tertiary consumers, who are carnivores.
  
• When any organism dies, in the rain forest tiny microbes (detrivores) take over and decay occurs .
  
• The cycle in the food chain or food web continues