RAINFOREST

Hi friends today i like to share details about rain forest.

These amazing places cover only 6 % of the Earth's surface but yet they contain MORE THAN 1/2 of the world's plant and animal species!

RAINFOREST name came because of the high amount of rainfall it gets per year. Rainforest is famous for tall and dense jungle.Rainforests are found in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon rainforest in South America.

Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy". Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the world's oxygen turnover, sometimes misnamed oxygen production. The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the poor penetration of sunlight to ground level. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.

Tropical rainforest are associated with the location of the monsoon trough,found in the equatorial zone (between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn). Tropical rainforest is present in Southeast Asia (from Myanmar (Burma) to Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and northeastern Australia), Sri Lanka, sub-Saharan Africa from Cameroon to the Congo (Congo Rainforest), South America (e.g. the Amazon Rainforest), Central America (e.g. Bosawás, southern Yucatán Peninsula-El Peten-Belize-Calakmul), and on many of the Pacific Islands (such as Hawaiʻi). Tropical rainforests have been called the "Earth's lungs".

Temperate rainforest are rainforests in temperate regions. They occur in North America (in the Pacific Northwest, the British Columbia Coast and in the inland rainforest of the Rocky Mountain Trench east of Prince George), in Europe (parts of the British Isles such as the coastal areas of Ireland and Scotland, southern Norway, parts of the western Balkans along the Adriatic coast, as well as in the North West of Spain and coastal areas of the eastern Black Sea, including Georgia and coastal Turkey), in East Asia (in southern China, Taiwan, much of Japan and Korea, and on Sakhalin Island and the adjacent Russian Far East coast), in South America (southern Chile) and also in Australia and New Zealand.

A tropical rainforest is typically divided into four main layers, they are
Emergent layer, Canopy layer, Understorey layer, Forest floor.

The emergent layer contains a small number of very large trees called emergents, towering as much as 200 feet above the forest floor, a few species will grow to 70–80 m tall.They need to be able to withstand the hot temperatures and strong winds that occur above the canopy in some areas. Eagles, butterflies, bats and certain monkeys inhabit this layer.

The canopy layer contains the majority of the largest trees.This is the primary layer of the forest and forms a roof over the two remaining layers. Most canopy trees have smooth, oval leaves that come to a point. It's a maze of leaves and branches.  Many animals live in this area since food is abundant.

The understorey layer lies between the canopy and the forest floor. The understorey (or understory) is home to a number of birds, snakes and lizards, as well as predators such as jaguars, boa constrictors and leopards. The leaves are much larger at this level. Insect life is also abundant. Many seedlings that will grow to the canopy level are present in the understorey. Only about 5% of the sunlight shining on the rainforest canopy reaches the understorey.

The forest floor, the bottom-most layer, receives only 2% of the sunlight. Only plants adapted to low light can grow in this region. Away from riverbanks, swamps and clearings, where dense undergrowth is found, the forest floor is relatively clear of vegetation because of the low sunlight penetration. It also contains decaying plant and animal matter, which disappears quickly, because the warm, humid conditions promote rapid decay. Many forms of fungi growing here help decay the animal and plant waste.