Lesson: Tropical Rain Forest

Tropical rain forest is incredibly rich with plant and animal life. It covers vast low-lying areas
near the equator, in the Amazon Basin, Central America, central and western Africa, and the
New Guinea region. Rain falls almost every day, with at least eighty inches during the year.
There is plenty of sun energy, and little change in temperature from day to night or month to
month. This warm, wet (rain forests get at least 200 cm of rain yearly) climate produces a great
abundance and variety of plants, including thousands of species of tall evergreen trees. The trees
support many climbing vines, and a variety of epiphytes, which cling to the trees but which,
unlike vines, have no connection with the ground. (The trees and epiphytes have a commensal
relationship.) Epiphytes catch rainwater in special roots that dangle in the air, or in the hollows
of specially shaped leaves. Tropical epiphytes include orchids, peppers, ferns, and even cacti.
The ever-warm, ever-moist conditions of the tropics are ideal for decomposers, and leaves that
fall to the forest floor decay very quickly. In fact, you may travel on bare soil while hiking
through the rain forest. The interior of a rain forest is usually open and uncluttered, though dark.
It is not the tangled jungle that many people picture. Only along roads, rivers, and on formerly
cleared land — the places people see most often — does enough sunlight reach the ground to
produce a thick "jungle" of plants.
Scientists are still mostly in the "what is it?" stage in the tropical rain forest, trying to identify
the life that exists there. Since the complex rain forest ecosystems are so poorly understood, it is
not surprising that changes made there by man sometimes have had disastrous results. When
trees are felled and the land is cleared for farming, the soil quickly loses its fertility. In rain
forests nearly all of the minerals are tied up in living plants and animals. At any one time the
amount of minerals in the soil is very small. When trees are cleared from the land, rainwater
soon carries the vital minerals deeper into the soil, beyond the roots of man's crops.
Although people are successfully raising coffee, rubber, sugar cane, cocoa, and other crops
where rain forests once grew, many other farming efforts have ended with ruined soil that had to
be abandoned. If rain forest is destroyed over a large area, it doesn't grow back but is replaced by
a junglelike growth or grassland dotted with trees.
Exercises
True or False
1. Tropical rain forest is found in the far north of Europe._________________
2. Rain forests get less than 200 cm of rain yearly.________________________
3. The climate here is like summer year round so plants can grow for all 12 months.__________
4. Rain forests have less varied plant life than any other land biome. _________________
5. Scientists know everything about tropical rain forest. ______________________
6. If rain forest is destroyed over a land area, it quickly grows back.___________________
Fill in… (quickly, specially, formerly, poorly, incredibly. )
1. The complex rain forest ecosystems are ... understood.
2. When the land is cleared for farming, the soil ... loses its fertility.
3. Epiphytes catch rainwater in the hollows o f ... shaped leaves.
4. Tropical rain forest is ... rich with plant and animal life.
5. Only along roads, rivers and on ... cleared land does enough sunlight reach the ground.

Read the article to find out benefits to be gained from saving rainforests.
Tropical rain forests—those steamy jungles shown in movies, where it's always hot and it rains
every day - are in trouble, and people around the world are becoming concerned. The rock star
Sting has organized concerts to save the Brazilian rain forest, I dozens of environmental groups
have raised millions of dollars to save tropical rain forests and send experts to help. Yet there are
many people who say, "Why save rainforests? Aren't people more important than trees?"
 Located in a belt of 33 countries, mostly around the equator, more than half of the tropical
rain forests have disappeared in the past fifty years. Some are actually turning into deserts. With
these forests disappearing at a rate of 100 acres per minute every minute, nearly everyone in the
world has something to gain from saving them. For example, scientists have learned that over
1,300 rain forest plants in the Amazon have medicinal value. So far less than 10 percent of the
plant and animal species in the world's rain forests have been studied for their possible medical
benefits and -of those that have been studied - less than one percent has been tested for the
potential value in the treatment of cancer.
But the value of tropical rainforests goes beyond medicine. These forests have a critical impact
on global weather patterns. Their vegetation absorbs enormous quantities of solar energy, thus
affecting wind and rainfall patterns around the world. This vegetation contains huge amounts of
carbon dioxide. As the forests disappear, the carbon dioxide is released into the air and
contributes to "global warming" - what we know as the "greenhouse effect." Rainforests also
help to prevent sort erosion in areas that could be damaged by floods and wind, and they also
prevent pollution.
However, the benefits of rain forests are often overlooked, especially in developing countries
where poor farmers move into forest land because they have no alternatives. Many governments
encourage forest clearing to make room for mining, cattle, or export crops. The cutting down of
forests is viewed in terms of a short term gain that benefits relatively few people - those who
take over the land.
The loss of a tropical rain forest affects many more people - the forest people who lose their
homes, the farmers whose soil erodes, the people whose water supplies are polluted, and others.
Income from mining, export crops, timber, and cattle can be calculated in dollars, but the
benefits of the forest as a protector of the land cannot.
Exercises
1. Answer the following questions.
a) Where are most of the world's tropical rainforests located?
b) How many tropical rain forests have disappeared in the past fifty years?
c) Besides medicine what are some other benefits to be gained from saving rainforests?
d) Why are the benefits of rainforests often overlooked?
e) Who is affected by the loss of rainforests?

2. The list below presents some of the reasons people have given for saving rainforests.
Rank the reasons from 1 (most important) to 7 (least important):
- to preserve knowledge as native rain forest people die or are forced to move their knowledge of
rainforest plants and cycles is lost forever.
- to prevent local problems the destructions of rainforests causes serious local problems such as
soil erosion and water pollution.
- to respect nature people have no right to destroy the world's rainforest and other habitants for
their own purposes.
- to save bird species outside the tropics many bird species from other parts of the world migrate
to tropical rainforest and depend on these forests for survival.
- to preserve tropical plant and animal species. - to allow new medicines to be discovered.
- to prevent wood and food products from becoming scarce people all over the world depend on
rainforest products and foods, such as bamboo, bananas, nuts and coffee.