The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of year-round warmth. An average of 50 to 260 inches of rain falls yearly. Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group.
Explanation:
- The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher than 93 °F or drops below 68 °F. The average humidity is between 77 and 88%, rainfall is often more than 100 inches a year. In monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season.
- Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earth's land surface. Tropical rainforests produce 40% of Earth's oxygen.
- About 1/4 of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. Curare comes from a tropical vine, is used as an anesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. Quinineis used to treat malaria.
- There are four very distinct layers of trees in a tropical rain forest. They are the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.
- The soil of the tropical rainforests is shallow, poor in nutrients and without soluble minerals. Years of rainfall have washed away the nutrients in the soil obtained from weathered rocks.
- The tropical rain forest can be found in three major geographical areas around the world.
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Central America in the the Amazon river basin. Africa - Zaire basin, with a small area in West Africa. Indo-Malaysia - west coast of India, Assam, Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Queensland, Australia.
