Tropical Rainforests
What do you already know about tropical rainforests?
Tropical Rainforests are massive evergreen forests you find near the equator. The equator is an invisible line around the middle of the world. It is the furthest away you can get from the polar ice caps on the top and bottom of our planet. Anywhere near the equator has very hot weather.
Not only are tropical rainforests hot, they are also very wet. It rains a lot in a rainforest!
World map showing the equator and where tropical rainforests are found.
The Layers of a Rainforest
Rainforests are mainly made up of massive evergreen trees. In between the trees you would find amazing plants and flowers that don’t grow anywhere else on Earth. There is so much growing, rainforests are split up into 4 layers, the forest floor, the understory layer, the canopy layer and the emergent layer.
The forest floor is at the very bottom of the forest. It is thickly covered in fallen leaves. It can be really quite dark as only about 2% of sunlight reaches that far down.
The understory is the space between the floor and all the leaves and branches of the trees above. It is also quite dark as very little light reaches here as well. This is where lots of other plants, shrubs, bushes, vines and flowers grow, all of which can cope with little sunlight.
The canopy is an incredibly thick, dense layer of tree tops that acts like a roof over the forest. Here other plants that need a bit more sunlight grow, for example beautiful flowers that don’t need soil to grow and can grow away from the ground.
The emergent layer right at the very top is where super tall trees stick up above the rest in the canopy.
Canopy and Emergent Layers
Forest Floor and Understory Layers
Orchid
Cacao
Passion Fruit Flower
Heliconia Flower - Lobster Claw
Animals of the Rainforest
Rainforests are home to an estimated 50% or more of all the Earth’s land animal and plant species. All sorts of different creatures live in rainforests. What animals live in the rainforest depends a lot on the country.
The emergent layer is home to creatures such as monkeys, bats, macaws, eagles and butterflies.
Around 90% of the animals living in the rainforest actually live in the canopy layer. You’d find a huge amount of monkeys and other primates, sloths, bats, toucans, macaws, snakes and tree frogs just to name a few!
On the forest floor and understory there are lots and lots of insects, frogs, turtles and snakes living. It is also home to large mammals, like jaguars, tigers, gorillas, capybaras and elephants.
Here are some of the animals that live in the Amazon Rainforest, the biggest rainforest in the world…
Toucans
Can you believe it...
Squirrel Monkeys
Poison Dart Frogs
Capybaras
Armadillos
Jaguars
The Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is home to about 10% of all the creatures in the world. It is said that a new animal or plant is discovered every other day…and there are lots more to be discovered! The Amazon is incredibly important to the Earth because it creates over 20% of the world’s oxygen.
Despite it being so important huge parts of it are being cut down, which is called deforestation.Â
It is in South America and most of it is in Brazil but it also covers parts of other countries too. The Amazon Rainforest has a massive river running through the middle of it called the Amazon River. It is the world’s second longest river after the River Nile (although some people think the Amazon is actually the longest!), but it is definetly the largest as it holds more water as it is so wide.
A view from the Amazon River.
The Emergent Layer of the Amazon.
The Amazon Rainforest with the Amazon River running through it from above.
What we've learnt...
Tropical Rainforests are massive evergreen forests you find near the equator.
Rainforests are split up into 4 layers, the forest floor, the understory layer, the canopy layer and the emergent layer.
Rainforests are home to an estimated 50% or more of all the Earth’s land animal and plant species.
The Amazon Rainforest is the biggest rainforest in the world.
Test your knowledge...
Tropical Rainforest Quiz
If you click the correct answer the box will turn green. If its the wrong answer it will turn red and then show you what the correct answer was. Make sure you read or listen to the questions carefully!
#1. What is the biggest rainforest in the world?
#2. Which layer of the rainforest contains the most animals?
#3. How many layers are tropical rainforests split into?
#4. Which layer of the rainforest contains the most flowers?
#5. What percentage of the worlds animals live in rainforests?
Results
I really hope you have enjoyed learning all about tropical rainforests, with me Jet!
Question Time...
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