In the next couple of sections, we'll look at some of the plants and animals of the rainforests to see how they live and interact in this sumptuous, yet highly competitive, world. This makes for a fascinating biological community in which plant life is striving to reach 100 ft (30.5 m) into the air, and most food for animals comes from above. As little as 1 percent of the light shining onto the forest reaches the lowest levels. The lowest levels of the rainforest are extremely dark, making it difficult for robust plants to thrive. The reason for this decrease in greenery is very simple: The overabundance of plants gathering sunlight at the top of the forest blocks most sunlight from reaching the bottom of the forest. The forest floor is made up of moss, fungi, and decaying plant matter that has fallen from the upper layers.

Some large trees, called emergents, grow so tall (up to 250 ft / 76 m) that they even tower over the canopy layer.Īs you go lower, down into the rainforest, you find less and less greenery. This creates a thick canopy level at the top of the forest, with thinner greenery levels underneath. Their top branches spread wide in order to capture maximum sunlight. These giants, which reach 60 to 150 ft (18 to 46 m) in the air, form the basic structure of the rainforest. Trees have the resources to grow to tremendous heights, and they live for hundreds, even thousands, of years. The consistently wet, warm weather and ample sunlight give plant life everything it needs to thrive. Consequently, the weather in these regions remains fairly constant. They receive nearly the same amount of sunlight, and therefore heat, all year. Since rainforests are at the middle of the globe, located near the equator, they are not especially affected by this change. Because of the orientation of the Earth's axis, the Northern and Southern hemispheres each spend part of the year tilted away from the sun. This steady climate is due to the position of rainforests on the globe.

Rain forest