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The Tropical Rainforest
Locations:
Tropical Rainforests cover less than 6% of the Earth's surface. These forests can be found in northern South America, central Africa, southwest Asia, and in the Central America in the Amazon River Basin. Tropical Rainforets are found near the equator inbetween the Topic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/images/troprain/troprain_500b.jpg
Climate
The climate in tropical rainforets on very hot and humid. The average yearly rainfall is around 200 in of rain. The temperature rarely gets higher than 93oF and lower than 68oF. Sunlight is very direct on tropical rainforests which makes it so hot year round and the rain is the cause for the humidity.
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/files/imagecache/news/files/20080319_rainforest.jpg
Dominant Plant Species
The rainforests contain very dense vegetation. Becuase it is so thick, there are three different layers of vegetation. The first is the canopy. This is a layer of very tall trees (100-120 ft tall) and they recieve the most direct sunlight. The next layer is the understory. This is a layer of trees 60ft tall that take the sunlight not recieved by the canopy. The final layer, the ground layer, recieves little to no sunlught becuase all the light is taken by the trees above it. The main plants in the rainforest are bamboo, shrubs, trees such as the kapok tree, and there are over 2,500 types of vines.
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/6579-004-79C479B5.gif
Dominant Animal Species
There are many different animals in the rainforet. Some characteristics of the animals that live there are bright colors, sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets consisting mainly of fruit. There are many insects such as mosquitos and butterflys. There are boa constrictors, monkeys, frogs, and sloths, and in some rainforets, jaguars.
http://www.catchmentcapers.org.au/images/copy_of_rainforest.jpg
Threats to the Rinaforest
The man threat to tropical rainforests are humans. Deforestation is killing rainforests. man is cutting down all of the trees killing the trees and leaving no place for the animals to go. Slash and burn clearinf of trees is also hurtful to rainforests.
http://www.rainforesteducation.com/life/threats/fire3.JPG