Tropical Rainforests of the Amazon

Rainforests cover only 6% of the world but are a home for over half of the worlds species and animals. These rainforests are located in Central America, The Amazon, Africa, Southern Asia, and Australia. The average rainfall for these rainforests are 67-250 centimeters. This can sometimes be bad because when there is to much rainfall the soil tends to have all of the soluble nutrients taken out of it. Two-thirds of the planets animals are living in these rainforests. In these rainforests there are 1500 different kinds of species in plants, 750 different species of trees, 125 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, 100 species of reptiles, 6 species of amphibians, and 150 different species of butterflies. This ecosystem has been developing for millions of years. There are many species that still havent been discovered and are unnamed. These rainforests are called the "jewel of the earth", "earth slugs", and "earth's largest pharmacy" because there are so many natural medicines that are used from the rainforests that are helping people daily.

The four layers of the rainforests are forest floor, understory layer, canopy layer, and emergent layer. The forest floor is very dark with very little plants since the soil is very poor. There is moss and ferns that grow but thats about it. Giant anteaters,beetles, frogs, lizards, snakes, including anacondas and every kind of insect lives on the forest floor as well. The understory layer is underneath the canopy layer and above the forest floor. It is still dark and filled with vines, shrubs, and broadleaf trees. This layer provides a lot of camaflouge for the species. The trees that grew here would grow from about 12-15 feet high with extremely large leaves because of the lack of sunlight. They can be as big as umbrella leaves. In these trees you will be able to find tree frogs, bats, owls, and huge amounts of insects swarmed in one. There is also many different kinds of species such as monkeys, jaguars, sloths, and leopords. The next layer which is the canopy layer is found below the emergent layer and above the understory layer. This layer contains many forms of food and a netural roof for the layers under them. This roof contains vines, leaves, and branches of trees. This protects all the species of plants and animals under it. This layer can also make a sheild that protects from huge rain storms that can help the forest layer not any wash-outs that can destroy the species and soil on the bottom. The emergent layer is the highest layer of the rainforest. The trees in the top layer can reach up to 180-200 feet. It recieves most of the sunlight. Over these tree tops there can be mist and clouds that hover over them. One-third of the birds are seen up in these branches including hummingbirds and eagles. Other species like bats, butterflies, and monkeys can also be spotted up here searching for food. These layers make up the four stories of the forest's.

Rainforests can have all sorts of different kinds of animals in them. Approximately half the worlds animals live in these rainforests. There are many different kinds of species of animals in these rainforests such as microscopic animals, inverbrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and animals. These and many different animals live all through out the different layers in the rainforests. Scientists believe that the reasoin there are so many different kinds of species in these rainforests is because they have been around for so long that all the animals have migrated to the one place they know that will always have the best ecosystem. The rainforests stayed around even through the ice age so that also had all the animals going to there. The perfect temperature of 75-80 degrees is the place for all of these species to live in. The animals never have to worry about freezing in the winter or having to cool down in the hot summer. Many of these animals have to get used to living with so many different animals in their community. With the fighting of food, water, and sunlight, they had to get used to sharing everything with different species. They would have to learn to adapt to eating a specific kind of animal or plant. Many animals in the rainforest depend on each others species not only with the food web but also to help them out with food. Some ways that animals protect them selves is camouflage. This helps them protect themselves from not being eaten or hurt by their predators. On average, there are 35 animals that become extinct daily. This is caused from overpopulation, distruction of their environment, and mostly from getting trees cut down so much.

The rainforest has many benifits to humans weather we realize it or not. More than 20% of the worlds oxygen is in the Amazon rainforest. There is and estimated 3000 fruits in the forest.The united states only uses 200 of the fruits. A concern revolves around the destruction of the rainforests. Rainforests are destroyed so the trees can be used as timber and the land for grazing and for farming. However, the ground is not suitable for farming. Rainforests are much more useful to humans. Valuable resources, such as plants, animals, fresh water and oxygen are destroyed and lost by rainforest destruction. The destruction of the rainforest is the leading cause of animal extinction, which leads me to my next conclusion, many animals that live in the rainforest are loseing their homes and resources for food. If humans keep destroying the rainforest we could be left with absolutely no plant, animal, and other resources. The humans need to stop destroying the resources we use every day. The forest also provides many health benefits for humans. Such as the plants provide our doctors with many of the medicines that we can get over the counter. Some things that the plants have been able to help our us with are inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, muscle tension, surgical complications, heart conditions, skin diseases, arthritis, and glaucoma.

The main causes of rainforest destruction is in the dryer area, fulewood collecting. Some immediate causes are logging, mining, cash crops, cattle ranching, large dams, and colonisation schemes have also become a big probelm with the decrease in forests as well as tourism. Some underlying causes are development and overconsumption, colonialism, poverty and overpopulation. Some rainforests have been lost to the destruction such as Indonesia, Zaire, Papua-New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela. There is 50 million acres of forest trees being cut down a year and 25 to 50 acres are burned to the ground. The growing population of the countries is also an issue since everyone needs a place to live and they keep building houses. The population has been tripled this century and will continue growing for the next 50 years. The rainforest will keep decreasing as the population grows. The climate and the environmental changes will keep ocurring if this continues. The distruction of the rainforests causes carbon dioxide to be released, which allows the green house gases to turn on which causes global warming and is making the ice caps melt which causes flooding all around the world.