The Tropical Rainforest

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The Tropical Rainforest

The tropical rainforest is the biggest and most complexed ecosystem in the world. It holds more than half of the world's animals and plantlife, Including a huge majority that haven't even been discovered yet. The rainforest compared to Britain is 30 times larger, covering around 8 million km. Some of the forest is destroyed everyday, including animal and plantlife. The forest from above is a vast green quilt of trees, giving off several different shades. From air you can see the emergents, which grow up to around 50m in height, these are accompanied by the canopy, which are 15m lower down. The under canopy's are 10m in height and the lowest of all are the shrubs and bushes. The ground of the forest is dark and damp, smelling of decaying matter. Long creepers or lianas trail to the ground, entangling themselves in the branches.

The forest canopy is described to as the 'engine' of the rainforest. This is because, it's where most of the photosynthesis takes place, and you will also be able to discover all of the forests fruits and animals.

The average rainfall of the forest is 2,000mm. All of this rain is called classic convectional rainfall, it falls regularly every day at the same time (throughout the year). 80% of this rain is recycled back up into the atmosphere. The rest of the rain is collected in the rivers and streams which flow back out to the sea.

The soils of the rainforest are of a poor quality, this is due to all the leaching that takes place. The soil is very thick, about 20m (60feet). This is because it has been weathered for a long time, with all the heat and wetness.

The roots in the trees are found close to the surface of the ground, this is where all of the nutrients are found, from falling leaves.

There are two cycles in the tropical rainforest, a nutrient cycle, where the leaves fall and hit the ground to be fed on by the decomposers, and a water cycle, where the rain falls, some of it collecting in the leaves and some of it making it's way down to the forests floor, and rivers, 80% of it is recycled.
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In this essay I will be writing about the tropical rainforest. It will consist of 7 different parts including the introduction, the other parts are the location of the forest, the structure and diversity of the forest, forest processes, about slash and burn, other human use of the rainforest, opinions on the forest and the future.

The location of the tropical rainforests is the following; inside the tropics, 23.5 degrees north and south equator. South America, Africa and South East Asia. Most of it locating in south America. In Asia it is 0.7% a year, Africa it ...

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