Central American Rainforest

By: Lucila Vivas, Macarena Vergara, Martina D’Orazio, Martina Renata Giarmaná, Sofía García Mansilla and Sol Scarpa.

What’s a Biome?

The Rainforest are Biomes and the biomes are large geographical area characterized by certain types of plants and animals. A biome is defined by complex interactions of plants and animal with the climate, geology, soil types, water resources, and latitude of an area.

What is a TROPICAL RAINFOREST?

Rainforest are de earth’s oldest living ecosystem. These incredible places cover only 6% of the earth’s surface but yet contain MORE THAN ½ of the world’s plants and animals species. The reason it is called a “Rain” Forest is because of the high amount of rainfall it gets per year. It is, also, called a Tropical Rainforest because it is located in the tropic’s zone.

Central American Rainforest

Location:

The Central American Rainforest covers:

Belize

Costa Rica

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Nicaragua

Panama

ClimateThe Tropical Rainforest has two seasons: the wet season and the driest season.

The climate of a the rain forest is very hot and humid so the animals and the plants that exist there most learn to adapt to this climate.

Is about 80°F (26°C) and has little daily or seasonal variation in temperature. In addition, tropical rainforests have an average of 100 inches (254 cm) of precipitation annually. This occur in equatorial regions near 25 degrees north and south latitude.

Flora & Fauna

There are different types of trees, lianas, orchids.

Vines: mahogany, rosewood, durian, cassia and palms are some of the trees that habit there.

Bromeliads are an important part of the rainforest ecosystem, providing food and shelter to a wide variety of wildlife.

Orchids have a rare feature among plants, in that they have developed a method of maintaining water by only opening the stomata (small holes) in their leaves at night. This helps to prevent evaporation of water within the plant during the hottest parts of the day.

Insects: morphobutterfly, Julia butterfly, Monarch butterfly, and millions of other insects.

Mammals: jaguar, ocelot, opossums, sloth, spider monkey, etc.Birds: quetzal, , curassows, hoatzins, hummingbirds, eagles, ovenbirds, antbirds, flycatchers, toucans, and many more.Reptiles: anaconda, caiman, iguanas, lizard, boas and coral snakes, etc.

Amphibians: poison frogs and many different types of frogs from different species and animals.

Fish: electric eel, piranha, and millions of other animals.

Emergent Layer: The tallest trees are the emergent, towering as much as 200 feet above the forest floor with trunks that measure up to 16 feet around.   Most of these trees are broad-leaved, hardwood evergreens. Sunlight is plentiful up here.  Animals found are eagles, monkeys, bats and butterflies.

Canopy Layer: This is the primary layer of the forest and forms a roof over the two remaining layers. Many animals live in this area since food is abundant. Those animals include: snakes, toucans and tree frogs.

Understory Layer: Little sunshine reaches this area so the plants have to grow larger leaves to reach the sunlight. Many animals live here including jaguars, red-eyed tree frogs and leopards.  There is a large concentration of insects here.

Forest Floor: It's very dark down here.  Almost no plants grow in this area, as a result.  Since hardly any sun reaches the forest floor things begin to decay quickly.  A leaf that might take one year to decompose in a regular climate will disappear in  6 weeks.

Plant´s images…

Bromeliads

Orchids

Cassia

Animal´s Pictures…

Tucan

SlothHummingbird

Caiman

Piranha

Morphobutterlfy

Human Impact

This rainforest has experienced deforestation on a catastrophic scale. The abundant rainforest is about to disappear. It has a 98% of its original undisturbed old growth forest disappeared. The cutting of forests for firewood, agriculture and timber sales, exacerbated by the extreme poverty among the rural population, has been the driving forces for this forest loss. Many different animals are loosing their homes because of the tree cutting

One of the different problems is the demand of meat and tree products. If we stop consuming meat, in excess, and tree products, then they stop chopping trees.

Images!

More…

This are the pages we use…

www.lizasreef.comwww.srl.caltech.edu

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