Human impact on the Rainforest

• Deforestation is major problem for tropical rainforests.
• Humans destroy large areas of rainforests every year.
• This cleared land is usually needed for cropland or livestock.
• Brazil is number one in total deforested area.
• Between 1990 and 2005 Brazil lost over 163,000 square miles of rainforest (roughly the size of the state of California)
• The process of deforestation in the rainforests kills many animals and destroys the homes of many others.

The Jambu

• They can either be a small tree or large shrub, which usually grows 10-20 feet tall.
• They need a lot of rain evenly distributed throughout the year.
• They have oblong leathery leaves that grow opposite of each other on short stems.
• The jambu fruit has thin, shiny skin that varies in color.
• Monkeys, jambu fruit doves, and gibbons feed on the jambu fruit.

The Kinkajou

• These small nocturnal mammals mainly live in the upper canopy of the rainforest.
• They are solitary animals so they are rarely seen in nature.
• They have a lifespan of about 23 years.
• They are omnivores that feed on fruit, nectar, honey, insects, and birds.
• They have sharp claws and long tails to help them grip onto and hang from trees.

For more information...

• http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/rainforest.html
• http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/facts.html
• https://php.radford.edu/~swoodwar/biomes/?page_id=100

Soil in the Tropical Rainforest

The soil of the tropical rainforest is shallow,  poor in nutrients and almost without soluble minerals. Thousands of years of heavy rains have washed away the nutrients in the soil obtained from weathered rocks. Nutrients stay in an ecosystem by being recycled and are mainly found in the living plants and the layers of decomposing leaf litter. Decomposers like insects, bacteria, and fungi turn dead plant and animal matter into nutrients. Plants take up these nutrients the moment they are released.

Medicines from the Rainforest

About 1/4 of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants


                                                    

•  Curare comes from a tropical vine, and is used as an anesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. 

• Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria.

•  A person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99% chance that the disease will go into remission because of the rosy periwinkle. 

Rainfall and Temperature

Layers of the Tropical Rainforest

The tropical rainforest is made up of layers according to the growth of plants. 

• The upper level, the emergent layer, is the point of the tallest trees. 
• The canopy, directly under the emergent layer, are the growing trees and where many animals live. 
• The understory is the top of other bushy plants and shrubs. 
• The forest floor does not get much sunlight so the plants growing there must be able to survive without much sunlight. It is the least crowded layer of the rainforest.

Location of Biome