The Rainforest

Lazo, Hannah
Lim, Hobbie
Mallari, Kose Carlo
Marasigan, Rufino Miguel
Marquez, Xymon
Description
A Rainforest can be described as a tall,
dense jungle. The reason it is called
a "rain" forest is because of the high
amount of rainfall it gets per year. The
climate of a rain forest is very hot and
humid so the animals and plants that exist
there must learn to adapt to this climate.
Types of Rainforest
Tropical rainforests are characterized by a
warm and wet climate. Mean monthly
temperatures exceed 18 C (64 F) during
all months of the year.

Temperate rainforests are rainforests
in temperate regions.
Distribution

Temperature & Precipitation
Layers of Rainforest
Forest floor

Understory

Canopy

Emergents
Forest Floor

The area is mostly shade. Barely and
direct light reaches this level, thus almost
no plants grow in this area as a result.

Since hardly any sun reaches the forest
floor things begin to decay quickly.

A leaf that might take one year to
decompose in a regular climate will
disappear in 6 weeks.

Understory

This layer lies between the canopy and
the forest floor.
It is home to a number
of birds, snakes and lizards, as well
as predators such as jaguars, boa
constrictors and leopards. The leaves are
much larger at this level and insect life is
abundant.
Many seedlings that will grow to the
canopy level are present in the
understory. Only about 5% of the sunlight
shining on the rainforest canopy reaches
the understory.
Canopy

This layer contains the majority of the
largest trees, typically 30 metres (98 ft) to
45 metres (148 ft) tall.
The densest areas of biodiversity are
found in the forest canopy, a more or less
continuous cover of foliage formed by
adjacent treetops.
The canopy, by some estimates, is home
to 50 percent of all plant species.
Emergent

It contains a small number of very
large trees called emergents, which grow
above the general canopy, reaching
heights of 4555 m, although on occasion
a few species will grow to 7080 m tall.
They need to be able to withstand the hot
temperatures and strong winds that occur
above the canopy in some areas.
Eagles,butterflies, bats and
certain monkeys inhabit this layer.


Biotic Factors
Animal Adaptations
The tropical rainforest is a wet, warm forest
of trees that grow very closely together. The
canopy in the rainforest can release gallons
of water each year into the atmosphere.
The resulting moisture hangs over the forest,
keeping the interior warm and humid.
Animals living in the rainforest have had to
adapt to these wet, warm conditions and
have had to find niches that allow them to
thrive. They do this by altering species
characteristics to fit the tall trees, the
constant humidity and the rainforest floor.


Plant Adaptations
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.
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.




Abiotic Factors
Abiotic factors are those non-living, inert
elements of an ecosystem that interact
with the living components. The way that
the abiotic factors interact with a
particular ecosystem determines the
types of plants and animals that can live
in that ecosystem. The abiotic factors of
the rainforest biome are the amount of
water, sunlight, temperature and soil, and
climate.

Water

The rainforest normally receives no less
than 80 inches of rainfall annually. This is
one of the most visible abiotic factors of
the rain forest. The air under the canopy
layer is still and very humid as a result. The
trees also give off water through their
leaves in a process called transpiration.
This process can account for as much as
half of the precipitation in a rain forest.




Sunlight

Light is the main source of energy in the
rain forest. Plants use chlorophyll to
change energy from sunlight into
chemical energy through photosynthesis.
In the rain forest, most of the sunlight is
absorbed by the upper canopy, made up
of trees between 60 and 100 feet tall.


Soil

The rain forest soil is shallow and thin, with
few nutrients and soluble minerals. The
heavy rains common in rain forests wash
away the nutrients in the soil. As a result,
the nutrients in a rain forest are largely
found in the roots and leaves of living
plants, and in the decomposing
vegetation on the forest floor, rather than
in the soil.



Human Impact
Several human activities have lead to the
degredation of many tropical rainforest
biomes.

These are mainly:
Deforestation
Overexploitation
Introduction of Non-native Species

DEFORESTATION

In general, deforestation, for whatever cause leads
to habitat fragmentation and species displacement.

This disrupts the forest ecosystem and might
ultimately lead to a loss of biodiversity.

On a larger scale, this causes a reduction in the
number of plant life that capable of converting
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into oxygen, thus
contributing to global warming.

Causes of Deforestation

Mining and Industry

Damming and Irrigation

Land Conversion



Overexploitation


Overexploitation of any resource, through whatever
means, disrupts the balance of the forest
ecosystem.

Depending on what type of organisms are taken out,
the ecological impact may vary (i.e. keystone vs
dominant species).

Causes of Overexploitation

Tourism

Poaching and Hunting


Introduction to Invasive Species

An invasive species is a species living outside its
native distributional range, which has arrived there
by human activity, either deliberate or accidental.

Most introduced species are damaging to the
ecosystem they are introduced into since they may
invade ecological niches and thus may displace
native species.