What is a rainforest?
There are two types of rainforests -
TROPICAL and TEMPERATE
rainforests. When people talk about
rainforests they are usually referring to tropical
ones.
TROPICAL RAINFORESTS
- Tropical climates are
always warm and moist. The are frost-free... it's about 70- 85
degrees Fahrenheit all year round.
- Vegetation is very
green
and immense.
- very damp and
wet.
They have rains at 2 inches per hour. That means that they have
about 400 inches of rain per year!
- When people use the word "jungle", they
probably are referring to a tropical rainforest.
- are near the
equator
- more than half are in Latin
America
- 1/3 of them are in Brazil
- 25% are in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Islands.
- West Africa has the remaining
18%
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WANTED:
TROPICAL RAINFORESTS
If you are a tropical forest,
here's your chance to become one of the
big
shot
rainforests!
Here are the
requirements:
- You must grow between the Tropic
of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
- You must have 80 to 400 inches of
rain every year
- You must have a warm and
frost-free climate with very little change in temperature
during the day.
If you fit these requirements,
welcome to the world of the rainforest!
But watch out... you are
endangered...
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All tropical rainforests are tropical forests.
But not all tropical forests are tropical
rainforests.
In fact, most forests in the tropics are
not
rainforests. Understand?
A little confused? It IS confusing, so
re-read those definitions above!
