Rainforest
hideRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm (68-78 inches). The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.
From 40 to 75% of all species on Earth are indigenous to the rainforests. It has been estimated that many millions of species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy", because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there. Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the worlds oxygen turn over, often misunderstood as oxygen production, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide and through breathing to carbon dioxide.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible to walk through the forest. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs, and small trees called a jungle. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.
For more information about Rainforest, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with rain forest
Central Africa's tropical Congo Basin was arid, treeless in Late Jurassic
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 10, 2009 |
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The Congo Basin -- with its massive, lush tropical rain forest -- was far different 150 million to 200 million years ago. At that time Africa and South America were part of the single continent Gondwana. The Congo Basin was ...
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New NASA 3-D Video Shows Thunderstorms in Tropical Storm Ida (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite has the ability to provide data that can be made into three-dimensional images. Visualizers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ...
Researcher finds forest birds 'commuting' to attract mates
Nov 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An ecologist at the University of Rhode Island studying habitat use by a forest-dwelling game bird found that the birds unexpectedly exhibited what he described as "the bar scene phenomenon" ...
EPA's new green parking lot allows scientists to study permeable surfaces that may help the environment
Oct 28, 2009 |
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Paved parking lots and driveways make our lives easier, but they often create an easy pathway for pollutants to reach underground water sources and alter the natural flow of water back into the ground. The U.S. Environmental ...
Ida now a coastal low assaulting the Mid-Atlantic
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 12, 2009 |
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Ida is one stubborn girl. Her remnants have moved out to sea and reformed as a powerful coastal low pressure system that's been raining on the mid-Atlantic since Tuesday night, November 10. The Geostationary ...
Timber harvest impacts amphibians differently during life stages
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Frogs are croaking in clear-cut forests, but not exactly in their traditional manner. University of Missouri researchers found that removing all of the trees from a section of the forest had a negative effect ...
Weather-sensitive architectural skins integrate form with function
Nov 06, 2009 |
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Buildings typically provide shelter from the elements, but one Ryerson University researcher thinks structures ought to relate more to the environment instead. To this end, she has created architectural "skins," ...
Researchers create nanoparticle coating to prevent freezing rain buildup (w/ Video)
Oct 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Preventing the havoc wrought when freezing rain collects on roads, power lines, and aircrafts could be only a few nanometers away. A University of Pittsburgh-led team demonstrates in the Nov. 3 edition of ...
SKorea to plant trees in China to reduce 'yellow dust'
Nov 04, 2009 |
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The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project in a Chinese desert to reduce the amount of harmful "yellow dust" blowing over South Korea, officials said Wednesday.
GOES satellite sees bulk of Ida's clouds and rain inland while center making landfall
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Nov 10, 2009 |
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Tropical Storm Ida made landfall around 6:40 a.m. ET this morning on Dauphin Island, along the Alabama coastline. NASA's GOES Project created the latest image from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite ...
Scientists Cryopreserve Pest-Imperiled Ash Trees
Oct 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Using cryopreservation methods, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have devised a procedure for storing frozen budwood from ash trees (Fraxinus) and thawing the delicate buds for ...
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