How long have rainforests been around

The bottom layer or floor of the rainforest is covered with wet leaves and leaf litter. This material decomposes rapidly in the wet, warm conditions like a compost pile sending nutrients back into the soil.

Few plants are found on the floor of the forest due to the lack of sunlight. However, the hot, moist atmosphere and all the dead plant material create the perfect conditions in which bacteria and other microorganisms can thrive.

Stories, experiments, projects, and data investigations. Download issues for free. Fibers such as raffia, bamboo, kapok, and rattan are used to make furniture, baskets, insulation , and cord. Cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and ginger are just a few spices of the rainforest. The ecosystem supports fruits including bananas, papayas, mangos, cocoa and coffee beans.

Rainforests also provide us with many medicinal products. According to the U. Rainforest plants are also used in the creation of muscle relaxants, steroid s, and insecticide s. They are used to treat asthma , arthritis , malaria , heart disease, and pneumonia. The importance of rainforest species in public health is even more incredible considering that less than one percent of rainforest species have been analyze d for their medicinal value.

A mushroom discovered in the tropical rainforest of Ecuador, for example, is capable of consuming polyurethane —a hard, durable type of plastic used in everything from garden hoses to carpets to shoes. The fungi can even consume the plastic in an oxygen-free environment, leading many environmentalists and businesses to invest in research to investigate if the fungi can help reduce waste in urban landfill s.

Rainforests are disappearing at an alarmingly fast pace, largely due to human development over the past few centuries. Since , the total area of tropical rainforests has probably been reduced by more than half, to about 6.

Rampant deforestation could cause many important rainforest habitats to disappear completely within the next hundred years. Such rapid habitat loss is due to the fact that 40 hectares acres of rainforest are cleared every minute for agricultural and industrial development. In the Amazon rainforest, large-scale agricultural industries, such as cattle ranching , clear huge tract s of forests for arable land.

In the Congo rainforest, roads and other infrastructure development have reduced habitat and cut off migration corridor s for many rainforest species. Throughout both the Amazon and Congo, mining and logging operations clear-cut to build roads and dig mines. Some rainforests are threatened by massive hydroelectric power projects, where dam s flood acres of land.

Development is encroach ing on rainforest habitats from all sides. Economic inequalities fuel this rapid deforestation. Many rainforests are located in developing countries with economies based on natural resource s. Wealthy nations drive demand for products, and economic development increases energy use. These demands encourage local governments to develop rainforest acreage at a fraction of its value.

Impoverished people who live on or near these lands are also motivated to improve their lives by convert ing forests into subsistence farmland. Many individuals, communities, governments, intergovernmental organizations, and conservation groups are taking innovative approaches to protect threatened rainforest habitats. Many countries are supporting business es and initiative s that promote the sustainable use of their rainforests.

Costa Rica is a global pioneer in this field, investing in ecotourism projects that financially contribute to local economies and the forests they depend on. The country also signed an agreement with an American pharmaceutical company, Merck, which sets aside a portion of the proceeds from rainforest-derived pharmaceutical compounds to fund conservation projects.

Intergovernmental groups address rainforest conservation at a global scale. The Democratic Republic of the Congo used REDD funds to create an online National Forest Monitoring System that tracks and maps data on logging concession s, deforestation in protected areas, and national forestry sector measures. REDD funds were also used to investigate best practices in solving land dispute s in Cambodia, which lacks proper forest zoning and boundary enforcement.

Nonprofit organizations are tackling rainforest conservation through a variety of different approaches. The Rainforest Trust, for example, supports local conservation groups around the world in purchasing and managing critically important habitats.

Partnering with Burung Indonesia, the Trust created a 8,hectare 22,acre reserve on Sangihe Island to protect the highest concentration of threatened bird species in Asia.

The Rainforest Alliance is a nonprofit organization that helps businesses and consumers know that their products conserve rather than degrade rainforests.

Products that bear the Rainforest Alliance seal contain ingredients from farms or forests that follow strict guidelines designed to support the sustainable development of rainforests and local communities.

The Alliance also allows tourism businesses use of their seal after they complete an education program on efficiency and sustainability. In turn, this seal allows tourists to make ecologically smart vacation plans. Kapok trees are keystone species in many rain forest ecosystems. Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic. Drip Tips. Many plants in the humid rain forest canopy are pointed, so that rain can run off the tips of the leaves.

Jungles and Rain Forests. Jungles and rain forests are very, very similar. The main difference is that rain forests have thick canopies and taller trees. Jungles have more light and denser vegetation in the understory. Slow Rain. Species-Rich, Soil-Poor. The soil of most tropical rain forests contains few nutrients.

The rich biodiversity in the canopy and quick decomposition from fungi and bacteria prevent the accumulation of nutrient-rich humus.

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Distribution of Natural Resources. Habitats and Microhabitats. Terrestrial Ecosystem. Rainforests, Explained. View Article. Two countries accounted for 46 percent of the primary meaning old-growth, undisturbed tropical rainforest loss in Brazil, which is home to more than half the Amazon, and Indonesia, where forests are cut down to make way for producing palm oil , which can be found in everything from shampoo to saltines.

In many cases, such as logged areas, the soil damage makes it difficult for rainforests to regenerate, and the biodiversity found in them is irreplaceable. When we lose rainforests, we lose an important natural resource. Rainforests produce, store, and filter water, protecting against soil erosion, floods, and drought. Many of the plants found in rainforests are being used to make medicine , including anti-cancer drugs, along with beauty products and foods.

And Brazil nut trees refuse to grow anywhere but in undisturbed sections of the Amazon rainforest. There, the trees are pollinated by bees that also visit orchids, and their seeds are spread by agoutis , small tree mammals. Rainforests are also home to endangered or protected animals such as the Sumatran rhino , orangutans , and jaguars. Forest trees also absorb carbon, an important function needed as human-caused greenhouse gas emissions stoke climate change.

Rainforest loss is a double-whammy for the climate: It contributes emissions while removing a future potential source of carbon storage. Human activity has caused tropical rainforests to emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb at this point, according to one study. Organizations and governments around the world are engaged in trying to protect rainforests. In Indonesia, notes Global Forest Watch , primary forest loss in dropped to its lowest rate since after the government enacted policies to protect certain areas.

Conservation groups, activists, and indigenous communities also play an important role. National Geographic Explorer Topher White, for example, has come up with a way to use recycled cell phones to monitor for chainsaws , while other groups, including the Rainforest Action Network and Conservation International , are working to monitor forests and create economies that thrive by protecting these ecosystems rather than destroying them, such as local tourism and sustainable products. In Brazil, thousands of indigenous people have staged demonstrations to reinforce their claim to threatened lands, arguing that they are often better stewards of rainforests and the wildlife they contain than national governments.

Rainforest trees are quite different from trees of temperate forests. In the rainforest, trees grow to gigantic size, supported by strong, strut-like buttresses at the base of the trunk that help to stabilize them in shallow forest soils. Huge creepers twine themselves around the trunks of trees.

A mature lowland tropical forest consists of several layers. The top layer of vegetation consists of scattered tall trees which tower above a closed canopy layer formed by the crowns of other trees. The canopy is the most exciting part of the rainforest; it is here that most of the flowering and fruiting of the trees takes place, attracting a variety of spectacular creatures.

Below the canopy is a third layer, formed by smaller trees whose crowns do not meet. Below that is a layer that's composed of woody and herbaceous shrubs. Finally, there is the ground layer, which receives very little sunlight.