Two kinds of Rain Forests

• Temperate Rain Forest of the Pacific Northwest.

• Tropical Rain Forests found in the rest of the world.

Temperate Rain Forest

• The rain forest receives 140 or more inches of rain a year or almost 12 feet of rain a year.

• Mountains along the coastline trap moisture and protect the rain forest from severe weather extremes.

Location

• Range from the redwood forests of Northern California to Sitka, Alaska.

• Olympic National Park in Northwestern Washington state is the site of most of temperate rain forest

Tropical Rain Forest

• Warm Humid.• In excess of a 100

inches of rain or over 9 feet of rain a year.

Location of Tropical Rain Forests

Layers of the Tropical Rain Forest

• Emergent Layer receives the most amount of sunlight, high temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds.

• Canopy Layer is 60 to 90 feet above the ground and home to most of the organisms in the rain forest.

• Understory receives 2-15% of the sunlight many house plants come from this layer.

• Forest Floor receives less then 2% sunlight and the only plants that grow there are those that require low light.

Amazon Rain Forest

• The Amazon jungle is the world's largest tropical rainforest.  The forest covers the basin of the Amazon, the world's second longest river.

The Amazon is home to the greatest variety of plants and animals on Earth.  A 1/5 of all the world's plants and birds and about 1/10 of all mammal species are found there.

Inhabitants of the Amazon Rain Forest

• Indigenous Indians descended from tribes who originally inhabited the rainforest.

• Settlers who arrived since the first explorers stumbled upon the seemingly endless wilderness.

Animals of the Amazon Rain Forest

Scarlet Macaw

Tapir

Red Bellied Piranha

Red Moth

Deforestation

• 40 species and 20 acres of rainforest are destroyed per minute.

• The culprits behind the destruction of the rainforest are logging, ranching, and subsistence farming.