Tropical Rainforests

Tropical rainforests are hot and wet all year round

Climate:

• The climate is the same all year round- there are no definite seasons. Its hot (the temperature ususally between 20-28 degrees and only varies by a few degrees over the year). This is because near the equator, the sun is overhead all year round.
• Rainfall is very high, around 2000 mm per year. It rains everyday, ususally in the afternoon.

Soil:

• The soil isn't very fertile as heavy rain washes nutrients away. There are nutrients at the surface due to decayed leaf fall, but this layer is very thin as decay is fast in the warm, moist conditions.

Plants:

• Most trees are evergreen (they dont drop their leaves in a particular season( to take advantage of the continual growing season. Many trees are really tall and the vegetation cover is dense- very little light reaches the forest floor. There are lots of epiphytes (plants that grow on other living plants and take nutrients and moisture from the air) like orchids and ferns.

Animals:

• Rainforests are belived to…