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Researched by Samantha P. |
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Research
Summary
Introduction
There are many types of landforms but this report is on the rainforest.
The rainforest covers 6% of the Earth’s surface but is home to half the
land animals on earth. The rainforest is also disappearing rapidly and
that will affect people of the earth in many ways even besides
oxygen.
Layers
There are many different parts that make up the rainforest such as the
different layers. The very top layer is the emergent layer. The
emergent layer consists of the tops of the tallest trees, usually 130
feet or higher. Next is the canopy, which consists of the many
different kinds of trees. The canopy blocks light from reaching the
floor of the forest. The only time light breaks through the canopy is
when there is a light gap in the trees. A light gap allows the light to
hit the forest floor, which creates dense underbrush. The understory is
near the forest floor. It has a variety of different plants, the trunks
of the canopy trees and young trees that still need to grow. The last
layer is the floor, which actually has very little vegetation, but the
plants that do live on the floor of the forest have thin large leaves.
Animals
The animals of the rainforest are amazing. There are many species and
all of them are unique. There are many snakes in the rainforest but the
most well known by the natives is the Fer-de-lance, which can grow up
to seven feet long. Its bite is lethal. It lives on the ground and
hides in leaf litter. The most well known rainforest snakes in the
world are the anaconda and the boa. Both of these animals will eat
anything they can coil around such as wild pigs, birds, even other boas
and anacondas. Another reptile is the flying dragon, which eats ants
and termites. The most common bird of the rainforest is the toucan,
which has a large bill and is located in Latin American rainforests.
Another bird is the crested guan; this bird eats fruits and seeds.
There are also many primates in the rainforest, such as the chimpanzee
and the orangutan, both of which eat fruits and leaves. Some animals in
the rainforest are often forgotten, like the bearded pig and capybara.
The bearded pig is a mammal and eats fruit but the capybara is a large
rodent and eats many different kinds of plants.
Plants
Nearly 70% of the identified plants in the rainforest can be used as
cures for diseases like cancer and leukemia but only 1% of all the
plants in the rainforest have been identified. The rainforest also
contains plants that are foods people eat every day. They include:
Avocado, banana, black pepper, Brazil nuts, cashews, chocolate, cocoa,
cinnamon coconut, coffee, cola, corn, eggplant, fig, ginger, herbal tea
ingredients, lemon, orange, papaya, paprika, peanuts, pineapple, rice,
sweet pepper, sugar, tomato, and vanilla. In the rainforest of Peru
there are 300 kinds of plants in two and a half acres but in Ohio there
are only seven kinds in two and a half acres.
People think when they enter a rainforest they will have to fight
through dense underbrush but this is not true. The underbrush is very
thin because the canopy trees block the sunlight from hitting the
forest floor so the ground doesn’t get enough sunlight to produce the
dense underbrush. The only time there is dense underbrush is when there
is a light gap.
Related careers
There are many careers related to the rainforest and saving it. One of
these careers is the ornithologist, who studies birds. Another career
is a rainforest economist who figures out how the rainforest
disappearing will affect us. A forester helps prevent the rainforest
from disappearing by studying trees and the best way to log them. A
tropical botanist identifies trees and plants in the rainforest and
figures out where they grow and what they need to grow.
Why is the rainforest
important?
The rainforest is important because it supplies 20% of all oxygen on
earth and its plants supply a lot of foods and medicines. Also the
rainforest is important because it contains half of the land animals on
the earth so when we cut down the rainforest we are killing many
animals. Some humans live in the rainforest. They build houses and live
off the land. When we cut the rainforest down we are destroying their
homes and sometimes even killing the people.
Types of rainforests
There are many kinds of rainforests such as the evergreen, the
tropical, the temperate, and the cloud. The different kinds of forest
have different soils and plants. The tropical rainforest has thin soil
and in the dry season some trees will loose their leaves. With some of
the leaves gone, sunlight hits the forest floor and dense underbrush
emerges. There are many different species of plants in the tropical
rainforest, more than in other kind of rainforest. A temperate
rainforest has thick nutrient soil and only contains 10 to 15 types of
plants. In the temperate rainforest there are many bamboos, herbs,
shrubs, vines, and orchards. Some of the trees will loose some of their
leaves but most of the trees will lose all of their leaves. Another
type of rainforest is the evergreen. The evergreen rainforest doesn’t
have a dry season and rain falls daily. The plants are green year round
and during a rainstorm it will rain 2 inches in an hour. The average
temperature for an evergreen rainforest is 80 degrees. The cloud
forests exists on mountains or other high elevations. They are called
cloud forests for the clouds that hang just above the tops of the
trees. It doesn’t depend on rainfall for water it depends on the
moisture from the clouds. In a cloud forest it is very moist and wet
all the time.
People
Food
There are natives who live in the rainforest just like any other biome
in the world. The natives in the rainforest use the environment around
them to survive. In the rainforest they hunt, fish, and grow fruits and
vegetables. One of the their main crops is manioc. They use the roots
of the manioc to make flower and bread. The only downfall of this plant
is that the roots are filled with poison, so before they can eat it, it
must have the poison squeezed out of it. Some of the hunters will put
the poison on the end of their spears for hunting. The natives will
hunt and eat tapir, deer, wild pig, monkeys and many birds, but the
item that the natives will eat most is manioc. They have learned to
make bread and tapioca cereal, there are also other natural foods like
bananas.
Houses
The people of the rainforest build their houses by putting up support
poles for a thatched roof. The roof needs to be made well so there are
as few leaks as possible because it rains often in the
rainforest. The natives’ homes don’t need walls because it
doesn’t get cold in the rainforest and they don’t seem to need much
privacy.
Children
The children in the rainforest find ways to play even without store
bought toys. In the rainforest the girls play with their hand made
dolls and the boys will play with their bows and arrows. Both the girls
and boys like to go swimming in the river and watch the animals by the
village.
Rainforest Destruction
The rainforests are being destroyed every day. The main reasons for
destruction involve profit. Many countries that have rainforests in
them are very poor and they cut down the rainforest so that they can
sell the timber.
Effects
Destroying the rainforest can lead to thousands of animals dieing. This
destruction will not only kill animals, it can kill people too. The
natives in the rainforest count on it for food, water, and shelter, but
as we destroy the rainforest we are killing their food, ruining their
water, and destroying their shelters. The rainforest being destroyed
will have a great effect on humans, even the ones who don’t live in the
rainforest. This destruction will affect us in many ways. The
rainforest helps the ozone layer stay together, but without the
rainforest there will become more holes in it, which will lead to
global warming. Also when we kill the rainforest we are killing animals
and plants that haven’t even been discovered yet. Another problem is
that the rainforest supplies 20% of earth’s oxygen and without it we
will loose a huge amount of oxygen.
Reasons
The reasons for rainforest destruction are clearing land for farming,
cattle ranching, mining, logging, and tourism. The most common reason
for rainforest destruction is cattle ranching. Americans eat so much
beef that the rainforest needs to be cut down to create more grazing
land for the cattle. Another thing is tourism. The government wants to
make money, so before they even establish any rules they create a
national park. With no rules, people wander wherever they want and
accidentally destroy parts of the rainforest. To mine they must clear
land for the roads to the mining site and clear land for the mining
site. When we cut down the rainforest for its logs, this is called
logging. A way we can prevent the rainforest from being logged to
extinction is to recycle things made out of wood.
How you can help
Here are some ways you can help the rainforest:
1. Recycle
2. Eat less beef
3. Don’t buy items made from ivory, reptile skins, tortoise shells, or
cat pelts because they are from endangered species
4. Buy foods like nuts and fruit from the rainforest so it gives
farmers with rainforest land a reason not to sell it to logging.
5. Use less paper
6. Support organizations that are trying to help the rainforest
7. Buy things made out of recycled items
8. Decide not to buy furniture and other things from the rainforest
woods like teak and mahogany
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