The forests have always been a great contribution to Mother Nature. The forests are the one that keeps the air-cycle going by providing oxygen. It is also the main source of wood supply for funitures all around the world. In addition, forests also house millions of plants, trees and animals. 7% of the earth's dry land surface is rainforest, home to more than 50% of the world's plants and animals.

One of the most concerns of the forest now is the Tropical rainforest. Much efforts are used to conserve the tropical rainforest. This is so because of the tropical weather, lots of natural resources, like timber, are found inside the rainforest. And as there is growing demand for natural resources in this world, we sacrify the fate of the rainforest for our welfare. That is why the tropical rainforest is getting smaller in size as years passed.

TROPICAL RAINFOREST

There is dense and luxuriant vegetation due to the hot and wet climate, which encourages rapid plant growth. The tropical rainforest is structured into five layers, they are :

The emergent layer
Makes up of the tallest trees, which grow 40-50 m tall to reach out for sunlight.

The canopy layer
Consists of treesthat are 20-30 m tall. Their crowns form an almost continuous canopy that prevents most of the sunlight from reaching the forest ground.

The understorey layer
Made up of smaller trees with narrow crowns. the trees are 5-15 m tall and some lianas and epiphytes also exist in this layer.

The shrub layer
Due to the minimal sunlight, only shurbs, ferns and small young trees are found in this layer.

The ground layer
Unless there is a break in the continuous canopy, the ground layer has sparse vegetation because very little sunlight reaches the forest floor. There is no much leaf little on the floor as leaf decay takes place quickly in the hot, wet climate.

Characteristics of Tropical rainforest

The tropical rainforest appears evergreen throught the year as most of the trees do not shed leaves at the same time. The year round high temperature and rainfall enable them to photosythesize, continuously grow and shed leaves throught the year.

The trees in the tropical rainforest do not grow in pure stands. It is common to find 100 species of trees in one hectare of land. It is not surprising to find 300 or 400 species of trees in one hectare of land. To adapt to the high rainfall in the tropical region, the leaves are smooth and waxy so that rainwater can run off them easily and many have down-pointing drip tips to allow excess water to drip off.

With no four seasons in the tropical areas, there is no necessity for protection against cold or dry weather. Hence, the bark of the trees is amooth and thin. The branches and their leaves are found at the top one-third of the trees to obtain maximum light for photosynthesis.