A rainforest is a forest area where the annual rainfall is atleas 1750 millimetres. There are both tropical and temperate rainforests both with their own unique environments.
Walking through a rainforest is usually quite easy since the lack of sunlight at ground level limits the amount of undergrowth. The most rich biodiversity is instead found higher up in the rainforest, hidden from man in the canopy. As much as 50% of all plants and 25% of all insects might live in the canopy.
Scientific exploration of the canopy layer didn’t really take off until the 1980s when researchers began experimenting with firing ropes into the trees using crossbows. Today researches use hot air ballons and other airships to help explore the canopy.
If the rainforest canopy for some reason is destroyed or thinned, the emerging light will start off intense growth on the forest floor below and soon densely grown vines, shrubs, and small trees will have sprouted, forming a so called jungle which can be very hard to penetrate.
Tropical rainforests
As the name suggests, tropical rainforests are rainforest located within the tropics, i.e. between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They stretch across the globe on both sides of the equator and are for instance found in South and Central America, in sub-Saharan Africa, in South-East Asia and the north-eastern stretches of Australia. Many Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, are also home to tropical rainforests.
They are sometimes called the “earths lungs” but this is a missconception as they only provide a small part of the worlds oxygen.
The tropical rainforest is home to a lot of famous tropical rainforest flowers that have made their way into our homes and green houses, such as the Amazonian Candle Bush (Senna reticulata), the scarlet red Forest Flame (Delonix regia) and the very famous Ylang Ylang Perfume Tree (Cananga odorata).
Temperate rainforests
This type of rainforest can be found all over the world except for Antarctica. In Europe, you can for instance find rainforests in southern Norway, along the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, in the north-western parts of Spain, and along the Adriatic coast of western Balkan.
This type of rainforest are usually found near the ocean and is particularly common in mountain regions near oceans. Temperate rainforests tend to be kept cool and moist by fog during the summer season and aren’t prone to rapid changes in temperature. Epiphytes such as mosses thrive in the damp environment.
Temperate coniferous rainforests contain a higher biomass level than any other terrestrial ecosystem including the tropical rainforests. The European rainforests are famous for their abundance of huge oak trees and for having been managed by people for thousands of years. Oak is a strong timber that have had a lot of different uses on the European continent.