food rainforest
What are the facts Bosque Real?
We all know some facts about the rainforests of the Tarzan movies, for example, forest is lush vegetation, exotic animals, restless natives, and usually a few white men up to no good. But beyond the stereotypes What are the real rainforest facts? What is the state of the world's tropical forests, and why it is important to preserve?
Here is the fact rainforest first: Rainforests are the oldest ecosystems on earth – that have been evolving for 70-100 million years.
The largest tropical rainforest in the world is the Amazonrainforest in South America, covering an area of about two-thirds the size of the continental United States. Up date, more than a quarter of a million square kilometers of Amazon rainforest have been cleared – about 17.5 percent of it.
Average temperatures in forests remain relatively constant throughout the year, usually in the range of 75 80F.
Mongabay lists the following countries with the highest areas of rainforest:
1) Brazil
2) Congo (Democratic Republic)
3) Indonesia
4) Peru
5) Bolivia
6) Angola
7) Venezuela
Papua New Guinea
9) Mexico
10) in India
Although most rainforests are found in regions tropical, sometimes also found in temperate countries such as Canada, USA, and some of the countries of the former USSR. As tropical forests these forests receive abundant rainfall throughout the year and have a dense rainforest cover, but do not receive the constant sunshine all year round and heat.
To be considered a rain forest, the forest must get at least 80 inches of rain per year. Most tropical forests anywhere from 160 to 400 inches of rain per year. That's a lot compared to the house of Planet faces Kentucky, receiving a moderate amount of rainfall – 0 to 45 inches per year.
In some tropical forests, sudden downpours of rain can cause streams to increase by 10 to 20 feet a couple of hours.
Tropical forests to create your own mini-climates – the water that evaporates from the shapes of clouds above the forests of the area and then falls as rain. Not all the water stays local, of course, but in the Amazon jungle, a 50-80% of the water remains in the water cycle of the local ecosystem. When forests are cut down, much of the moisture in the ecosystem is lost, leading to drought and devastation of the species.
A tropical forest is composed of four layers:
1) cup – the level in most of the tops of the trees are
2) emergent trees – the few trees that manage to grow tall enough to push above the deck
3) understory – young trees and shrubs below the deck, where growth is limited by the lack of sunlight
4) forest floor – fallen leaves and branches and dead trees, and some animals and insects, dark and humid much of the decomposition and recycling.
The top few inches of rainforest soil has most nutrients, so that the roots of the forest trees are not very deep. Most of the growth of plants is emerging layers of the canopy where the sun is strong. That means that most of the available nutrients are there too, so it makes sense that most rainforest animals such as monkeys, birds, and tree frogs, live in the canopy.
Rainforests cover only 2% of the Earth's surface but are home to more than half of the plants on the planet and animal species – more species per acre than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. The main reasons for this are:
1) the mega-dose of light solar and rainfall in the jungle to make a lot of plant growth, which means plenty of food for many animals, and
2) structure cover, which has a large volume with many varied niches for plants and animals to fill.
The sidebar on the right gives fun facts about five species of the forest. For more interesting facts about the rainforest species, check out the pages of the species in general, Rainforest Alliance or Rainforest Action networks, or these species Mongabay topic pages, but good photos and basic information on forest species:
1) Mammals
2) Birds
3) Reptiles and Amphibians
4) Fish
5) Insects
Some animals that normally live outside the tropics – including hummingbirds, warblers and many other birds of North America – to migrate to spend their winters in the woods.
A poison dart frog produces enough toxin to cover 50 to 100 poisoned darts. Leaf-cutting ants practice sustainable agriculture. They gather fragments from different plants and trees, ensuring that no species is harvested to the extent of damage and limiting the ability of a species to evolve to build defenses against leafcutters operations.
The cocoa tree – whose pods are the source of chocolate – originated in the lowland rainforests near the Amazon River in South America but is now grown as far north as southern Mexico.
The coffee plant is another shade lover. Unfortunately, in the 1970's, many coffee farmers began to plant coffee bushes that produced higher yields and requires no shadow. This has resulted in clearing the forest area of more plantations of full-sun coffee.
Poinsettias originated in the tropical forests of southern Mexico and Central America, but now the number one potted flowering plants in the U.S..
Many foods now common to have originated from the variety of plants:
1) Drinks and snacks: coffee, cocoa, popcorn, cola, salsa
2) The nuts and legumes: cashews, peanuts, Brazil nuts
3) Fruit: bananas, pineapples, oranges, lemons, coconuts
4) Staples: rice
5) Vegetables: avocados, onions, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers
6) Spices: ginger, cinnamon, vanilla
We regret to report, however, that the vast world of plants and animals in the forest is suffering. An average of 137 rainforest species are driven to extinction every day. The number one cause is loss of habitat due to logging for lumber or tree clearing to provide land for agriculture and livestock. Another problem is trade in rainforest species – sometimes legal, sometimes not – for pets and exotic plants for their fur, clothing and shoes even for research animals.
Pollution from industrial operations such as mining and oil extraction are also high cost. Finally, climate change is becoming a serious threat to the forest animals, many biologists now believe climate change is second only habitat destruction in their ability to kill species.
The Amazon forest is sometimes called the "lungs of the planet" – that recycled carbon dioxide to produce more than 20% of the world oxygen. Globally, tropical forests play a critical role in maintaining climate land, helping regulate hydrologic cycles and by storing large amounts of carbon that could become heat-trapping carbon dioxide. Tropical forests are estimated to store 610 billion tonnes of carbon.
Rainforests that are cleared by burning generate more immediate version De CO2. But even rotting vegetable waste causes a problem. In a healthy forest, leaves and trees are broken down into nutrients which are then rapidly converted back to new plant growth, which uses carbon dioxide and locks it away where you can not add to the problem of greenhouse gas accumulation. In a cleared forest, nutrients and carbon dioxide are still producing chart recorder during the decomposition of dead plant and animal matter, but no lush growth to use CO2, so it floats into the atmosphere contributing to global warming.
While the destruction of forests adds to the problem global warming, global warming will hurt tropical forests. As it warms the earth's climate tends to dry tropical forests and causes less rainfall there there. As the dry tropical forest, its ecosystems begin to degrade and the area becomes more susceptible to natural fire events, which cause destruction of the rainforest. Roots that once held the soil in place are no longer there, so when it rains, the topsoil washes, so that the restoration the rainforest areas difficult or impossible. In addition, soil erosion washing into streams and rivers, contaminating water and degrading aquatic habitat.
Forest clearance is a big negative in the equation of CO2 from the earth. The release of carbon dioxide from the carbonaceous materials in the soil of cleared, burned, and drought devastated rainforest areas is one of a series of "feedback loops" that scientists believe could lead to runaway climate change control – namely, climate change is driven by factors that can not fight, no matter how hard we try.
Therefore, because climate change and forest health are in fact closely connected, implementing your own personal global warming solutions will help the rainforests.
Rainforests are amazing sources of products, both in terms of uniqueness and volume. But that may be good or bad, depending on the way to manage production. Some products, such as drug plants, Brazil nuts, and shade-grown coffee and cocoa, can be environmentally sustainable forest without damaging or destroying forests. Unfortunately, these operations are often done in an unsustainable manner. Industrial operations such as gold mining and oil extraction usually be very destructive to rainforests.
registration operations for tropical timber products are often made by cutting and contributed to most of the destruction tropical forest tropical forest. Each year, more than thirty million acres of rainforest are destroyed.
Tropical forests have given us medicines treat or cure problems such as inflammation, fungal diseases, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, malaria, heart disease, diseases skin, arthritis, and glaucoma. U.S. rainforest National Cancer Institute has identified more than 2,200 plants that are active against cancer cells. And those are only those who have seen so far. Many compounds, much more based in the jungle have not yet been evaluated for its healing properties. However, the future is rewarding jeopardized by the continuing loss of forest area and species.
registration advocates like to say that the world today actually has more acres of forest land than it did in the past, implying that there are still plenty of forest so that we can reduce, including rainforests and other forests. But cutting a forest and then replanting of trees we are left with the original forest themselves – not even close. While it is possible for a company to replant trees is impossible for the company to recreate an ancient forest with its complex ecosystem of plants, animals, insects, and people who lived there before all the trees originals were felled. Only nature can create healthy rainforest ecosystems, and it has thousands, even millions, of years to do so.
The forests are places fascinating, exotic, full of organic and mineral wealth. But continued unsustainable exploitation of the riches is damaging the rain forest and because of its connection with global climate change, these actions (among other things) endanger us all.
About the Author
James Nash is a climate scientist with Greatest Planet (www.greatestplanet.org). Greatest Planet is a non-profit environmental organization specialising in carbon offset investments.
James Nash is solely responsible for the contents of this article.
As for the zoo in a classroom Tiffany VanderWerf I can not imagine a life without animals, a fascination that led her to volunteer at the Buffalo Zoo 15 years ago, especially when she was a graduate student at the University of Buffalo.
