Tropical Rainforest Biomes

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Recommended: Deforestation of tropical rainforests

Tropical rainforests have been around for approximately 400 million years (Knight, 2004: para.1), they inhibit about 50% of all the living things on Earth including flora and fauna (RFUS, 2014: para.2). They also produce 40% of the Earth’s oxygen (Schaffner, 2010: para.3), although these rainforests only take up 6-7% of the Earth’s land surface; they are referred as ‘The Lungs of the Earth’ (SYW, 2010: para.2)

Location

Tropical rainforests are found in the area between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° N latitude) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° S latitude) (EL 2014: para.1). There are rainforests at South and Central America, Africa, Australia and Asia (EL, 2014: para.2). These places are in a 4800 km wide ring that is referred to as “The Tropics.” (EL, 2014: para.3) The largest rainforest is the Amazon River Basin in South America (EL, 2014: para.4).

Characteristics

Rainforests are extremely different compared to other biomes such as tundra, desert, alpine, savannah and taiga. Their rich vegetation, diversity of plants, animals, the moisture, the growth rate of the plants and climate make them so unique (SIL, 2014: para.4). In biomes such as a Desert where there is a battle for water, in rainforests, it is a battle for sunlight. Although, what makes tropical rainforests unique compared to temperate rainforests is the diversity of species of animals and plants. Temperate rainforests have a seasonal growth: a long wet winter and a short, dry summer. This means there is times in the year that the animals and plants can’t adapt to, therefore the rainforest is affected. The leaves of the trees can be very different also; the leaves in the tropical rainforest are broad while, the leaves in the Temperate Rainforests tend to be sma...

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... March 2014, http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/images/where/whemap.gif

Unknown n.d, ‘History of Swiss Chocolate’, (photograph), Chocosuisse, viewed 7 March 2014, http://www.chocosuisse.ch/web/chocosuisse/en/instruction_material/picture_series.html

Unknown n.d, ‘Where are the rainforests?’, (photograph), Learning about rainforests, viewed 7 March 2014, http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/images/where/whemap.gif

Wikimedia Commons 2014, ‘Amazon.com to Battle Governments of Brazil and Peru For The .Amazon Domain’, (photograph), nextmedia, viewed 7 March 2014, http://www.popsci.com.au/technology/amazon-com-to-battle-governments-of-brazil-and-peru-for-the-amazon-domain

Wikimedia Foundation 2014, ‘Tropical Rainforests’, Wikipedia, viewed 4 March 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_rainforest

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