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1A1_2012 Group 2 -  Tropical Rainforest

Page history last edited by 1A1_2012 Group 2 12 years ago

Team members

 

Names / Roles:

  • Lim wei sheng             (Leader)
  • Javin Tan Wee Yong      (Wiki Writer)
  • Muhammad Azreen       (Researcher)
  • Krizia Yap                     (Researcher)

 

 


A rainforest is a forest differentiated by high levels of precipitation - normally a minimum of at least 68-78 inches (172-198 cm) annually. Rainforests tend to have fairly mild and warm climates and feature the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. 

 

Locations and Types of Rainforests

Within the rainforest biome, there are two specific types of rainforest. The first is a temperate rainforest. These forests are small and scattered but are always found on the coast.  Some of the larger temperate rainforests are on the northwest coast of North America, southeastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the southwest coast of South America.

Temperate rainforests have mild climates with cool, wet winters. Temperatures range from 41°F-68°F (5°C-20°C). Some temperate rainforests have dry summers while others have wet but those in areas with dry summers (e.g. California's coastal redwoods) have significant summer fog which keeps condensation and moisture in the forests.

The second and most widespread type of rainforest is a tropical rainforest. These occur in equatorial regions near 25 degrees north and south latitude. The majority are found in Central and South America, but tropical rainforests also exist in Southeast Asia, eastern Australia, and central Africa . The largest in tact tropical rainforest in the world is in the Amazon River Basin.

Tropical rainforests form in these locations because they are within the ITCZ which provides the warm temperatures common in the forests. Due to the temperatures and plant growth, transpiration rates are high. As a result, the plants release water vapor which condenses and falls as precipitation. On average, a tropical rainforest is about 80°F  and has little daily or seasonal variation in temperature.

 

 

 


 

 

Temperature

The low latitude location of the rain forest promotes constant high temperatures throughout the year. Being located near the equator, the incidence angle of the noon sun is always high. In addition, the direct rays of the sun pass over the climate twice throughout the year creating two periods of maximum insolation. Given that the circle of illumination bisects the equator, day length tends to be nearly the same day-after-day. 

Annual temperatures in the rain forest average between 20o - 30o C (68o - 86o F). Annual temperature range rarely exceeds 3o to 4o F. In fact, the daily range of temperature is often larger (10o - 12o F) than the annual range in temperature. The larger daily ranges are due to the sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons of cooling rain.

 

WATER

Tropical rainforests have some of the largest rivers in the world, like the Amazon, Madeira, Mekong, Negro, Orinoco, and Zaire (Congo), because of the tremendous amount of precipitation their watersheds receive. These mega-rivers are fed by countless smaller tributaries, streams, and creeks. For example, the Amazon alone has some 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are over 1,000 miles long. Although large tropical rivers are fairly uniform in appearance and water composition, their tributaries vary greatly. Many tropical rivers and streams have extreme high and low water levels that occur at different parts of the year.

 

AIR

Planting and protecting trees--which trap and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow--can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study suggests that, as a way to fight global warming, the effectiveness of this strategy depends heavily on where these trees are planted. In particular, tropical forests are very efficient at keeping the Earth at a happy, healthy temperature.

The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology and Govindasamy Bala at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, found that because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon and produce reflective clouds, they are especially good at cooling the planet. In contrast, forests in snowy areas can warm the Earth, because their dark canopy absorbs sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back to space by a bright white covering of snow.The work simulates the effects of large-scale deforestation, and accounts for the positive and negative climate effects of tree cover at different latitudes. The result, which appears in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, makes a strong case for protecting and restoring tropical forests."Tropical forests are like Earth's air conditioner," Caldeira said. "When it comes to rehabilitating forests to fight global warming, carbon dioxide might be only half of the story; we also have to account for whether they help to reflect sunlight by producing clouds, or help to absorb it by shading snowy tundra."Forests in colder, sub-polar latitudes evaporate less water and are less effective at producing clouds. As a result, the main climate effect of these forests is to increase the absorption of sunlight, which can overwhelm the cooling effect of carbon storage.However, Caldeira believes it would be counterproductive to cut down forests in snowy areas, even if it could help to combat global warming. "A primary reason we are trying to slow global warming is to protect nature," he explains. "It just makes no sense to destroy natural ecosystems in the name of saving natural ecosystems."

 

 

LIGHT 

Light is important to rainforest as photosynthesis need light to make their own food. The light there is very shallow as trees grow big so it naturally block the light source from coming in. 

 

 


Classification of Living Organisms

Classify at least eightof the living organisms found in the allocated ecosystem into the categories below:

  1. Producers
  2. Primary Consumers
  3. Secondary Consumers
  4. Tertiary Consumers 
  5. Decomposers

For each of the living organism, find a picture and write a short description on the organism. You may wish to include feeding habits, region in the ecosystem where it is normally found etc. 

 

1Trees

2boar

3Anaconda

4Leoprad

5 fungus


Food Web 

Create a food web using at least eight of the living organisms listed above. You may wish to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create your food web. Save your food web as a picture. Finally copy and paste your picture in this section of your wiki. 

krizia do 

 


Interrelationship in Ecosystem

Give at least one example for each of the following relationships in the ecosystem:

  • Predator-prey relationship
  • Parasitism

 

krizia do 


 

THE LINKS THAT WE USE

 

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0601.htm

.http://geography.about.com/od/climate/a/rainforests.htm

.http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/climate_systems/tropical_rainforest_1.html

.http://tropical-rainforest-information.blogspot.com/2009/03/tropical-forests-earths-air-conditioner.html

 

Comments (1)

Ms Chin Su Min said

at 11:31 pm on Mar 15, 2012

guys, its a little plain-looking. you can consider adding some pictures and colours.

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