Talk:Rainforest
From Academic Kids
What's the difference between a rainforest and a jungle? (That's a serious question, not the beginning of a joke). -- Heron
From: http://www.ladatco.com
From "The Neotropical Companion" by John Kricher:
When a rainforest is disturbed, such as by hurricane, lightning strikes or human activity, the disturbed area is opened, permitting the penetration of large amounts of light.
Fast growing plan species intolerant of shade are temporarily favored and a tangle of thin-boled trees, shrubs and vines result.
Like a huge, dense pile carpet, a mass of greenery, or "jungle", soon covers the gap created by the disturbance.
Another explanation:
A tropical rainforest has more kinds of trees and other plant life than any other area of the world. Most trees in the tropical rainforest are broad leaf trees that grow closely together. The tallest trees may grow as tall as 200 feet. The tops, called crowns, form a covering of leaves about 100-150 feet above the ground. This cover is called the upper canopy. The crowns of the smaller trees form one or two lower canopies. These canopies share the forest floor so that it receives less than one percent as much sunlight as does the upper canopy. As a result, only ferns and other plants requiring little sunlight grown on the forest floor. This makes it possible for a person to easily walk through most parts of a tropical rainforest. However, areas of dense growth occur where much sunlight reaches the ground. These areas are called jungles and grow in swamps, near broad rivers or in former clearings.
-fonzy
Thanks. I put a very simplified version of your answer in the article. -- Heron
It would be nice if the tropical forest and the rainforest be separated. User:anthere
Jungle is a word of Hindi/Indian origin and is used to refer to all kinds of forest. Rainforest is used for tropical forests in high rainfall areas. Tropical forests can also be dry deciduous/moist deciduous/wet evergreen/scrub. Wet evergreen forests are also sometimes termed rainforest. The word rainforest has a certain romantic and adventurous connotations and is generally more attractive to people than 'wet evergreen'. Shyamal 08:33, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
A jungle has dense vegetation and is almost impentrable without a machette. Rain forests that are not jungles also have dense vegetation; however, comparatively little grows on the floor of the forest, sometimes on account of nutrient-poor soil. Instead, much of the life of these rainforests occurs in the canopies of the trees. The thickness of the canopies prevents much sunlight from reaching the forest floor, so the destruction of the rainforest can allow for sufficent sunshine for a jungle to develop, provided sufficient soil nutrients.
Also, my dictionaries suggest a minimum precipitation for a rainforest of 2500 mm, not 1000 mm. The 1000-mm limit would allow for the designation of most of the eastern United States as "rainforest," which clearly does not reflect the true definition of the word. On the other hand, areas with somewhat less precipitaiton are often considered as rainforests. I'd be willing to go for a compromise, say 1800 mm (about 70 inches).
The precipitation, however, must be well-distributed throughout the year, with at least 60 mm occurring in every month.
Will edit the page to reflect the proper precipitation criterion.
Size
It is estimated that the rainforest was reduced by about 58,000 km² annually in the 1990s. Rainforests used to cover 14% of the Earth's surface. This percentage is now down to 6% and it is estimated that the remaining rainforests could disappear within 40 years (mid-21st century) at the present rate of logging.
- Are those percentages out of the 159 million km² of land area? So reainforests used to cover 22 million km² (159*0.14) and now cover 9.5 million km² (159*0.06)? When did rainforests cover 22 million km²? What is the definition used for rainforest, and what is the source of the data?--213.238.212.98 17:29, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
"rain forests are responsible for containing the "basic ingredients of birth control hormones, stimulants, and tranquilizing drugs"....??? I am quite sure that rain forests have little to nothing to do with birth control hormones. --Deglr6328 03:51, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Diffrent types of forest in rainforest
There are many types of forest under the (tropical) rainforest like Mangrove, Dipterocarp, Heath and more. So we should list them and perhaps link them to article like Mangrove, dipetrocarp and others that can be found in rainforest. -- Gross 14:59, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
