Tropical Rain Forest Biome
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Also known as ‘The Hot, Wet Equatorial Climate’, ‘Equatorial Rainforest Climate’.
- The regions are generally referred as ‘Equatorial Rainforests’, ‘Equatorial Evergreen Forests’, ‘Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forest’, ‘Lowland Equatorial Evergreen Rainforest’.
Temperature
- Temperature is uniform throughout the year.
- The mean monthly temperatures are always around 27° C with very little variation.
- There is no winter. [Typical to Equatorial Rainforest Climate]
Precipitation
- Precipitation is heavy and well distributed throughout the year.
- Annual average is always above 150 cm. In some regions the annual average may be as high as 250 – 300 cm.
Equatorial Vegetation
- High temperature and abundant rainfall support a luxuriant tropical rain forest.
- In the Amazon lowlands, the forest is so dense that it is called ‘selvas’. [selvas: A dense tropical rainforest usually having a cloud cover (dense canopy)]
- Unlike the temperate regions, the growing season here is all the year round-seeding, flowering, fruiting and decaying do not take place in a seasonal pattern.
- The equatorial vegetation comprises a multitude of evergreen trees that yield tropical hardwood, e.g. mahogany, ebony, dyewoods etc.
- In the coastal areas and brackish swamps, mangrove forests thrive.
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All plants struggle upwards (most ephiphytes) for sunlight resulting in a peculiar layer
arrangement [Canopy].
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