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Tropical rainforest (Characteristics and climate ((The rainy season is…
Tropical rainforest
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Adaptations
Fan palms
large, fan-shaped leaves that are good for catching sunshine and water.
Buttress roots
Rainforests have a shallow layer of fertile soil, so trees only need shallow roots to reach the nutrients. They stretch to two metres or more up the trunk and help to anchor the tree to the ground.
Lianas
woody vines that start at ground level, and use trees to climb up to the canopy where they spread from tree to tree to get as much light as possible.
Strangler figs
start at the top of a tree and work down. The figs branches will grow taller to catch the sunlight and invasive roots rob the host of nutrients.
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Vegetation
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Layers of the rainforest
The shrub layer- Dark and gloomy with very little vegetation between the trees. During heavy rainfalls this area can flood.
The under canopy- The second level up. There is limited sunlight. Saplings wait here for larger plants and trees to die, leaving a gap in the canopy which they can grow into. Woody climbers called lianas avoid having to wait for gaps by rooting in the ground and climbing up trees to get to the sunlight.
The canopy- Where the upper parts of most of the trees are found. The canopy is typically about 20 to 40 metres tall. This leafy environment is home to insects, arachnids, birds and some mammals.
Emergents. These are the tops of the tallest trees in the rainforest. These are much higher, and so are able to get more light than the average trees in the forest canopy.
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Human intervention
Advantages
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Infrastructure, hospitals and education can be improved from the money gained from selling natural resources.
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Raw materials, eg tropical hardwoods such as ebony and mahogany
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Disadvantages
New roads divide up parts of the rainforest and can cut off connections between different biotic and abiotic systems.
Land clearance for farming, transportation and mining can lead to deforestation.
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