subject: Nformation On Rainforests And Its Environment Implications [print this page] In your school days you might have come across the tropical rainforests, its wildlife, flora, fauna and its related implications on environment. But who cared to know about all these at the age of underlying interests in fascinating activities unless if youre an adverse naturalist with keen interest in nature and environment. Today, I got a check on my knowledge about the beautiful and indescribable rainforests when I viewed a documentary on the soon wiping out African forests on my wide plasma screen sourced by Verizon FiOS TV. It is indeed a great pain to see Earth's greatest biological treasures at huge loss happing in front our eyes.
At one point of time, rainforests covered about fourteen percent of the earths surface to the comparison of the present lesser amount of surface existence. Tropical rainforests are ecosystems with tall trees, broad leaved forest flora with a dense canopy and possess amazingly diverse array of species and life forms, warm climates, and lots of rain. Most of the rainforests receive more than one inch of rain nearly every day of the year and this makes it always so green and full of life. As this multi-storied, tall, dense jungle gets the highest amount of rainfall every year, the word rain is coined in the name.
Rainforests are found in the tropical region just above and below the Equator and since it falls in the tropic zone, the sun is fierce all days of the year keeping a relatively stable, humid and warm climate. Countries with large areas of rainforest include Bolivia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Guyana, India, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, Suriname, and Venezuela but the a major portion of tropical forest are seen in Brazil, Congo, Peru, Indonesia and Colombia.
Almost half of the Earth's species are found in rainforests with many exotic and beautiful flowers and support the greatest diversity of living organisms on Earth, making rainforests the womb of living species. The upper layer of the forest form the canopy and most of the plant and animal life is not found on the forest floor, but in the leafy world of canopy. The canopy look like multi-layered structures and which is over 100 feet above the ground, consisting of layers of overlapping branches and leaves of rainforest trees. The atmosphere in the canopy layer is different from the conditions of the forest floor. Canopy is usually dry and hot than other layers of the forest and the plants and animals that live there are specially adapted for life in the trees. In contrast, the floor of the rainforest is dark and wet due to lack of sunlight and constant shade from the canopys leaves. The rainforest floor plays an important part of the forest ecosystem as the process of decomposition takes place.
These forests are the source of many crops, domestic animals and food items that we all use in our day-to-day life. It is also a source for medicinal plants found in the drugs used to cure major illness. Man was made known to chocolate, sugar, cinnamon, and rubber, pineapples to name a few and many other products from these forests. Rainforests are a hub of around 50,000,000 of primitive tribes and many of the tribes are nearing the stage of extinct. Notable tribes in these forests are The Pygmies of Central African rainforests, The Huli tribes living in the highland forests of Papua New Guniea, The Yanomami tribe of South America. The native people tend to their basic means of living by hunting, gathering plants and growing crops and basically depend on the forests for their food and shelter.
