Super Eco

Photo credit: Ananda, Wikimedia

Rainforests are forests of tall trees in a region of year-round consistent temperatures where an average of 50 to 260 inches of rain falls yearly.

Tropical rainforests enjoy a temperature range of about 68°F to 93°F; average humidity is between 77 and 88%. The monsoon trough, also known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a big part in creating the Earth's tropical rainforests.  Rainforests supply 28% to 40% and of the world's oxygen, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide.

40 to 75% of all species are indigenous to rainforests. It has been estimated that many millions of species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Scientists estimate that nearly half of the world's animals and plants species live in tropical rainforests and have counted about 100 to 300 species in one 1/2 acre in South America. 70% of the plants in rainforests are trees. A tropical rainforest has more kinds of trees than any other area in the world; 70% of the plants in rainforests are trees.

Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy", because of the large number of natural medicinal plants discovered there. In fact, about 1/4 of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. Curare comes from a tropical vine, and is used as an anesthetic and to relax muscles during surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria. A person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99% chance that the disease will go into remission because of the rosy periwinkle. More than 1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for cancer.

Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions, primarily found in North America, the British Columbia Coast, in Europe, China, Taiwan, much of Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Temperatures range between 39 and 54 degrees farenheit. The forest in a temperate rainforest is composed mainly of tree species, which canopy excludes about 70% of the sky. However their seedlings are able to regenerate under shade and in natural openings.

No rainforest today can be considered undisturbed. Natural rainforests emit and absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. Globally, long-term fluxes are balanced such that undisturbed forests would have a small impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. however, human induced deforestation plays a large role in causing rainforests to release carbon dioxide, as do natural processes such as drought which result in tree death. Tropical and temperate rainforests have been subjected to heavy logging and agricultural clearance such that the area covered by rainforests around the world is shrinking. Biologists estimate that that large numbers of species are being driven to extinction. In fact, up to one quarter or more of all species on Earth could be exterminated within 50 years) due to the removal of habitat with destruction of the rainforests.

Another factor causing the loss of rainforest is expanding urban areas. The forests are being destroyed at a rapid pace. At present rates, tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in 10 years and Papua New Guinea in 13 to 16 years. Several countries, such as have declared their deforestation a national emergency. Amazon deforestation jumped by 69% in 2008 compared to 2007's twelve months, according to official government data. Deforestation could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60% of the Amazon Rainforest by 2030 according to a report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). However, a January 30, 2009 New York Times article stated, "By one estimate, for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics. The new forest includes secondary forest on former farmland and so-called degraded forest."