Tropical Rainforest
Hassan Gordon
American Intercontinental University

The Tropical Rainforest is a forest occurring in tropical areas of heavy rainfall.
In the tropical rainforest most trees in the rainforest have wide buttress roots.
Deforestation is a major problem caused by humans in the tropical rainforest.
The government has cleared large areas of the Amazon Rainforest and encouraged people to move there. About 80% of the rainforests nutrients comes from trees and plants.
Tropical Rainforest

Tropical Rainforests are located around the equator, in areas with lots of rainfall, and where temperatures consistently stay near 80 degrees’ year round. Emergents are the tallest trees that are located in a tropical rainforest, which usually can stand well over 160 feet. You also have the canopy level which is a sea of leaves blocking lower levels from the sunlight. The canopy is here nearly half the animal population is, like the monkeys, birds, snakes, and also vines that lead up from lower levels that reach the sun. Then you have the shrub layer which has the most compacted plant growth, mostly plants, and ferns that do not require much sunlight to grow, then you have the forest floor that is mostly dark, and wet which contains a layer of rotting leaves and dead animals that have decomposed creating a thin mist full of nutrients.
Biochemical cycles are the pathways in which the transformation, and transport of matter takes place. There are four areas categories that make up the planet earth in which biochemical cycles take place you have the biosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere.

One natural disturbance that effects tropical rainforest is volcanic activity. Subsequent lava flow, and volcano eruptions can destroy large tracts of rain forest, also releasing gases that can also kill the wild life. CO2 which is a very toxic gas in high concentrations, since thicker then air tend to stick around longer after volcanic activity form deadly sink areas, in return the grass that now grows in the area from the high concentration of CO2 gases now attract the local herbivores who in return dies from the lethal gases in the area, and it also kills off some of the plants and wild life that already live in that area. One human caused disturbance to tropical rain forests is deforestation. Deforestation is when large areas of trees are cut down for many reasons like to build roads, or to make room to plant more crops for farmers in the area, or also to build land for new farms. Deforestation destroys the natural habitats of lots of the wildlife and plant life living in the rainforest, and wiping out those he can’t survive outside their natural habitat. Deforestation also exposes the fertile soil to the sun that was once blocked out by the trees in the area, in return after a while the exposure to the sun eventually dries out the soil making the land barren, and in some cases turning the area in to desert lands. A few natural resources provided by tropical rainforests are wood, most of the ingredients for a good portion of our medicines, and a lot of different foods, and fruits we consume on a day to day basis. A few ways humans can help to recover the worlds rainforests Is through afforestation in areas where deforestation has occurred people can go back through and replant the trees to help the rain forests in that area recover instead of letting the areas dry out becoming infertile. Humans can also shift cultivation instead of remaining in one area until all the natural resources are used after 2 to 3 years’ farmers should move to a new area to farm allow the top soil in the area to replenish itself.

References

Tropical Rainforest. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/rainforest.html Biogeochemical Cycles - The Environmental Literacy Council. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2016, from http://enviroliteracy.org/air-climate-weather/biogeochemical-cycles/