TROPICAL RAINFOREST

Nick M., Holly B., Leah S.

WHERE IS ECOSYSTEM LOCATED?

Tropical Rainforests are located in South and Central America

Also in Africa 50 percent of rain forests are in Latin America 25 percent of Rainforests are in Asia Rainforests are also found in Southeast Asia

DESCRIBE THE ABIOTIC FACTORS OF YOUR ECOSYSTEM 12 hours of daylight 160 inches of rain each year Others may get up to 400 inches of rain The forest floor gets lots of shade

PRODUCER : BROMELIAD. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCER RELY ON OTHER ORGANISMS IN THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST TO SURVIVE?

Pools form around the bromeliad and frogs lay their eggs in them

Tadpoles give nutrients to the bromeliad from their droppings

Bromeliads are attached to trees to grow

HOW DO OTHER ORGANISMS OF YOUR ECOSYSTEM RELY ON YOUR PRODUCER TO SURVIVE? Pools form around the bromeliad and frogs

lay their eggs in them Frogs, snails, flatworms, tiny crabs, and

salamanders spend their whole lives in the bromeliad

Bacteria attracts tiny crustaceans which attract the bigger insects

HOW DO HUMANS AFFECT YOUR ECOSYSTEM? People work with government to educate

people to save rainforests Some governments block people from

visiting certain parts of the rainforests Logging and fires destroy rainforests

CHOOSE ONE BIOTIC OR ABIOTIC FACTOR IN YOUR ECOSYSTEM & DESCRIBE HOW A CHANGE IN ONE OF THESE COULD AFFECT YOUR ECOSYSTEM.

Change: People cut down trees so there is nothing to hold the soil•Other trees can’t grow •There are no homes for the bromeliads that live on the trees•There are no homes for worms, insects, crabs, snails, frogs, and small rodents

OTHER INTERESTING FACTS:

• The rainforest houses half of the world’s estimated 5 million species

• The rosy periwinkle, a flower now in danger of vanishing from the rain forest, is an ingredient in the most effective drug for treating leukemia in children

• Strangler fig tree blocks sunlight from the highest tree until the original tree dies, thereby “strangling” it

SOURCES USED

Clarke, Penny. Scary Creatures of the Rain Forest. New York: The Salariya Book Company Ltd, 1993. Print.

Levy, Janey. Discovering Rain Forests. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2008. Print.

Lundgren, Julie K. Forest Fare: Studying Food Webs in the Forest. Vero Beach, CA: Rourke, 2009. Print.

Pulley-Sayer, April. Tropical Rain Forest. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2003. Print.

Taylor-Butler, Christine. A Home in the Rain Forest. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007. Print.