Types of Rainforest The term "rainforest" has a wide classification. Usually, the tropical rain forest is a lush, humid and hot land, covered with tall evergreen broad-leaved trees, usually distributed near the equator. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it usually rains all the year round in these areas, with the annual rainfall exceeding 70 inches (1800 mm). All kinds of forests, such as monsoon forest, mangroves and temperate forests, can be regarded as rain forests. This is the difference between them:
Temperate rainforests are composed of conifers or broadleaf trees, which are distributed in temperate regions. They are considered rainforests because they get a lot of rain. Mangroves, as the name suggests, are composed of mangroves. These trees only grow in salt water where rivers and oceans meet. Monsoon rainforests are also called "dry rainforests" because they have a dry season. The rainfall in these places is about 365,438+0 to 765,438+0 inches (800 to 65,438+0,800 mm). In the arid rain forest, as many as 75% trees will lose their leaves. "Most rainforests are very warm, with an average temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) during the day and 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) at night."
Rainforest consists of two main areas. The uppermost part is called the tree crown, which can be as high as 98 feet to 164 feet (30 to 50 meters). This area consists of treetops and vines. The rest, under the canopy, is called the lower layer. This includes ferns, flowers, vines, trunks and dead leaves.
Some animals stay in the canopy and rarely fall to the ground. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, these animals include monkeys, flying squirrels and woodpeckers. [Related: Exploring Amazon Rainforest and New Virtual Reality Movies]
Cloud forest on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia when it rains. The flora and fauna rainforest is home to many animals and plants. According to the Nature Conservancy, there are as many as 1, 500 species of flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 1, 500 species of butterflies in a rainforest with an area of 4 square miles (2,560 acres). The Amazon rainforest alone contains about 10% of the known species in the world.
Almost every animal in the rainforest. In fact, according to the Nature Conservancy, although rainforests cover less than 2% of the earth's total area, they are home to 50% of the plants and animals on the earth. For example, rhinoceroses, deer, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants, armadillos and even bears all live in rainforests all over the world.
Many unusual animals and plants were found in the rainforest. For example, Thi *** ia neptunis reappeared in the rainforest of Borneo, Malaysia in 20 15 18 years after it was first recorded. This plant absorbs underground fungi and can survive without sunlight. "As far as we know, this is only the second discovery of this species," the Czech research team wrote in a paper published in the journal Plant Taxa on February 20th, 2008.
Some animals are not common either. For example, tapirs are mammals that look like a mixture of anteaters and pigs and can be found in the rainforests of South America and Asia. The amazing silverback gorilla lives in the rainforests of Central Africa and China. Forest giraffe-In the African rain forest, it is also common for horses and zebras to cross.
A particularly surprising discovery in the tropical rain forest is a spider as big as a puppy. According to Guinness World Records, the giant South American bird (Theraphosa blondi) is the largest spider in the world. The length of each leg can reach 1 foot (30cm) and the weight can reach 6 ounces (170g). [Goliath encounter: a spider the size of a puppy in the rainforest surprised scientists]
According to the Nature Conservancy, 70% of the plants identified by the National Cancer Institute for the treatment of cancer can only be found in the rainforest. Scientists have discovered more than 2000 kinds of tropical forest plants with anticancer properties. However, less than 1% of tropical rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.
Tropical rainforests are distributed on all continents except Antarctica. The map shows dark green tropical rain forest and light green temperate rain forest. Humans and animals rely on rainforests to make most of the oxygen on the earth. A tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen every year. According to the increasing number of air bases, the rainforest of 1 hectare (2.47 acres) may contain more than 750 kinds of trees. A tree uses carbon dioxide to grow. A living tree absorbs and stores twice as much carbon dioxide as a fallen tree. But when trees are cut down, they release stored carbon dioxide. For example, a study published in Nature News in 20 14 shows that dead Amazon trees will release about 65.438+0.9 billion tons (65.438+0.7 billion tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. The same tree usually absorbs about 2.2 billion tons (2 billion tons) of carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), carbon dioxide accounts for 82.2% of the total greenhouse gases in the United States. "KDSP" and "KDSP" once existed in 6 million square miles (6.5438+0.5 million square kilometers) of tropical rain forest, and there are only 2.4 million square miles (6 million square kilometers) left in the world, only 50%. According to the statistics of nature reserves, 75 million square acres (30 million hectares) of temperate rain forests still exist. Pasture, mining, logging and agriculture are the main reasons for the disappearance of forests. Between 2000 and 20 12, more than 720,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of forests were cut down in the world, which is about the area of all states east of the Mississippi River. According to an article published in Natural Science, global deforestation has also reduced the global land water vapor flow by 4%. Water circulates continuously in the atmosphere. It evaporates from the surface, rises and condenses into clouds. It is blown by the wind and then falls back to the ground like rain or snow. In addition, NASA says that water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Even small changes in water vapor flow can disrupt weather patterns and climate.
"Rainforest is being threatened more and more for many reasons, including logging, clearing crops or livestock, and becoming a commercial palm oil plantation," Jonathan H. Danforth, a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, who is the head of the Living Earth Cooperation Organization, told Life Science. In addition, climate change has also adversely affected the health of rainforest. Last year was particularly bad for Amazon, where the deforestation rate rose sharply, but there were some glimmers of hope:
The two countries with the most rainforests-Indonesia and Brazil-have recognized the importance of these forests and made innovative and positive efforts to stop deforestation. People are increasingly aware of stopping deforestation and reducing carbon emissions.