A biome is described¹ as being a particular physical environment that contains a characteristic assemblage of plants and animals. The tropical rainforest biome is one of the most complex on the planet. It has a wide variety of plants and animals that live under its thick, complex web of tree branches of its emergent and upper canopy layers. In this report I am going to outline the location, climate, layers, plants, animals, and future of this beautiful, yet very unstable environment known as the Tropical Rainforest. The locations of tropical rainforests are quickly diminishing. The beautiful, colorful, and vibrant ecosystems are disappearing. However, you can still find rainforests in much of Central and South America, Africa, southeastern Asia, southern India, and northeastern Australia. A tropical rainforest is normally very hot and humid. On average a rainforest receives about 150 cm or rainfall. The reason for this high amount is because at higher temperatures, the air can hold more water vapor. All the water vapor is supplied because near the equator, the climates receive more sunlight. The sun heats the land and sea and water evaporates into the air. This water cycle repeats very frequently. A tropical rainforest is classified as Af under the Köppen Classification system. The A is given to tropical climates that are moist for all the months and have average temperatures above 15° C. The f stands for sufficient precipitation for the whole year. The average temperature is 25°C. I’ve mentioned briefly about the upper canopy and emergent layers, but what are these layers? There are four layers to a canopy: emergent, upper canopy, lower canopy (or understory), and the forest floor. The emergent layer is the very top layer of the canopy. It is populated by very tall and slender trees. They tend to have pointed leaves, because they are subjected to the harsh, dry winds. Next, the upper canopy is from 130 ft. to 60 ft. with the emergent being anywhere higher than that. There is so much food in this layer that many of the animals who live there never have to leave the tree to find food. The lower canopy is mainly 60 ft. down, mostly being shrubs, plants, or small trees. This level is in constant shade. The forest floor is usually completely shaded, less than one percent of the total amount of light makes it through. The topsoil of the forest floor is of poor quality because with so many living things all the nutrients that are left in the soil are quickly absorbed by other plants through their roots. A shrub/sapling layer, not one of the four layers, receives as little as three percent of the light, because it's slightly above the forest floor, so when light becomes available shrubs and saplings can grow very quickly. The trees give off as much as half of the humidity received by the process of transpiration, through the stomata of the leaves. Because of the conditions many trees have adapted to receive the maximum amount of sunlight or to shed water easily. There are over 2500 species of vines in the rainforest. Dominant species do not exist in the rainforest. Trees of the same species don’t grow in close proximity to others of the same species, therefore preventing mass-contamination and extinction. It also means there will be enough pollinators for each of the species’ needs. Some examples of plants in a tropical rainforest are: bamboo, mangroves, coconut trees, and durians just to name a few. There is an infinite amount of diversity when it comes to animal life. Most adapt to their surroundings much the same way plants do. Some animals have fruit diets, others have bright colors and sharp patterns. Insects are the largest group in the rainforest. They include: butterflies, mosquitoes, stick insects, and giant colonies of ants. There can be as many as 100 different species of animals in a given area at any given time. Some animals in the rainforest include: African Forest Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Chimpanzee, King Cobra, Orangutan, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Toco Toucan, Vampire Bat, and Wagler’s Pit Vipers. Some environmentalists wonder about the future of rainforests in general. Due to deforestation, clear-cutting, and air pollution much of the beautiful lands are leaving us forever along with the plants and animals. I’ll let you think about the future of rainforests, because I’m not going to continue to harp about the same issues that have been around for many decades, it’s not like we don’t know how to deal with it. Just to leave you with something to think about over half the world’s populations of plants and animals live in these rainforests, and more than forty percent of the Earth’s oxygen is produced by the very trees we are destroying. Now since you know the facts would you continue to ruin the lives of future citizens of the world we call Earth over wood? ¹ - http://www.rainforestsaysbye.tripod.com/