Ecology of a Rain Forest
In 1980, the estimated amount of rain forests in the world was 40,000 square miles. ... It is too bad, because the rain forest is one of the most beautiful places on earth. ... All rain forests are located on earths "green belt", that is, the area roughly around the equator that covers all the area from Mexico and the northern area of South America, to Africa, to India, streching out to Indonesia, the northern tip of Australia and all the way to New Guinea. ... In a rain forest, it is very wet and it rains every day or every other day very heavily. ... There are some general layers to the rain forest. ... They take the most light, heat, rain and the most punishment from the winds. ... Beneath this is the second layer of trees, whose crowns form a forest canopy. Rain filters through this canopy, and the top sides of the crowns hold a large amount of ferns and other small plants whose roots never touch soil. ... The dim forest floor teems with life. ... These are the layers that make up the rain forests complex ecology. In the rest of the essay I will describe some of the life forms found in the rain forest, and ways they affect the environment. In the rain forest, plants develop poisonous alkaloids to protect against insects, and insects develop complex digestive chemistry to overcome these poisons. ... The rain forest root systems are so efficient that almost all of the nutrients in decaying plants are recycled into new ones.