The Rainforest history

What are the different types of rainforests?

          There are two types of rainforests. They are the tropical and temperate rainforests.

Here's a little about the different rainforests and there locations!

            There are more than 40 different types of rainforests that have been categorized by experts. Some are different mainly by the amount of rainfall. Here are five examples of categories.

1.    Rainy Tropics

2.     Monsoon Tropics

3.     Wet and Dry Tropics

4.     Tropical Semi-Arid

5.      Tropical Arid.

          There are also different types of forests. They are located in different areas. So really there is a lot of diversity with the rainforests not only for location but types. Not to mention plant and animal diversity. Here are four different types of forests.

1.    Lowland

2.     Flooded

3.     Montane

4.     Mangrove

                 The tropical rainforests can be found in 85 countries around the world. Ninety percent of the rainforests are concentrated into fifteen countries, each containing over 10 million hectares each. Tropical rainforests are found near the equator from the tropic of cancer to the tropic of Capricorn. Most of the tropical rainforests are found in Brazil, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Tropical rainforests are home to all different kinds of animals from the smallest to the largest. There are so many fascinating animals in the tropical rainforests that millions haven’t been named yet or identified, in fact half the earth’s animal species live in tropical rainforests.

              Scientists believe the reason for the great diversity of animals in the rainforests is because they are the oldest ecosystems on earth. Some rainforests in Southeast Asia have been around for at least 100 million years, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

           The nearly perfect conditions for life also helped to contribute to the great number of species living in the rainforests. With temperatures that stay at between 75 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit Year around. Animals don’t have to worry about freezing during the cold winters, or finding shade on scorching summer days. They rarely have to search for water, as rain falls almost every day in tropical rainforests.

           Tropical “moist” forests are called Monsoon forests in Southeast Asia. They are extremely rich in wildlife and vegetation, they do, however, contain fewer animals and plant species then the evergreen equatorial rainforests.  

        Temperate rainforests are much younger then their relatives the tropical rainforests. Most temperate rainforests are less than 10,000 years old, compared to tropical rainforests, which are millions of years old. 

        The  soil of temperate rainforest is much richer in nutrients than the tropical rainforests are. Temperate rainforests are located along the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States, and they are also found in New Zealand, Chile, Ireland, As well as Scotland and Norway. The temperate rainforests are much more scarce than the tropical rainforests.

          Some countries have both tropical and temperate rainforests, for example Australia has both tropical and temperate rainforests.

  What makes up the rainforests?

A tropical rainforest most say has three layers, but there is a fourth layer. We will talk a little about the four layers: The Emergent, Canopy, Understory, and the Forest Floor.

          The emergent layer makes up the very top of the rainforest, where a few trees called emergents, poke out above the green growth to reach the sun. It also looks like they are meeting the sky. The tops of the trees here can reach up to 200 feet tall.

          The canopy is the root of the rainforest; tops of trees also form this part, which can be 80 – 150 feet tall. Flowers and fruits are found here, as well as animals. The reason for most of the plant growth here is because this is where the sun is.

    Below the canopy is the understory. Here you can find young trees and shrubs growing the plants here rarely grow to large sizes because the canopy blocks most of the sunlight. Here the humidity is high, the air still, and the heat well it’s constant. Above the small plants of the forest floor, the butterflies and birds make this their home although they may go either up or down to roam around and look for food.

            The forest floor is where you can find insects. The forest floor is almost bare because no sunlight reaches it. This is where fallen leaves and branches rot quickly to release nutrients for other plants to grow. Many seeds fall to the forest floor, which make new plants and is also food for the animals and bugs that eat them. The forest floor can be very different at times, there are times where there is periodically flooding, in some areas it’s very fertile, while in other it’s not.

  Information about the rainforests.

          One reason for this environment to remain as lush and beautiful as it is is that the rainforest reuses almost everything that falls to the ground and decays. When leaves fall from the trees, when flowers wilt and die, and when any animal dies on the forest floor, it decays and all of the nutrients in the decayed species are recycled back into the roots of trees and plants.

        Only the top few inches of rainforest soil has any nutrients. Most of the nutrients are in the biomass, the bulk of animal and plant life above the ground. The roots of the trees are not very deep, that way they can collect the nutrients in the top inches of the soil.

        Did you know that rainforests even recycles it own rain? As water evaporates in the forest it forms clouds above the canopy that later falls as rain.

            Rainforests are not only important to the people that live in them, but to everyone here on earth. Rainforests help to control the world’s climate. However, when they are burned and cleared, carbon is released that causes the weather to be much hotter, this is called the “greenhouse effect”.

             People also use many rainforest materials. Do you realize that many of our medicines come from plants that grow in the rainforests?

              It is also said that there are many plants in the Rainforests that will cure the worst diseases of today. Take the vine Aucistrocladus Koropensis maybe effective in treating AIDS.

            Some of the things we use from the rainforests can be taken without destroying the them, but other products such as timber, gold, and oil cause destruction of the rainforests.

              Rainforests are important for many reasons, some are very simple reasons, and one big reason is that plants turn carbon dioxide into clear air, which helps to prevent air pollution. Also by absorbing carbon dioxide, the Rainforests help deter the greenhouse effect the trees store the carbon dioxide in their roots, stems, branches, and leaves.

                  What shapes the rainforests is the amount of rainfall and humidity. Tropical rainforests often have anywhere from 160 to 400 inches of rain a year.

               In the Amazon basin you can expect to have at least 130 days of rainfall a year, many places it is up to 250 days a year.

              The relative humidity never usually falls below 80%, and temperatures vary between night and day. Day is usually 88 Fahrenheit and night a low of 72 Fahrenheit.

            Some people say there are no seasons, but that is only partially correct in the tropics. It doesn’t get cold like winter and hot like summer, but it has wet and dry seasons.

              The earliest writings of the rainforests seem to be from Christopher Columbus. The term Regenwald (rainforest) was first used by a German naturalist A.F.W. Schimper, many centuries later.

                This was just a little information about the rainforests. There is a lot more. The rainforests are an unbelievable place. There is so much you can find out about the rainforests, but the way things are going, and what people are doing the rainforests might not be around to learn about. Can you imagine not learning about the millions of plants, insects, reptiles, and animals that still haven't been identified. From here you can take a look at information about plants and animals from the other pages in this site.