THE RAIN FOREST

Justice hunter, Jane Kim, Tionni Hill, Jessica Gold, Kelsey O’Callaghan, Camille Tucker, Brittnay Edghill.

The tropical rainforest is an ecosystem that consists of tall trees in a region of year round warmth. They belong to a tropical wet climate group. An average of 50-260 inches of rain falls yearly. In this ecosystem, there is an average humidity of 77-88% and average temperatures that are no higher than 93° F and no lower than 68° F

THE ABIOTIC FACTORS OF THE RAIN FOREST

•Climate

• Amount of water

•Amount of sunlight

•Weather

•Precipitation

These things affect the tree and animals that live there.

The tropical rain forests, normally located on the equator, have the most biodiversity on the planet compared to other ecosystems. A myriad of bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, reptiles, birds, and even fish inhabit this ecosystem. Since the rain forests of our biosphere hold the most species, it is the most complex and interdependent ecosystem. If one species becomes extinct, there is a good chance that another 100 different species will also die out. This is what makes the rain forest so unique and mystical.

THE BIOTIC FACTORS OF THE RAIN FOREST

To name one of the species that inhabit the rainforests is the Canopy tree. These all too common, extremely tall and green trees are home to a countless number of different birds, insects, and flowers. The canopy tree is one of the most important species of plant in the rainforest because they provide it with nutrients, oxygen, and cause the massive rainfall in that region to help other plants grow. If the trees start to disappear, nearly every other creature will begin to die out. This is called deforestation. As we speak, hundreds of acres of rainforest are being chopped down, and the rainforests are beginning to dwindle to alarmingly low levels. The lack of biodiversity due to deforestation can cause a major loss of important fruits, a sharp decrease in oxygen levels in the atmosphere and even the further expansion of the desert, which is known as desertification.

THE BIOMASS PYRAMID

The biomass pyramid is a graph that represents the total combined mass of organisms at successive trophic levels that has the form of a pyramid. Trophic levels are feeding levels. All producers belong to the first level; all primary consumers (herbivores) belong to the second level; organisms feeding on these herbivores belong to the third level and so on. The biomass is the total combined weight of all the organisms. This is estimated through collecting or trapping and weighing suitable samples. As the trophic level goes up, the biomass decreases immensely due to the fact that that much of the food consumers by a heterotrophy is not converted to the body tissues of it. Instead, it is broken down so the stored energy can be released and used by the heterotrophy. The producers of the rainforest are plants. The primary consumers of the tropical rain forest are insects, small mammals, frogs, etc. These consumers feed on the producers. The organisms that feed on the primary consumers are monkeys, birds, tigers, jaguars, bats, sloth, and gorillas.

The tropical rainforest contains an enormous amount of biodiversity. There are various types of insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and plants. Many of these species are still unidentified. Plants such as orchids, banana trees, bamboo, coconut trees, and fungi such as bracket fungi, jelly-like fungi, slime mold, coral fungi, and seeds are the producers of this ecosystem.

THE PRODUCERS

THE CONSUMERS

Primary consumers include macaws, fruit bats, monkeys, chimpanzees, and insects. Primary consumers feed off of the producers except the ones in the fungi group. Secondary consumers include parrots which feed off of producers and insects, vampire bats, iguanas, red-eyed tree frog, the python, and jaguar. The python and jaguar reside at the top of the food web. They feed off primary consumers and other secondary consumers like the parrot and the red-eyed tree frog.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RAIN FOREST

The tropical rainforests are important to the earth’s ecosystem by maintaining biodiversity and regulating

climate control. One way it is important is the fact that the tropical rainforests hold 50% of all earth’s

plants and animals. Some of these animals are endangered species or only indigenous to that area. Likewise, scientists have discovered that over 2,000 tropical forest plants have been identified to have

anticancerous properties, thus the destruction of the forest might end our chances for finding the cure for cancer. The rainforest is also important because it

acts as the world’s thermostat by regulating temperature and weather patterns. The plants in the

rainforests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This lowers the temperature of the

atmosphere because the more carbon dioxide in the air, the warmer the planet becomes; also known as

the greenhouse effect. The carbon dioxide is the stored in the roots, branches, and leaves of trees.

Soil in the rainforest is often thought to be fertile and nutritious due to the large biodiversity of plants found in the area. However, this is not the case, only the top few inches of soil is fertile due to biological activity. Biological activity occurs when biomass from dead plants is recycled and the nutrients are made available to the soil within a short period of time. Warmth, shade and the moisture present in the rainforest catalyzes the activity caused by fungi and bacteria. But when the forest’s trees are cut down or burned for crop production, biological activity literally seizes. With the trees gone, the soil is exposed to sunlight which destroys the bacteria and fungi leaving few nutrients in the soil.

          Likewise, another reason for nutrient depletion in the rainforest is the settlement of farmers. Before farmers began to settle on rainforest land, the native people like the Yanomami would grow crops and then move on to another area to let the forest replenish itself. However, farmers nowadays want to stay in one area forever, thus the land isn’t able to replenish the nutrients lost. Farmers try using different fertilizers to rejuvenate the topsoil but this doesn’t help because directly below, the impermeable clay is unable to support growth. Overall, exploiting the rainforest is only beneficial in the short term when plants are able to grow yet, in the long term the land becomes uninhabitable to both plants and animals alike.

Made for Mr.Aghassi.

Authors :Justice hunter, Jane Kim, Tionni Hill, Jessica Gold, Kelsey O’Callaghan, Camille Tucker, Brittnay Edghill. Karman Lam

The Rain Forest

FIN !