Picture of The Tropical Rain Forest

Australia


Soil :

Dead plants and leaves fall in the jungle. They rot on the forest floor. This makes the top dirt very rich.

The rich dirt of the rainforest is very thin. Hard soil called clay is under the rich dirt.

Plants can not grow in the clay soil.

When people cut and burn the jungle, rain washes the rich soil away.

No plants fall and rot. The rich soil is gone forever.

Plants : 
1. Bark
In drier, temperate deciduous forests a thick bark helps to limit moisture evaporation from the tree's trunk. Since this is not a concern in the high humidity of tropical rainforests, most trees have a thin, smooth bark. The smoothness of the bark may also make it difficult for other plants to grow on their surface.

2. Lianas
Lianas are climbing woody vines that drape rainforest trees. They have adapted to life in the rainforest by having their roots in the ground and climbing high into the tree canopy to reach available sunlight.  Many lianas start life in the rainforest canopy and send roots down to the ground.
3. Drip Tips
The leaves of forest trees have adapted to cope with exceptionally high rainfall. Many tropical rainforest leaves have a drip tip. It is thought that these drip tips enable rain drops to run off quickly. Plants need to shed water to avoid growth of fungus and bacteria in the warm, wet tropical rainforest.
4. Buttresses
Many large trees have massive ridges near the base that can rise 30 feet high before blending into the trunk. Why do they form? Buttress roots provide extra stability, especially since roots of tropical rainforest trees are not typically as deep as those of trees in temperate zones.
5. Prop and Stilt Roots
Prop and stilt roots help give support and are characteristic of tropical palms growing in shallow, wet soils. Although the tree grows fairly slowly, these above-ground roots can grow 28 inches a month.

6. Epiphytes
Epiphytes are plants that live on the surface of other plants, especially the trunk and branches. They grow on trees to take advantage of the sunlight in the canopy. Most are orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and Philodendron relatives. Tiny plants called epiphylls, mostly mosses, liverworts and lichens, live on the surface of leaves. 

Animal Pictures of a Tropical Rainforest

Spider

  Rainforests are tremendously rich in animal life. Rainforests are populated with insects (like butterflies and beetles), arachnids (like spiders and ticks), worms, reptiles (like snakes and lizards), amphibians (like frogs and toads), birds (like parrots and toucans) and mammals (like sloths and jaguars). 

Different animals live in different strata of the rainforest. For example, birds live in the canopy (upper leaves of the trees) and in the emergents (the tops of the tallest trees). Large animals (like jaguars) generally live on the forest floor, but others (like howler monkeys and sloths) are arboreal (living in trees). Insects are found almost everywhere.

Many species of rainforest animals are endangered and many other have gone extinct as the number of acres of rainforests on Earth decreases.

Frog

Toucan

                                   

Crop Map of The Tropical Rain forest

• about 2,000 trees per minute are cut down in rainforests
• leaves have adapted to allow rapid rain removal in several ways – smooth, waxy leaves (like Balsam Apple), drip tips (like Bo tree), holes (like Swiss Cheese plant), and divided, lobed or fringed leaves (like palms)
• many foods, especially fruits, originated in the rainforests; over 3000 kinds of fruits can be found in rainforests, but only about 200 are in use right now; examples of common rainforest foods are oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, coconut, avocadoes, starfruit, dates, figs, papaya, bananas, coffee, chocolate (cacao), chewing gum (chicle), ginger, cinnamon, pepper, vanilla, cashews, Brazil nuts, tapioca, sweet potatoes, guava, passion fruit, ginger root, mangoes, and lemons (ones in bold are located in the dome) 

Crop Map

            

Climate Map of a Tropical Rain Forest

Most people think all rainforests have warm, sunny weather, but they're wrong. Only the rainforests that are located in the tropics, or ten degrees within the equator have year-round warm weather. Subtropical rainforests that lay outside of the tropics have seasonal changes in their weather. There are a couple of types of rainforests. and they are categorized by the types of weather they have during the year and where they are located. The names of these rainforests are monsoon, equatorial, and subtropical.

     The tropical rain forest is a very wet environment, as you hear from the name that contains "rain". The total rainfall for the year is between 1500 and 2500 mm. There is no dry season. Rain falls nearly every day. The temperature during the day is around 30ºC - 35ºC. At night it drops to between 20ºC - 25ºC. There is a little difference between the warmest and the coolest months. The relative humidity is always high. This type of climate in the tropical rain forest is known as equatorial climate.