THE CLIMATE TROPICAL RAINFORESTS Flashcards
Describe the location of Tropical Rainforest.
Tropical rain forests are found in equatorial areas, between the tropics. They are concentrated between 5 degrees north and south of the equator.
Describe what percentage of the global do tropical rainforests cover.
The tropical rain forests cover about 6% of the earth’s surface.
Describe the five main locations of tropical rain forests.
The main areas covered by tropical rainforests are: Central America; the Amazon Basin (in South America); Central Africa; Madagascar (much of this has now gone); Southern Asia and small parts of northern Australasia.
Name the rainforest area that you would use to answer a case study.
The Malaysian tropical rainforest in South East Asia.
Describe how the temperature varies over a year in a the Malaysian tropical rainforest.
The temperatures in Kuching (Malaysia) varies from from 28 degrees C in January to 32 degrees C in June. This gives a small annual temperature range of 4 degrees C.
Describe the annual rainfall totals and on average how many days per month does it rain in the Malaysian tropical rainforest.
The annual rainfall for tropical rain forests in Malaysia is 4000 mm. On average it rains on 20 days per month.
Explain why temperatures in tropical rainforests are high and the annual temperature range is a small.
Kuching in Malaysia has a minimum average temperature of 28C in January and a maximum average temperature of 32C in June. This gives a small annual temperature range of 4C. There are two main reasons that cause these high temperatures and the small annual temperature range. The first is because the sun is either directly overhead or is high in the sky. Therefore, insolation from the sun is very concentrated and only heat up a small area of the earth’s surface. Secondly there is very little variation in the daylight over the year, (12 hours of daylight). This means that tropical rainforest always receives the same amount of insolation each day.
Describe the annual temperature range for a tropical rainforest.
This gives a small annual temperature range of 4 degrees C.
What is meant by the heat equator?
The heat equator is the area directly below the overhead sun that receives concentrated insolation from the sun.
Explain why tropical rainforest receive high amounts of annual rainfall.
This is because the Malaysian rainforest is always underneath the rising limb of the Hadley cell. In the morning insolation from the sun begins to heat up the surface of the rainforest. The surface then emits longwave radiation, which warms the overlying air that contains large quantities of water moisture. The air then starts to rise rapidly, as the air ascends it cools and eventually reaches dew point where the water vapour condenses to form large cumulus clouds. The water droplets within the clouds begin to collide and eventually became large enough to overcome the updraft of the rising air. As a result tropical rainforests experience periods of heavy convectional rainfall between 2 and 4 pm.
Explain why it rains almost very day in a tropical rainforest.
It rains almost very day in tropical rainforests because the sun is directly overhead or very high in the sky all year. This means that there is always convectional rainfall.
What is meant by convectional rainfall.
It is rainfall that results from intense heating of the ground causing very moist warm air to rise. This air cools as it rises in the atmosphere and eventually reaches dew point temperature causing clouds to form.
Explain why the air cools as it rises.
Air cools as it rises because at higher altitudes the pressure is lower.
What is meant by the term relative humidity?
Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air at a particular temperature, compared to the maximum amount of water vapor that the air can hold at that temperature. It is expressed in a percentage form.
What is meant by the term humidity?
Humidity is the amount of moisture or water vapor in the air.
