Geography TRF ecosystems

Tropical rainforest layers
1. location of TRF
  1. Located between tropic of cancer and tropic of Capricorn and along the Equator
  2. examples
    1. southeast Asia,Central America,South America,western Africa
2. forest floor
  1. Very little light reaches the forest floor (2%) - so plants grow slowly.
  2. The ground is covered in fallen leaves, rotting branches and twigs and a network of shallow roots.
  3. When a tree falls, light is able to get in. This encourages young plants to grow fast. They compete for the extra light and soon fill the gap.
  4. Jaguars, leopards, tigers, elephants and gorillas and lots of insects live here.
3. under canopy
  1. Low light conditions (2-15%).
  2. Quite open - there is only dense vegetation along rivers and in openings where light gets in.
  3. Plants adapted to low light grow here.
  4. Birds, butterflies, frogs, snakes and lots of insects live here.
4. canopy
  1. The second highest layer - 30-45 meters.
  2. The crowns of the trees knit together to form a dense canopy.
  3. The canopy blocks out the sun from lower layers and intercepts (catches) rainfall.
  4. It contains the most plant species.
  5. Birds, monkeys, frogs, sloths, lizards, snakes and many insects live here. This layer contains the most animal species. Some creatures never go to the forest floor.
5. emergent layer
  1. The tallest layer - over 40 metres.
  2. Contains only a few tall trees which grow taller than the trees of the canopy.
  3. The plants are made for living in dry conditions because it’s very sunny.
  4. They have small, waxy leaves to prevent them drying out.
  5. Eagles, butterflies, small monkeys and bats all live here.
6. layers of the rainforest
Climate graph
2. line graph on top = temperature
3. bar graph on bottom = percipitation
4. months along bottom
5. rainfall (mm) right side
6. temperature (c) left side
why we need the TRF
1. river networks
2. oxygen - the Rainforest vegetation takes in carbon dioxide and gives out oxygen
3. medicines - a quarter of all natural medicines were discovered here
4. undiscovered species
5. food, eg vanilla, chocolate, nuts, ginger and pepper
6. resources, such as rubber and bamboo
7. wood
8. minerals
adaptations
1. the process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment.
2. examples
  1. camoflauge
  2. nocturnal
  3. tails for balancing
  4. long finger or claws to help grab on to branches
  5. beaks to get fruits and catch prey
sustainable development
1. economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.
2. how to stop it
  1. buying from companies that do sustainable development
3. planting a tree every time you cut one down
  1. selective logging
  2. Monitoring making sure it's legal
4. legal logging
5. making sure people understand consequences

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Geography TRF ecosystems

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	Created by Louiswhite___ . over 7 years ago