Characteristics of the Tropical Rainforest

We could summarize the characteristics of the Tropical Rainforest vegetation as:

  • Climate: Tropical wet.
  • Annual average temperature: It varies between 27 º and 29 º C up to 400 m in altitude or something else.
  • Altitude: There is usually on the floor of the hot. If you are on higher floors, better to talk about mountains and misty forests or cloud forests.
  • Average annual rainfall: Varies from 1500 to 2000 mm and 3000 mm or more. For the lower limit should be clarified that these rains have to be well distributed over the year, which only refers to climates with a very specific location.
  • Seasonality of rainfall: almost imperceptible as xerothermic of Gaussen index every month is rainy. There may be a period of below average rainfall year, but usually in every month rainfall amounts are sufficient for the development of this type of vegetation. As a result, the rivers, although they are relatively short flow are considerable. In the transitional areas with savanna vegetation may present a brief dry season where the sheer variety and richness of vegetation gradually diminishes.
  • Soil: It is shallow, acidic and poor if we analyze them with criteria of the temperate zone. However, this poverty is no obstacle to vegetation, as seen in the development of epiphytes in the image, which gives the extreme case of plant species that do not require any type of soil. The shallow depth of soil is balanced with shallow roots of large trees, which have buttresses to support their trunks and branches, with adaptation to environmental conditions and the extraordinary biodiversity, which uses a very efficient, water, temperature and solar energy.
  • Number of species: It is the area that has a greater number of organisms, both plant and animal. However, it should be noted that there are not many species of medium and large size. And some of these species (jaguar and puma in America, tapir, etc.) are limited to areas of forest or savanna Tropophilous. In the case of herbivorous ants of the image is good to note that not quite so good. Ants are more farmers, who bring to the ground large quantities of leaves, not fed directly with them, but to create a food that can be fermented and used as a nutrient for bacteria, microorganisms, mainly fungi, in turn, serve to feed them.