Rain-forests

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= **How did the Tropical Rain-forest get its name?** =

The reason is because the tropical rain forest is situated in a tropical climate- Brazil. It is also a forest of trees and vegetation, and is called 'rain' forest because of the huge amounts of rainfall it receives due to its tropical climate. The reason the vegetation is so lush and dense is due to the rainfall that occurs throughout every afternoon.

= How its formed =

There are many, wide, huge and mammothed rainforests in our Earth. You might think how huge rainforests formed, right? Well it happens naturally and you might say they are sort of man made. This is because, when humans cut down trees- which belongs to the rainforests, some humans plant a new tree, after they cut them down. So basically, rainforests are made naturally.

Plants and trees are main things for forming rain forests.


 * Tropical Rainforest Layers **


 * Emergent Layer- ** This layer is around the top of huge trees, which gets the most sunlight.


 * Canopy Layer- ** Tall trees which grows close together, so that their tops are closed.

**Understory** ** Layer- ** Smaller trees, bushes, plants, etc, not much sunlight reaches to this part, because the Canopy is blocking the way.


 * Forest Floor- ** Almost no sunlight can reach to here, few plants and a lot of insects.

= Life in the Rain forest =

Living things
Some kinds of butterflies have special wing patterns that tell other animals that they are poisonous. Other edible butterflies try to copy this same pattern, allowing them to trick predators.

Chameleons are a kind of lizard that can change color as the light or temperature changes, or when it is scared. The chameleon has a very long sticky tongue that darts out of its mouth to catch insects. Chameleons grow up to twenty-five inches long.

Gorilla's live mostly in Zaire, and are very large. They can be up to 5'6" tall and weigh 600 pounds, with an arm span of 9 feet. Gorilla's have coarse black hair. Even though they are very gentle animals, their scary appearance makes them disliked.

Jaguars can climb trees and swim to catch their prey, but they are known for their fast running. The jaguar is large and orange with black or brown spots, but no stripes. It likes to hunt weaker animals, so it can win without a fight.

Macaws are mainly blue and yellow and have strong hooked beaks. They have white faces and long, colorful tails. They can be up to 39 inches long. Macaws live in South America, and there are 11 species altogether.

[Sloth]There are two kind of sloths, and both are very shy and quiet. The two kinds are the three toed sloth and the two toed sloth. They are mammals and live for about ten years. Sloths stay up in trees most of the day, almost never coming down. They like to do things upside down, even sleep! The animals that live in the Tropical Rainforest are Chameleon, Gorilla, Jaguar, Panthers, 11 types of Macaw (bird), and two types of Sloth the two-toed and the three-toed.

Temperature
Tropical rain forests are warm because they are located in a belt along earth's equator. Temperatures typically range from 75 to 88 degrees all year long, according to the JASON Foundation for Education. Rain forests get a lot of rain -- about 80 inches each year. The rain leaches important nutrients from the dirt, making rain forest soil poor for farming but a rich place for tropical flora and fauna. Warm, moist air makes leaves decompose faster, providing food for creatures living at the forest floor.

**Seasons** There are two major seasons; Summer and Winter. "Fall" or "Autumn" doesn't occur in a tropical rain forest biome as noticeably, due to the small differences between Winter and Summer-because the only noticeable difference is whether it is wet or dry. Because the treetops block most incoming sunlight, the temperature tends to not vary as it does in wide open fields or such. Because the plants don't have a specific "growing season" there isn't a noticeable "Spring" either.

Weather
The average temperature of a tropical rain forest is about 77 degrees F. The rain forest stays about this temperature year round. In fact, the temperature difference between night and day is greater than the difference in temperature from any two days in the year. Extensive cloud cover and heavy rainfall keep temperatures from getting considerably hotter or colder. On the low end, a temperature in a tropical rain forest below 64 degrees F would be very rare. = = = Endanger Species =

There are many, //many// animals who are in endanger lives. Animals are disappearing rapidly these days. There are many reasons that the animals' population are shrinking down, first of all there are pollution, poor dispersal ability, loss of habitat, destruction of the Eco system and so on.

No lives can live without a proper food, water and shelter, there should be a balance between the predators and the prey. Here are some animals are endangered. Golden Lion Tamarin Monkey, Gorilla, Poison Dart Frog, Manatee, Bengal Tiger, Chimpanzee, Harpy Eagle, Orang-utan, Jaguar, Leopard, Three Toed Sloth, Hyacinth Macaw, Toucan, and so on.

One of the most important ways that you can help/ save the animals are to protect and no to take away their habitat. Removing rubbish, and weeds, also to plant a new tree. Less zoos should take away the animals, think for the other zoos!

= Natural Disasters =

Floods: Rain forests have two different seasons. One rainy and one dry. Floods are occurred during the rainy season. In rain forests, rain lasts for a day or for a week, which causes a massive floods.

Drought: Droughts are relatively uncommon in rain forests, but when they occur, they are huge. Droughts can kill many trees, and releasing millions of tons of CO2 into the rain forests' atmosphere.

Forest Fire:

Forest fire in rain forests can be man made or spontaneous. During the drought season, extreme heat and dryness combine with a thin canopy layer, which can spark spontaneous fires on the forest floor.

Landslides: Precipitation in rain forests can make the soil and sediment very loose. Landslides can occur in hills and in steep areas, in which the earth collapses and cascades in a downward motion.

= What do we use it for? =

Humans use 25% of plants in rainforests to make medicine out of it. Probably the Curare plant is the most important plant. Curare plants are used for muscle surgery = Types of Famous Rain-forests =

Amazon tropical rain forest is the biggest rain forest in the world. About 2 and half milion different insects live on 4000 plants. And 10% of species,and 20% of birds live in the rainforest. Indonesia:
 * Amazon Tropical Rain forest- Brazil**

= Protecting Rain-forests =

Right now tropical rain forests exist on our world about less than 5%, and they dissapears very recently. The good news is that there are many people who wants to save the tropical rain forest. But the bad news is that there are less than 6% of the tropical rain forest has been cutted down, and an expert saids that about 137 plants, animals, and insect species has been destroyed per day, and this is why it's hard to get back all the tropical rain forest like before.

These are some few steps you could save the tropical rain forest. TEACH others about our environmental problems. RESTORE the trees that was chopped down. SUPPORT companies that wants to fix the environmental problem. POSTERS make posters to show others that we have to save the tropical rain forest.

The more we protect or make the tropical rain forests recover the more we will have nature. We could continue to teach others, restore the trees that are chopped down, support companies that wants to fix the environmental problem, and make posters! Lets change the world back to normal!

= =

= Ecosystem =

The tropical rain forest is a warm and wet land, filled with exotic creatures and vegetation. An ecosystem is an area of land where all the plants, animals, microorganisms and environment work together to maintain a perfect balance. Tropical rain forest biomes, or collections of individual ecosystems, contain 80 percent of the earth's biodiversity, according to Rain Forest Facts. This means most of the world's plants, animals, insects and birds live in tropical rain forest ecosystems.

Rain forests contain four main layers, top to bottom. Trees make up the top layer, known as the emergent layer, followed by the canopy, the understory and the ground layers. The ground layers are quite dark and humid, receiving less than 3 percent of the sun shining on the forest. Ferns and palm plants grow on this lowest layer, and small trees make up the understory. The canopy, containing most of the leaves, is full of beetles, caterpillars and other plant-eaters.

Each layer has its own ecosystem, or assortment of animals and plants living in balance within it. Additionally, each layer plays a part in the larger tropical rain forest ecosystem -- what happens to one layer directly affects life on the other layers. For example, when a tree loses a branch on the uppermost, emergent layer, light falls onto the normally dark forest floor. This tree branch may even contain seeds. The warm, wet air causes the tree branch to begin rotting. Buzzing insects feed on the decomposing branch and leaves, attracting birds and other insect-loving animals. These animals may even consume the seeds and deposit them on the ground where they germinate in the warm, humid air. The hole in the emergent layer, caused by the fallen branch, provides light for the seedlings.

Networks
A network is a balanced relationship that keeps life together and connected to every other living thing. There are two types of networks; Symbiotic and Trophic. Symbiotic Networks are about living things that get mutual benefits from each other. For example, bears and trees. The bear gets the fruit, and then delivers the seeds to a new place in its poop. Or, the bird that goes into the crocodiles mouth to clean the meat out of its teeth. The bird gets food, and the crocodile gets clean teeth and no infection. A Trophic Network is like a food web. For example, in the Tundra, the sun makes the algae, the fish eats the algae, the seal eats the fish, and then the polar bear eats the seal. This is an example of how energy moves from the sun to all species.

A network is a balanced relationship that keeps life together and connected to every other living thing. There are two types of networks; Symbiotic and Trophic.

Symbiotic:Leaf cutter ants and fungus are a symbiotic relationship in topical rainforest. Ants protects the fungi from things that bother it and mold, and the ants also feed the fungi with small pieces of leaves. The ants keep their larvae in the fungi which protects it and feeds it. Trophic:

Nested Systems

 * A Nested System is a system that shows how smaller systems are part and made of larger systems, but not connected. The systems that are closer have more impact to affect each other than systems that are farther away. For example, a student is in a classroom, a classroom is in a school, a school in a community, and a community is in a city. If one student left, it would affect the classroom a lot, and the school a little, but would not affect the city. In tropical rain forests the most smallest thing is the forest floor, then a life in under story layer, canopy layer, and the last but now the least emergent layers. Animals, insects, plants which lives in these layers are part of the tropical rain forest. **

Cycles

 * A cycle is an invisible order of events that creates the things nature needs to stay alive. Because Earth is on a tilt, its orbit creates changes in the temperature because of the distance from the sun (more energy hits the Earth in summer, less in winter). For example, it the winter everything freezes and the animals go somewhere else to eat, but in the spring, when the plants grow, they come back. Therefore there are a lot of cycles happening every time in tropical rain forests . For example, trees, animals, insects and so on. That is why a cycle keeps moving hasn't have a start or an end. **

Flows

 * A Flow is when life energy goes through an ecosystem and may or may not come back. For example, Monarch Butterflies migrate to a single forest in Mexico and then leave. Also, the sun sends rays of energy that flow through all life (producers, consumers, decomposers). Animals in tropical rain forest do not migrate generally. The flow system in rain forest is mostly about energy. The energy from the sun rays to the producers, which grows, then the consumers in rain forests **** eat the producers. Which the consumers' dropping fertilize with the soil, and which the fertilizer makes a good soil. **

Development
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Dynamic Balance
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