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TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS - Coggle Diagram
TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS
ANIMALS
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).
Characteristics: Common characteristics found among mammals and birds (and reptiles and amphibians, too) include adaptations to a life in the trees, such as the prehensile tails of New World monkeys. Other characteristics are bright colors and sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets heavy on fruits.
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PLANTS
Tropical plants are adapted to live in the hot, humid, and wet conditions of the tropical rainforest
Type of plants:
Ferns, lichens, mosses, orchids, and bromeliads are all epiphytes. The tropical rainforest is also home to nepenthes or pitcher plants. These are plants that grow in the soil. They have leaves that form a cup where moisture gathers.
Plants adaptations
- Bromeliads: Some grow in the ground,but most species grow on the branches of trees. Small roots anchor plants to supporting branches, and their broad leaf bases form a water-holding tank or cup. Mangroves--> Have wide-spreading stilt roots that support the trees in the tidal mud and trap nutritious organic matter.Nepenthes--> Sweet or foul-smelling nectar in the pitcher attracts insects, especially ants and flies, that lose their grip on the slick sides and fall into the liquid. The insects are digested by the plants and provide nutrients. Pitcher plants are not epiphytes but climbers rooted in the soil.
- Epiphytes:: They live on the surface of other plants and they grow on trees to take advantage of the sunlight in the canopy.
- Prop and Stilt Roots: Help give support and are characteristic of tropical palms growing in shallow, wet soils.
- Drip Tips: The leaves of forest trees have adapted to cope with exceptionally high rainfall. 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.
- .Buttresses: Many trees have massive ridges near the base that can rise 30 feet high before blending into the trunk and provide extra stability, especially since roots of tropical rainforest trees are not typically as deep as those of trees in temperate zones.
- Lianas: Are climbing woody vines that drape rainforest trees and they have their roots in the ground and climbing high into the tree canopy to reach available sunlight.
- Bark:helps to limit moisture evaporation from the tree's trunk and in the high humidity of tropical rainforests, most trees have a thin, smooth bark.
CLIMATE
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Canopy in tropical forests is multilayered and continuous, allowing little light penetration.
Rainfall is heavy in all months. The total annual rainfall is often more than 250 cm. (100 in.). There are seasonal differences in monthly rainfall but temperatures of 27°C (80°F) mostly stay the same. Humidity is between 77 and 88%.High surface heat and humidity cause cumulus clouds to form early in the afternoons almost every day.The climate on eastern sides of continents are influenced by maritime tropical air masses. These air masses flow out from the moist western sides of oceanic high-pressure cells, and bring lots of summer rainfall. The summers are warm and very humid. It also rains a lot in the winter. Average temperature: 18 °C (°F) Annual Precipitation: 262 cm. (103 in.)
INTERESTING FACTS
Rainforests only cover around 2 percent the total surface area of the Earth, but really about 50 percent of the plants and animals on the earth live in the rainforest.
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A fifth of our fresh water is found in tropical rainforests, the Amazon Basin to be exact.
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70% or more of the plants that are used to treat cancer are found only in the tropical rainforests on the planet.
Every second there is part of the rainforest that is cut down. In fact, you probably lose over 80,000 football fields worth of rainforest each and every day.
Timber, coffee, cocoa and many medicinal products are few of the products produced by rainforests
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