5R+Jeremiah

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 * [[image:http://images.wildmadagascar.org/pictures/maroantsetra/1101-00640.jpg width="405" height="305" link="http://images.wildmadagascar.org/pictures/maroantsetra/1101-00640.jpg"]] ||
 * //Male Panther Chameleon in Madagascar// ||

= WHY DO RAINFORESTS HAVE SO MANY KINDS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS? =

Tropical rainforests support the greatest diversity of living organisms on Earth. Although they cover less than 2 percent of Earth’s surface, rainforests house more than 50 percent of the plants and animals on Earth.

Here are some examples of the richness of rainforests:
 * Rainforests have 170,000 of the world’s 250,000 known plant species.

It is important to note that many species in the rainforest, especially insects and fungi, have not even been discovered yet by scientists. Every year new species of mammals, birds, frogs, and reptiles are found in rainforests.
 * Climate: because rainforests are located in tropical regions, they receive a lot of sunlight. The sunlight is converted to energy by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Since there is a lot of sunlight, there is a lot of energy in the rainforest. This energy is stored in plant vegetation, which is eaten by animals. The abundance of energy supports an abundance of plant and animal species.
 * Canopy: the canopy structure of the rainforest provides an abundance of places for plants to grow and animals to live. The canopy offers sources of food, shelter, and hiding places, providing for interaction between different species. For example, there are plants in the canopy called bromeliads that store water in their leaves. Frogs and other animals use these pockets of water for hunting and laying their eggs.

= RAINFORESTS IN AUSTRALIA =

Most of the rainforest found in the "Australian" region lies on the world's second largest island, New Guinea.

Australia, the world's smallest continent, has small sections of forest on the Cape York peninsula in the extreme Northeastern part of the country. Australia once had more rainforest cover but thousands of years of fires for agriculture has left much of the continent too dry to support wet tropical forest.

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**1. Why do rainforests matter?**
They are important because they offer homes to trees, other plants, animals, and local people – but they also play a big role in keeping the Earth’s climate and our weather as we know it.

**2. Where are they?**
Over 80 countries in the tropics (where the sun is hottest) have rainforests.

**3. What is a rainforest?**
Plants and animals make up the rainforest. They are home to half the world’s known plants and animals. There are 5 layers. 1. The emergent layer at treetop height. 2. The canopy layer where the leaves form a ‘ceiling’. 3. The understorey layer that is dark and humid. 4. The shrub layer. 5. The forest floor.

**4. What foods come from the rainforest?**
Rainforests give us crops and medicines, like rice and

**5. How do they create the Earth’s climate?**
Rainforests stop flooding and provide rain. The trees soak up tropical rainfall and then slowly release the water into the air to form rainclouds. These clouds are then carried by the winds to other countries where they ‘feed’ the crops. The trees also remove carbon dioxide, a global warming gas. They store the carbon in their trunks and release the oxygen that we breathe. 1. Why are trees being chopped down? In the past trees were cut down to clear land to grow food locally and graze animals. This is subsistence farming. 2. How much of the rainforest is being lost? Every year about 13 million hectares of rainforest are lost – the same as 8.5 million footballpitches a year, or an amazing 23,483 pitches a day .  3. What is replacing the trees? Cattle farming, plantations, paper mills, mining, roads and towns are replacing the trees. The extent of deforestation in Borneo. Images courtesy of UNEP/GRIDArendal 4. What does it mean? Cutting down rainforests means we lose the trees, plants and animals and it affects our climate and the way we live. The rainforests support our way of life and their loss will affect us all.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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