Temperate rainforests have all of these zones except the emergent layer. The tallest trees in the temperate rainforest canopy grow to be about feet 90 meters tall. Scientists believe that there is such a great diversity of animals in tropical rainforests because they are one of the oldest ecosystems on earth. Some forests in Southeast Asia have been around for at least million years, ever since dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Animals in the tropical rainforest are specially adapted to live in this unique environment. A common characteristic found among mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, is an adaptation to living in trees. One example is New World monkeys that have prehensile tails that curl around branches allowing the monkey to hold onto the tree with its tail!
Other animals are brightly colored, sharply patterned, have loud vocalizations, and like to eat lots of fruit. Most of the animals in the tropical rainforest live in the canopy. There is so much food available up there that some animals never go down to explore the forest floor!
Birds are important to rainforests because they like to eat seeds and fruit. Their droppings grow into new plants and help rainforests to survive.
In turn, tropical rainforests are important to birds because they provide winter grounds as migratory destination. Parrots are not the only type of birds you will see in the rainforest. Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical forests.
They include bright beautiful butterflies, menacing mosquitoes, camouflaged stick insects, and colossal colonies of ants. Most of these animals live on, or near the forest floor where they are protected from the wind and rain by the trees above.
Many birds and small mammals, such as chipmunks, like to eat seeds that fall on the forest floor. Lots of insects live in the temperate rainforest. Most of them live in tree bark, decomposing dead plant matter, or mossy areas. Birds and amphibians like to eat these insects.
Some mammals in the temperate rainforest include deer and bobcats. Rainforests typically receive copious amounts of rain each year. But not all rainforests are alike. The type of rainforest and its location determines annual rainfall amounts:. A remarkable diversity of trees composes the multilayered canopies of equatorial rainforests, and — without any major dry season to contend with — these trees are evergreen: that is, they sport leaves throughout the year.
Above the lowland rainforest on tropical mountainsides, and on the windward slopes of subtropical mountains, cooler, higher-elevation forms of rainforest — generally termed tropical montane rainforest — may develop. A sub-type called a cloud forest often forms the uppermost reach of rainforest at elevations between 1, and 9, feet or more depending on the setting; these ecosystems, commonly characterized by stunted trees cloaked in moss, ferns and other epiphytes arboreal plants and lichens , typically receive on the order of 79 inches of rainfall.
Unlike equatorial rainforests, monsoon forests experience a dry season part of the year, dominated by offshore winds, contrasting with a wet season of moist onshore winds and often-torrential rains.
The Khasi Hills of Northeast India garner epic downpours during the summer monsoon. One site, Cherapunji, holds the record for the greatest one-year precipitation total anywhere: a whopping 87 feet from August to July All temperate rain forests share similar characteristics, but different plants and animals populate each. The key ingredients: Rain, and lots of it or other precipitation, such as snow, drizzle, mist, or fog.
The area must receive a minimum of cm of moisture inches per year. The moist maritime climate keeps the landscape wet most of the year, resulting in an annual precipitation of about cm inches. Forest without trees we might have grasslands, but it wouldn't be rain forest. Both tropical and temperate rain forests are very lush and wet. The tropical rain forest has downpours at the rate of two inches an hour adding up to some inches of rain per year.
It rains a lot in the temperate rain forest, too -- about inches per year. And even more moisture comes from the coastal fog that hovers among the trees. Tropical rain forests are warm and moist; while temperate rain forests are cool. The temperate rain forest in Alaska and along the Pacific Northwest are some of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest in the world.
This ecosystem stretches along the Pacific Coast from Oregon to Alaska. Other countries that have temperate rain forests include Chile, New Zealand, and Norway. What defines a rain forest quite simply is rain--lots of it. Precipitation here ranges from to inches to 14 feet -- every year. The mountains to the east also protect the coastal areas from severe weather extremes.
Seldom does the temperature drop below freezing in the rain forest and summertime highs rarely exceed 80 F. Imagine a forest of trees so huge, tall, and ancient that we all look like little children beside them. Imagine a world of vivid green moss, arching ferns, and a mass of plants so thick it's impossible to see the soil beneath it.
Temperate rain forests progress through a number of stages: mature, old growth, and ancient old growth. Characteristics that you are likely to notice in old growth, temperate rain forests are: trees that range in age from small seedlings just starting out, to very old and grand trees that have lived many hundreds of years many canopy layers each tree's upper levels of vegetation ; large standing snags broken trees, usually dead large logs on the forest floor and in streams an abundance of plants growing on other plants epiphytes and parasites a dense understory of shrubbery and an abundance of green in more shades than you can count, no matter what the time of year.
There is a huge amount of biomass material made by living things in this forest. Some of it is alive, some of it was alive, and some of it will be recycled and become part of a new life. The sheer mass of stuff that was alive at some stage the organic matter is staggering. The majority of common houseplants come from the rainforest. Location Map. Tropical rainforests are found closer to the equator where it is warm. Temperate rainforests are found near the cooler coastal areas further north or south of the equator.
The tropical rainforest is a hot, moist biome where it rains all year long. It is known for its dense canopies of vegetation that form three different layers.
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