Have an essay due on a tropical rainforest or a topic like this? Don’t worry and just order custom essays from our essay writing service and order a custom essay.

The different types of forests

Rainforests belong to the wet climate group of ecosystems. There are Temperate rainforests and Tropical rainforests.  While the Temperate rainforest occur in the colder and milder climates, the Tropical rainforest is mostly found in the equatorial zone spanning the north or south areas of the equator between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

The general features of tropical rainforest

The temperatures in this ecosystem range between 20 °C and 34 °C. The annual average rainfall is also very high, about 125 to 660 cm on an average. Thus the climate in these rainforest regions remains hot and wet.

 Tropical rainforests can be found in the continents of Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, and on many of the Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean islands. The tropical rainforest is characterised by its tall and broad-leaved trees and a variety of animal life that are not found anywhere else. Seventy per cent of the plants here are trees.

The special features of tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforests are observed to be divided into four main strata or layers, in which the vegetation is structured vertically from the surface of the soil to the highest canopy. These layers have been identified as the emergent trees, the upper canopy, the understory, and the forest floor. Each layer consists of a distinctive biotic community comprising of plants and animals that are adapted to live in that particular strata.

Emergent trees are unique to the tropical rainforest and not found in the temperate rainforest. The emergent trees are made up of the forest giants that could grow to great heights, even 100 to 240 feet tall. There are spaced far apart to avoid competition for light and other essentials. Their canopies are usually umbrella shaped and have small, pointed leaves. Some of these trees are deciduous and shed part of their leaves before the rainy season. Their trunks are smoother and less branched than their temperate counterparts. Their root systems are shallow and spread over a large area.

The upper canopy comprises of trees that grow 60 to 130 feet. The top of these trees receives enough light and most of the rainforest’s animals live in the upper canopy as it caters to all their needs like food, water and shelter.

The understory consists of 60 foot trees, the trunk part of the canopy trees, shrubs and small plants. with little or no light and air movement the humidity levels are very high always.

The forest floor receives hardly any direct sunlight except in areas cleared by fallen trees. Because of this, there is hardly any undergrowth.

Although these rainforests once covered extensive areas in the tropical zone, they are now confined to less than 6% of Earth’s land surface. However, more than half of all the world’s plant and animal species live in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are the Earth’s lungs as they are estimated to produce 40% of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen. Rainforests also produce about a quarter of all the medicines in use at present.

Rainforest, ecosystems and their importance are topics usually researched by science students. Writing an essay, or writing a term paper on such subjects are easy now and just a click away. Visit our essay online page and see how you can get custom essays on your chosen topics. Our custom papers are especially written for you and our custom writing service never recycles old, prewritten papers.