Tropical Biome

By: Hemal Parikh, Caitlin Bauer, and Kelly Masker

Location of Moist Tropical Forests

Location of Seasonal Tropical Forests

Location Throughout the World

• CENTRAL AMERICA• THE AMAZON• AFRICA• SOUTHERN ASIA• AUSTRALIA

Description of the locations throughout the world

• Central America was once entirely covered in rainforest. Since then, much of the land had been cleared for plantations.

• The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world. One-fifth of the world’s plants/birds live here. One-tenth of mammal species are found here.

• Africa is home to the second largest rainforest in the world. The island of Madagascar was once densely populated in tropical forests.

Description of the locations throughout the world cont.

• In Southern Asia they stretch from India to Burma.

• Australia has tropical forests in the northern part of the continent. They have animals species that are found no where else in the world.

What Defines a Tropical Forest

• Simply by the amount and frequency of rain. • To be a tropical forest there must be at least 1750-2000

mm of rain a year and the rain must not be distributed extremely unevenly throughout the year. 

• The rain just helps determine the plants that grow here.

Climatograph of various tropical forests around the World

Key Differences in characterization of group category biomass

• Biomes are a classification of globally similar areas, including ecosystems, such as ecological communities of plants and animals, soil organisms and climatic conditions.[citation needed] Biomes are in part defined based on factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs and grasses), leaf types (such as broadleaf and needle leaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna) and climate.[citation needed] Unlike Eco zones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic or historical similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of ecological succession and climax vegetation.

Plants in the tropical Forest • Tropical Forest makes up less then 6% of the earths land, but

scientists estimate they make up more than half of the worlds plant life.

• Trees in the Tropical Forest make up 70% of the plant life. • The plants that reside in Tropical Forest provide us with medicine

we use to this day. • For example; Quinine from the cinchona tree, treated for malaria. • More than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are though to be

potential cures for cancer. • There are trees for example the emergent tree that are spaced wide

apart and are 100 to 240 feet tall with umbrella-shaped canopies that grow above the forest

A joke while you guys write all this down =)

What do you say to a tropical forest about to be cut down?

Run Forest Run!!!!

Animals in the tropical forest • More then half of the worlds species is know to reside in the tropical

forests• For example; Butterflies, beetles, spiders, ticks, snakes, lizards,

frogs, toads, parrots, toucans, sloths, jaguars, alligators, APES, iguanas, toucans, red eyed tree frogs and many more….

• Rare animals that you might find in a tropical forest would be; capybara (the largest rodent), piranhas (meat eating fish), Siamang (black long armed ape that is close to a gibbon), etc…

• One example of a animal that lives in a tropical forest is a pygmy opossum. They are tiny, have a lot of fur, are very soft , and they crack open nuts, and pick leaves off trees.

Riddle Break

• I am a tree• 100-240 feet tall • I have a umbrella-shape canopy • What kind of tree am I?

emergent tree

Tropical Forest in Illinois

• Though Illinois seems like one of the lasts places to have a Tropical Forest, it actually does. Coal miners working near Danville, Illinois recently stumbled upon what scientists are saying was one of the first rainforests on Earth, emerging during what is called the Pennsylvanian time period from about 300 million years ago. The fossilized rain forest was apparently “flash-frozen” when mud from an earthquake rapidly covered it, and the 25,000 acres of vegetation including thousands of giant leaves, plants and trunks of long-extinct trees are remarkably well-preserved. The forests contained fossils of nine foot long millipedes, trees over 100 feet long, dragonflies the size of ducks, and a 6 foot creature that looks very similar to a lobster. 

Riddle break…

• I have lot of fur.• I am tiny.  • I feel very soft.• I eat nuts and leaves.• If I don't want to be killed, I have to watch out for pumas

and ocelots.• I can crack open nuts, and pick leaves off of trees.• Who am I? 

Pygmy Opossum

Human disturbance of Biome • Commercial Logging companies are the leading problem in

destroying the tropical forests. • Farmers are also a large contributor of destroying Tropical Forests

they move into the rainforest to establish small- scale farming operations

• Shifted cultivators are currently being blamed for 605 of tropical forest loss

IF WE DON’T DO SOMETHING NOW WE ARE CREATING A REAL PROBLEM FOR US IN THE FUTURE…

Fun Facts

• Did you know, the largest snake in the world also resides in the Tropical forest: The Anaconda. The longest ever found has been 37 and half feet long.

• Amazon rainforests produce about 40% of the world's oxygen

• I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS PRESINTATION =)...• THAT’S ALL PEOPLE