What are Tropical Forest Flashcards
Where are Tropical Forest located at?
Along the Equator where there is high rainfall and high temperature
What kind of soil does the tropical forest have?
Top layer of the soil has nutrients from decaying leaf
Tropical trees are evergreen, what does this mean?
They continuously grow new leaves to replace the old ones
How many plant species are there for every 0.01 sq km?
300
Why is there a rich biodiversity in tropical rainforests?
Due to Hot and wet environment
What is the structure of the tropical rainforests?
Undergrowth layer (0 to 20 m) Canopy layer (20 to 30 m) Emergent layer (30 to 50 m)
Why is the undergrowth layer dark?
Because the canopy above blocks out most of the sunlight
What is found on the forest floor?
thin layer of decomposing leaf litter
fungi
Why does the canopy block 90% of the sunlight?
The crowns of trees interclock and form an almost continuous cover
What grows plentiful in the canopy layer?
Lianas
Epiphytes
What are Lianas?
It is thick, woody vines that grow on trees from the ground and twine up trees to reach for sunlight
What are Epiphytes?
It is plants that grow up on trees to get more sunlight
What are emergent trees?
They can grow up to 50 m and rise above the canopy below and tower above other trees
How does the bark and branches of tropical forest trees adapt?
Trees have tall straight trunks which spread out near the top of the tree to obtain maximum amount of sunlight
The smooth bark allows rainwater to flow easily from the crown to the roots
How does the leaves of tropical forest trees adapt?
Leaves tend to be broad to capture sunlight
Some are waxy, leathery or hairy surfaces to minimise lose of moisture through transpiration due to to high temperatures
