Tropical rainforest biome

Tropical rainforest biome

1. Climate

   • The climate of the tropical rainforest is hot and humid year round with a average temperature of 27 degrees celcius
   • The temperature range during the day is 2 degrees and 11 degrees at night
   • sun is out for 12 hours a day
   • 200 rainy days a year, between 2,000 and 10,920mm of rain per year
     • Wet season is december to march
     • dry season is june to november
     • Humidity is very high between 77% and 88% year round
   • North and south east winds meet at the equator making a low pressure belt
     • This evaporates large amounts of sea water causing the air to fill with moisture it cools and condenses into clouds casuisng rainfall and thunderstorms
       • Huge amounts of water are released by vegetation evaportated by the sun and rises up and cools and condenses leading to convectional downpour , this is called evatransportation

2. Soil

   • latsols are the soil types mainly formed in the tropical rainforest biomes
     • Latsols , also known as tropical red soil is the zonal soil that develops through the tropical rainforest, Zonal soil , a major soil type that causes a large portion of earth
       • Latsols are over 30m deep generally inferitile, lateralisation occus as the rapid chemical weathering is combined with intense leaching, it takes place when the rain fills down from the canopy to the floor of the rainforest to the soil
         • it wastes the nurtients from the A horizon down to the B/C horizon beyond the plant roots
   • the hot , humid weather conditions of the tropical rainforest cause rapid chemical weathering that quickly breaks down bedrock into soil gaps known as deep soils
   • The build up of minerals gives the soil a red colour, minerals leached to the B/C horizons can build up to a impermeable layer known as a hardpan
   • Unable to drain away through the soil, marshland and swamps can develop over time
   • Nutreint cycle
     • Supports such a wide variety of vegitation is due to the large supply of dacaying plants and animals litter that accumilates on the floor of the rainforest
     • Microrganisims act as decomposers and break down the organic matter into humus, known as humification
     • It takes days for organic matter to be converted to humus and is quickly absorbed by roots of plants
     • Nutrients do not build up in the soil as they are absorbed as soon as they reach the o horizon
       • Self sufficient , nutreints cycle, very delicatly balanced, it convers the soil is removed by human interfierence, cycle is destroyed. the soil loses its supply of humus and become infertile
     • Conver to protect it from the intense heat from the direct sunlight the soil is baked into a hard impermeable laterite soil, is often used instead of bricks in construction

3. Flora

   • The vegitation of the rainforest is known as the jungle.
   • temperature and rainfall help flora thrive
   • The plants have adapted to the climate by developing a unique four layed structure: emergent, canopy understory and shrub layers
     • The emergent layer
       • recievers the most sunlight
       • doesent sprout till 30m tall
         • as there is little sun for photosynthesis
       • explosed to direct sunlight and wind
       • made up of the tallest trees 40-70m . eg mahogony
     • Canopy layer
       • 30-40m tall trees
         • the roots of the trees have buttress roots, buttres and stilt roots anchor the trees and prevent them from getting blown over during intense thunderstorms
       • leaves are much larger to trap as much sunlight
       • leaves here have flexible stems, this prevents the leaves from breaking by the weight of water
     • Understory layer
       • 15-30m tall trees
       • much less sunlight meaning larger and wide leaves
         • some have holes to let water fall through
     • Shrub layer
       • 0-15m high
       • 1-3% of sunlight reaches the forest floor
       • plant life is very scarce
   • Adaptation to soil
     • Latsols soil in the rainforest is ifertile plants there have to adapt in a number of ways to compete for nutrients
     • Many trees developed a shallow buttress root system, they quickly absord nutrients
     • Ephingle are plants that grow from other plants to avoud competeting for nutrients, they capture moisture from the air and store it and produce large fruits bird like
     • the birds dispose of these seeds by pooping them out. bromellads that are vase shaped leaf have rootsl ike these for nutrients some small insects live in them
     • parasitc plants live off their host plants
       • an example is a strangler figs. they are like ephingle too, they grow around growing trees and grow with them , when they are grown the plants strangles the tree killing it and drops seeds on other trees in the canopy layer
     • Pitcher plants, survive in the poor soil conditions , it has a overhanging hood that stops rain from getting in and waits for insects to come in and eats them, they dont compete with other plants which is why they are surviving

4. Fauna

   • 2.5 million species of insect
   • 1600 birds species
   • 2500 species of fish
   • These species have adapted to their enviorment
   • Each animal provides a different role in the eco system
   • each animal in the rainforest had to adapt to the rainforest through diet, body structure and camoflauge
   • Diet adaptations
     • to avoid competetion some birds have adapted to eat foods other birds cant eat
       • Example: toucans and parrots beaks to eat nuts
     • Leafcutter ants have adapted to climb trees and get leafs 50x bigger than their body weight to bring them back to the colony and eat it, they cvoer them in saliva to build fungus
     • By living eating and breeding in the layers on they can to avoid predators and other animals
     • Monkeys have adapted by strengthening their tails to help them latch onto branches to eat food
     • he flying squirrel adapted by growing flaps of skin inbetween their limbs so they can glide away from predators and their tail to keep them balanced and hands to steer.they dont sleep either
     • Jaguars live in the forest floor, most deadly hunter, has retractable claws to climb trees and act as breaks to change directed and a spotted coat to blend in
     • The jesus lizard adapt to run on water for 20m to escape predators whom cannot swim
   • Camoflauge adaptation
     • Camoflauge is the most common adaptation of animals in the rainforest to avoid predators
     • SLoth are the best known for camoflauge, they grew a green algae to blend in with plants on their coats, they also move incredibly slow so predators cant see them as easy
       • sloths dont sleep and spend their days curled up to hide from predators
     • Spiders and frogs became green or brown to blend in with the floor
     • Some animals such as poisin dart frog become bright, so predators can see they are poisineous, some non poisinesous animlas also adapted to do this to trick the predators
     • Some butterflies have grown a large eye looking thing on their wings to trick predators to think they are a big animal staring at them