essay of tropical forest

Tropical Rain Forest Argumentative Essay

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Introduction

The tropical rain forest, the endangered species, factors threatening the tropical ecosystem, their impacts and possible solutions, works cited.

Ecology is a branch of biology that deals with the study of living things and how they relate among themselves and to the environment. An ecosystem is a natural unit that consists of biotic and abiotic factors. Biotic factors refer to biological aspects of the environment while abiotic factors refer to the physical environmental factors. This paper seeks to discuss the tropical rain forest.

The content of the paper will include: biodiversity, food chain and endangered species in the tropical rain forest and the various levels of the food chain. The content will also include the threats facing the tropical rain forest, the impacts of the threats to the ecosystem and the possible solutions to the threats and the impacts of these solutions.

The tropical rain forest is among the types of ecosystems exhibited in ecology. Other types of ecosystems include: “aquatic, arid, deciduous forests, grasslands and tundra ecosystems” (COTF 1).

The tropical rain forest is a hot and moist ecosystem that is found along the equator. This ecosystem is found in parts of Africa, South America and parts of Asia. Rainfall in this ecosystem is continuous throughout the year and ranges from 60 to 160 inches of rain gauge measurements.

The environment which consists of hot and moist conditions is supportive to a large number of plants and animals. The conditions form an optimum environment for bacteria inhabitation. The soil of the ecosystem is however not very fertile because nutrients are drained away by the rain water (COTF 1).

According to Waring and Running, tropical rainforest is inhabited by a variety of plants and animals. It has been estimated that the ecosystem is inhabited by a record of more than four hundred and seventy species of plants per hectare around the equator. There is also a variety of invertebrate species as well as micro organisms.

Also present in the tropical rainforest are the herbivores which are mainly known to feed on plant leaves and grass (Waring and Running 184). The ecosystem is also inhabited by a number of insects and birds, some of which can fly while others just climb trees. Other birds like the parrots can climb as well as fly (Darwin 1).

Food chain is a map representation showing what given species of an ecosystem feed on. It is a representation of energy flow among the biotic factors in the system.

Every element in the ecosystem is therefore significant as the energy flow passes through it. This implies that given species of plants and animals derive food from other species. The energy flow could mean death of members of a given species or just a mere consumption of a part of a member of the given species. The energy flow however aids the survival of some species in the ecosystem.

At the top of the food chain are the primary producers. This level consists of green plants which utilizes sunlight to synthesize their food. Bellow the green plants are the class of primary consumers which consists of herbivores. The herbivores feed on the plants’ leaves. After the primary consumers there is the level known as secondary consumers. This level consists of carnivores which feed on the herbivores.

The secondary consumers are food providers to the tertiary consumers. The last level of the food chain is the class of decomposers which degenerate decaying matter to the form that can be absorbed by plants as nutrients. This completes the chain cycle which then begin again with the plants (Aloian and Kalman 8)

A species is said to be endangered if its existence is threatened by either human actions or by a natural cause. The study of food chain reveals that members of the ecosystem feed on one another in a given direction. This has the effect of relatively reducing the number of the species. Feldhamer claimed that almost 45 percent of the global tropical rain forest has been destroyed over time. This includes alarming destructions of up to 85% in Ivory Coast.

Forest destruction occurs due to a number of reasons. The major reason for the deforestation in tropical rainforests in Africa and parts of America is the expansion of agricultural land. The process often include clearing and burning of the vegetation which as a result kills the soil microorganisms whose role of decomposing matter provides nutrients for plants. There are however many other species which are endangered as their habitat is either destroyed or disturbed.

The extent to which the species are endangered will vary from one rainforest to another as well as from one point to another within a rainforest depending on the factors that affects the lives of the different species in the tropical ecosystems. The forest itself, being a sole primary producer for the ecosystem and its susceptibility to destruction by human, makes it a critically endangered.

Human activities together with the global climate change have resulted in drastic reduction of the forest cover and even extinction of some plants species (Feldhamer, 531; Endangered 1). It has been argued that only 14% out of the original tropical forest is currently in existence. It can therefore be concluded that the forest is in itself the most endangered as it is faced with both natural and adverse human destruction (Species 1).

Threats facing the tropical rain forests include the clearance of the forests by humans to create agricultural land and to use trees as industrial raw materials. Another threat is the change in climate. Deforestation has a great impact on the ecosystem as it destroys part of the organisms in the system thus causing chain gaps in the food webs (Marietta n.d.).

Lindsey explained that deforestation can be a source of conflict between the people living in or depending on the forest and the ones causing deforestation. In attempting to solve such conflicts government agencies have established policies to create a balance among all the dependants of the forests. Environmental impacts of deforestation are the effects on biodiversity and climate change.

Again policies are put in place to preserve the habitats and the environment in general. An example is reduced agricultural productivity due to low rainfall and degraded soil. A possible solution would be to restore the forests (Lindsey, 2007).

The tropical rainforest is the richest ecosystem in terms of number of species. There is interdependence among the species with some feeding on others. This together with human activities has endangered some species.

The greatest threat is seen to be on plants. Plants being the primary producers in the ecosystem are likely to bring down the whole ecosystem if they are tampered with. More action is still needed to preserve the tropical rainforest and other ecosystems.

Aloian, Molly and Kalman, Ben. Rainforest Food Chains . New York, NY: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2006. Print.

COTF . Tropical rainforest . 2004. Web.

Darwin. Tropical rain forest . Darwin Museum, 1999. Web.

Endangered Species . Forest,Tropical forests . Endaangered Species, n.d. Web.

Feldhamer, Armen. Mammalogy: adaptation, diversity, ecology. New York, NY: JHU Press, 2007. Print.

Lindsey, Ryan. Tropical deforestation. Earth Observatory, 2007. Web.

Marietta. The Tropical Rain Forest . n.d. Web.

Waring, Richard and Running, Sirm. Forest ecosystems: analysis at multiple scales. London, UK :Elsevier, 2007. Print.

• Destruction of the Brazilian Tropical Rain Forest
• Impacts of Human Activities on the Costa Rican Rainforest Ecosystem
• Amazonian Deforestation, Its Causes and Trends
• The Concept of Green Technology in Modern World
• Tropical Rain Forest: What Threats This Ecosystem?
• Deep Ecology as Discourse on Identity
• Can Pollution Rights Trading Effectively Control Environmental Problems?
• Management Recycling of the Waste
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Bibliography

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A rainforest is an area of tall trees and a high amount of rainfall.

Biology, Ecology, Geography

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A rainforest is an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall .

Rainforests are Earth’s oldest living ecosystems , with some surviving in their present form for at least 70 million years. They are incredibly diverse and complex , home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species—even though they cover just six percent of Earth’s surface. This makes rainforests astoundingly dense with flora and fauna ; a 10-square-kilometer (four-square-mile) patch can contain as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.

Rainforests thrive on every continent except Antarctica. The largest rainforests on Earth surround the Amazon River in South America and the Congo River in Africa. The tropical islands of Southeast Asia and parts of Australia support dense rainforest habitats . Even the cool evergreen forests of North America’s Pacific Northwest and Northern Europe are a type of rainforest.

Rainforests’ rich biodiversity is incredibly important to our well-being and the well-being of our planet. Rainforests help regulate our climate and provide us with everyday products.

Unsustainable industrial and agricultural development , however, has severely degraded the health of the world’s rainforests. Citizens , governments , intergovernmental organizations, and conservation groups are working together to protect these invaluable but fragile ecosystems.

Rainforest Structure 

Most rainforests are structured in four layers: emergent, canopy , understory , and forest floor . Each layer has unique characteristics based on differing levels of water, sunlight, and air circulation . While each layer is distinct , they exist in an interdependent system: processes and species in one layer influence those in another.

Emergent Layer  

The top layer of the rainforest is the emergent layer. Here, trees as tall as 60 meters (200 feet) dominate the skyline. Foliage is often sparse on tree trunks, but spreads wide as the trees reach the sunny upper layer, where they photosynthesize the sun’s rays. Small, waxy leaves help trees in the emergent layer retain water during long droughts or dry seasons . Lightweight seeds are carried away from the parent plant by strong winds .

In the Amazon rainforest, the towering trees of the emergent layer include the Brazil nut tree ( Bertholletia excelsa ) and the kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra ). The Brazil nut tree, a vulnerable species , can live up to 1,000 years in undisturbed rainforest habitats. Unlike many rainforest species, both the Brazil nut tree and the kapok tree are deciduous —they shed their leaves during the dry season.

Animals often maneuver through the emergent layer’s unstable topmost branches by flying or gliding. Animals that can’t fly or glide are usually quite small—they need to be light enough to be supported by a tree’s slender uppermost layers.

The animals living in the emergent layer of the Amazon rainforest include birds, bats, gliders, and butterflies. Large raptors , such as white-tailed hawks ( Geranoaetus albicaudatus ) and harpy eagles ( Harpia harpyja ), are its top predators .

In rainforests on the island of New Guinea, pygmy gliders populate the emergent layer. Pygmy gliders ( Acrobates pygmaeus ) are small rodents that get their name from the way flaps of skin between their legs allow them to glide from branch to branch.

Bats are the most diverse mammal species in most tropical rainforests, and they regularly fly throughout the emergent, canopy, and understory layers. For instance, one of the world’s largest species of bat, the Madagascan flying fox ( Pteropus rufus )—found on the African island of Madagascar—is an important pollinator that mainly feeds on juice from fruit, but will chew flowers for their nectar .

Canopy Layer 

Beneath the emergent layer is the canopy, a deep layer of vegetation roughly six meters (20 feet) thick. The canopy’s dense network of leaves and branches forms a roof over the two remaining layers.

The canopy blocks winds, rainfall, and sunlight, creating a humid , still, and dark environment below. Trees have adapted to this damp environment by producing glossy leaves with pointed tips that repel water.

While trees in the emergent layer rely on wind to scatter their seeds, many canopy plants, lacking wind, encase their seeds in fruit. Sweet fruit entices animals, which eat the fruit and deposit seeds on the forest floor as droppings . Fig trees, common throughout most of the world’s tropical rainforests, may be the most familiar fruit tree in the canopy.

With so much food available, more animals live in the canopy than any other layer in the rainforest. The dense vegetation dulls sound, so many—but not all—canopy dwellers are notable for their shrill or frequent vocalizing. In the Amazon rainforest, canopy fruit is snatched up in the large beaks of screeching scarlet macaws ( Ara macao ) and keel-billed toucans ( Ramphastos sulfuratus ), and picked by barking spider monkeys and howler monkeys. The silent two-toed sloth chews on the leaves, shoots, and fruit in the canopy.

Thousands and thousands of insect species can also be found in the canopy, from bees to beetles, borers to butterflies. Many of these insects are the principal diet of the canopy’s reptiles, including the "flying" draco lizards of Southeast Asia.

Understory Layer

Located several meters below the canopy, the understory is an even darker, stiller, and more humid environment. Plants here, such as palms and philodendrons , are much shorter and have larger leaves than plants that dominate the canopy. Understory plants’ large leaves catch the minimal sunlight reaching beyond the dense canopy.

Understory plants often produce flowers that are large and easy to see, such as Heliconia , native to the Americas and the South Pacific. Others have a strong smell, such as orchids. These features attract pollinators even in the understory’s low-light conditions.

The fruit and seeds of many understory shrubs in temperate rainforests are edible . The temperate rainforests of North America, for example, bloom with berries.

Animals call the understory home for a variety of reasons. Many take advantage of the dimly lit environment for camouflage . The spots on a jaguar ( Panthera onca ), which are found in the rainforests of Central and South America, may be mistaken for leaves or flecks of sunlight, for instance. The green mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in the world, blends in with foliage as it slithers up branches in the Congo rainforest. Many bats, birds, and insects prefer the open airspace the understory offers. Amphibians, such as dazzlingly colored tree frogs, thrive in the humidity because it keeps their skin moist.

Central Africa’s tropical rainforest canopies and understories are home to some of the most endangered and familiar rainforest animals—such as forest elephants, pythons, antelopes, and gorillas. Gorillas, a critically endangered genus of primate , are crucial for seed dispersal . Gorillas are herbivores that move throughout the dark, dense rainforest as well as more sun-dappled swamps and jungles . Their droppings disperse seeds in these sunny areas where new trees and shrubs can take root. In this way, gorillas are keystone species in many African rainforest ecosystems.

Forest Floor Layer 

The forest floor is the darkest of all rainforest layers, making it extremely difficult for plants to grow. Leaves that fall to the forest floor decay quickly.

Decomposers , such as termites, slugs, scorpions, worms, and fungi , thrive on the forest floor. Organic matter falls from trees and plants, and these organisms break down the decaying material into nutrients . The shallow roots of rainforest trees absorb these nutrients, and dozens of predators consume the decomposers!

Animals such as wild pigs ( Sus scrofa ), armadillos, and anteaters forage in the decomposing brush for these tasty insects, roots and tubers of the South American rainforest. Even larger predators, including leopards ( Panthera pardus ), skulk in the darkness to surprise their prey . Smaller rodents, such as rats and lowland pacas (a type of striped rodent indigenous to Central and South America), hide from predators beneath the shallow roots of trees that dominate the canopy and emergent layer.

Rivers that run through some tropical rainforests create unusual freshwater habitats on the forest floor. The Amazon River, for instance, is home to the boto ( Inia geoffrensis ), or pink river dolphin, one of the few freshwater dolphin species in the world. The Amazon is also home to black caimans ( Melanosuchus niger ), large reptiles related to alligators, while the Congo River is home to the caimans’ crocodilian cousin, the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).

Types of Rainforests  

Tropical Rainforests

Tropical rainforests are mainly located between the latitudes of 23.5°N (the Tropic of Cancer) and 23.5°S (the Tropic of Capricorn)—the tropics . Tropical rainforests are found in Central and South America, western and central Africa, western India, Southeast Asia, the island of New Guinea, and Australia.

Sunlight strikes the tropics almost straight on, producing intense solar energy that keeps temperatures high, between 21° and 30°C (70° and 85°F). High temperatures keep the air warm and wet, with an average humidity of between 77 percent and 88 percent. Such humid air produces extreme and frequent rainfall, ranging between 200-1000 centimeters (80-400 inches) per year. Tropical rainforests are so warm and moist that they produce as much as 75 percent of their own rain through evaporation and transpiration .

Such ample sunlight and moisture are the essential building blocks for tropical rainforests’ diverse flora and fauna. Roughly half of the world’s species can be found here, with an estimated 40 to 100 or more different species of trees present in each hectare.

Tropical rainforests are the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems in the world. The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. It is home to around 40,000 plant species, nearly 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 427 species of mammals, and 2.5 million different insects. Red-bellied piranhas ( Pygocentrus nattereri ) and pink river dolphins swim its waters. Jewel-toned parrots squawk and fly through its trees. Poison dart frogs warn off predators with their bright colors. Capuchin and spider monkeys swing and scamper through the branches of the rainforest’s estimated 400 billion trees. Millions of mushrooms and other fungi decompose dead and dying plant material, recycling nutrients to the soil and organisms in the understory. The Amazon rainforest is truly an ecological kaleidoscope , full of colorful sights and sounds.

Temperate Rainforests 

Temperate rainforests are located in the mid-latitudes, where temperatures are much more mild than the tropics. Temperate rainforests are found mostly in coastal , mountainous areas. These geographic conditions help create areas of high rainfall. Temperate rainforests can be found on the coasts of the Pacific Northwest in North America, Chile, the United Kingdom, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, and southern Australia.

As their name implies, temperate rainforests are much cooler than their tropical cousins, averaging between 10° and 21°C (50° and 70°F). They are also much less sunny and rainy, receiving anywhere between 150-500 centimeters (60-200 inches) of rain per year. Rainfall in these forests is produced by warm, moist air coming in from the coast and being trapped by nearby mountains. 

Temperate rainforests are not as biologically diverse as tropical rainforests. They are, however, home to an incredible amount of biological productivity, storing up to 500-2000 metric tons of leaves, wood, and other organic matter per hectare (202-809 metric tons per acre). Cooler temperatures and a more stable climate slow down decomposition, allowing more material to accumulate . The old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, for example, produce three times the biomass (living or once-living material) of tropical rainforests.

This productivity allows many plant species to grow for incredibly long periods of time. Temperate rainforest trees such as the coast redwood in the U.S. state of California and the alerce in Chile are among the oldest and largest tree species in the world. 

The animals of the temperate rainforest are mostly made up of large mammals and small birds, insects, and reptiles. These species vary widely between rainforests in different world regions. Bobcats ( Lynx rufus ), mountain lions ( Puma concolor ), and black bears ( Ursus americanus ) are major predators in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. In Australia, ground dwellers such as wallabies, bandicoots, and potoroos (small marsupials that are among Australia’s most endangered animals) feast on the foods provided by the forest floor. Chile’s rainforests are home to a number of unique birds such as the Magellanic woodpecker and the Juan Fernández firecrown, a hummingbird species that has a crown of color-changing feathers.

People and the Rainforest

Rainforests have been home to thriving, complex communities for thousands of years. For instance, unique rainforest ecosystems have influenced the diet of cultures from Africa to the Pacific Northwest.

The Mbuti, a community indigenous to the Ituri rainforest in Central Africa, have traditionally been hunter-gatherers . Their diet consists of plants and animals from every layer of the rainforest.

From the forest floor, the Mbuti hunt fish and crabs from the Ituri River (a tributary of the Congo), as well as gather berries from low-lying shrubs. The giant forest hog, a species of wild boar, is also frequently targeted by Mbuti hunters, although this species is hunted for sale more often than food. From the understory, the Mbuti may gather honey from bee hives, or hunt monkeys. From the canopy and emergent layers, Mbuti hunters may set nets or traps for birds.

Although they are a historically nomadic society, agriculture has become a way of life for many Mbuti communities today as they trade and barter with neighboring agricultural groups such as the Bantu for crops such as manioc, nuts, rice, and plantains.

The Chimbu people live in the highland rainforest on the island of New Guinea. The Chimbu practice subsistence agriculture through shifting cultivation . This means they have gardens on arable land that has been cleared of vegetation. A portion of the plot may be left fallow for months or years. The plots are never abandoned and are passed on within the family.

Crops harvested in Chimbu garden plots include sweet potatoes, bananas, and beans. The Chimbu also maintain livestock , particularly pigs. In addition to their own diet, pigs are valuable economic commodities for trade and sale.

The temperate rainforest of the northwest coast of North America is the home of the Tlingit. The Tlingit enjoy a diverse diet, relying on both marine and freshwater species, as well as game from inland forests.

Due to bountiful Pacific inlets , rivers, and streams, the traditional Tlingit diet consists of a wide variety of aquatic life: crab, shrimp, clams, oysters, seals , and fish such as herring, halibut, and, crucially, salmon. Kelps and other seaweeds can be harvested and eaten in soups or dried. One familiar Tlingit saying is “When the tide is out, our table is set.”

In more inland areas, historic Tlingit hunters may have targeted deer, elk, rabbit, and mountain goats. Plants gathered or harvested include berries, nuts, and wild celery. 

The Yanomami are a people and culture native to the northern Amazon rainforest, spanning the border between Venezuela and Brazil. Like the Chimbu, the Yanomami practice both hunting and shifting-cultivation agriculture.

Game hunted by the Yanomami include deer, tapirs (an animal similar to a pig), monkeys, birds, and armadillos. The Yanomami have hunting dogs to help them search the understory and forest floor for game. 

The Yanomami practice slash-and-burn agriculture to clear the land of vegetation prior to farming. Crops grown include cassava, banana, and corn. In addition to food crops , the Yanomami also cultivate cotton, which is used for hammocks, nets, and clothing.

Benefits of Rainforests 

Ecological Well-Being

Rainforests are critically important to the well-being of our planet. Tropical rainforests encompass approximately 1.2 billion hectares (3 billion acres) of vegetation and are sometimes described as the Earth’s thermostat .

Rainforests produce about 20% of our oxygen and store a huge amount of carbon dioxide, drastically reducing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. Massive amounts of solar radiation are absorbed, helping regulate temperatures around the globe. Taken together, these processes help to stabilize Earth’s climate.

Rainforests also help maintain the world’s water cycle . More than 50% of precipitation striking a rainforest is returned to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration , helping regulate healthy rainfall around the planet. Rainforests also store a considerable percentage of the world’s freshwater, with the Amazon Basin alone storing one-fifth.

Human Well-Being

Rainforests provide us with many products that we use every day. Tropical woods such as teak, balsa, rosewood, and mahogany are used in flooring, doors, windows, boatbuilding, and cabinetry. Fibers such as raffia, bamboo, kapok, and rattan are used to make furniture, baskets, insulation , and cord. Cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and ginger are just a few spices of the rainforest. The ecosystem supports fruits including bananas, papayas, mangos, cocoa and coffee beans.

Rainforests also provide us with many medicinal products. According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, 70% of plants useful in the treatment of cancer are found only in rainforests. Rainforest plants are also used in the creation of muscle relaxants, steroids , and insecticides . They are used to treat asthma , arthritis , malaria , heart disease, and pneumonia . The importance of rainforest species in public health is even more incredible considering that less than one percent of rainforest species have been analyzed for their medicinal value.

Even rainforest fungi can contribute to humanity’s well-being. A mushroom discovered in the tropical rainforest of Ecuador, for example, is capable of consuming polyurethane —a hard, durable type of plastic used in everything from garden hoses to carpets to shoes. The fungi can even consume the plastic in an oxygen-free environment, leading many environmentalists and businesses to invest in research to investigate if the fungi can help reduce waste in urban landfills .

Threats to Rainforests

Rainforests are disappearing at an alarmingly fast pace, largely due to human development over the past few centuries. Once covering 14% of land on Earth, rainforests now make up only 6%. Since 1947, the total area of tropical rainforests has probably been reduced by more than half, to about 6.2 to 7.8 million square kilometers (3 million square miles).

Many biologists expect rainforests will lose 5-10% of their species each decade . Rampant deforestation could cause many important rainforest habitats to disappear completely within the next hundred years.

Such rapid habitat loss is due to the fact that 40 hectares (100 acres) of rainforest are cleared every minute for agricultural and industrial development. In the Pacific Northwest’s rainforests, logging companies cut down trees for timber while paper industries use the wood for pulp . In the Amazon rainforest, large-scale agricultural industries, such as cattle ranching , clear huge tracts of forests for arable land. In the Congo rainforest, roads and other infrastructure development have reduced habitat and cut off migration corridors for many rainforest species. Throughout both the Amazon and Congo, mining and logging operations clear-cut to build roads and dig mines. Some rainforests are threatened by massive hydroelectric power projects, where dams flood acres of land. Development is encroaching on rainforest habitats from all sides.

Economic inequalities fuel this rapid deforestation. Many rainforests are located in developing countries with economies based on natural resources . Wealthy nations drive demand for products, and economic development increases energy use. These demands encourage local governments to develop rainforest acreage at a fraction of its value. Impoverished people who live on or near these lands are also motivated to improve their lives by converting forests into subsistence farmland .

Rainforest Conservation

Many individuals, communities, governments, intergovernmental organizations, and conservation groups are taking innovative approaches to protect threatened rainforest habitats.

Many countries are supporting businesses and initiatives that promote the sustainable use of their rainforests. Costa Rica is a global pioneer in this field, investing in ecotourism projects that financially contribute to local economies and the forests they depend on. The country also signed an agreement with an American pharmaceutical company, Merck, which sets aside a portion of the proceeds from rainforest-derived pharmaceutical compounds to fund conservation projects.

Intergovernmental groups address rainforest conservation at a global scale. The United Nations’ REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) Program, for example, offers financial incentives for reducing carbon emissions created by deforestation to 58 member countries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo used REDD funds to create an online National Forest Monitoring System that tracks and maps data on logging concessions , deforestation in protected areas, and national forestry sector measures. REDD funds were also used to investigate best practices in solving land disputes in Cambodia, which lacks proper forest zoning and boundary enforcement .

Nonprofit organizations are tackling rainforest conservation through a variety of different approaches. The Rainforest Trust, for example, supports local conservation groups around the world in purchasing and managing critically important habitats. In Ecuador, the Rainforest Trust worked with the Fundación Jocotoco to acquire 495 more hectares (1,222 more acres) for the Río Canandé Reserve, considered to have one of the highest concentrations of endemic and threatened species in the world. Partnering with Burung Indonesia, the Trust created a 8,900-hectare (22,000-acre) reserve on Sangihe Island to protect the highest concentration of threatened bird species in Asia.

The Rainforest Alliance is a nonprofit organization that helps businesses and consumers know that their products conserve rather than degrade rainforests. Products that bear the Rainforest Alliance seal contain ingredients from farms or forests that follow strict guidelines designed to support the sustainable development of rainforests and local communities. The Alliance also allows tourism businesses use of their seal after they complete an education program on efficiency and sustainability. In turn, this seal allows tourists to make ecologically smart vacation plans.

Drip Tips Many plants in the humid rainforest canopy are pointed, so that rain can run off the tips of the leaves. These “drip tips” keep the leaves dry and free of mold.

Jungles and Rainforests Jungles and rainforests are very, very similar. The main difference is that rainforests have thick canopies and taller trees. Jungles have more light and denser vegetation in the understory.

Slow Rain Rainforests are so densely packed with vegetation that a drop of rain falling from the forest’s emergent layer can take 10 minutes to reach the forest floor.

Species-Rich, Soil-Poor The soil of most tropical rainforests contains few nutrients. The rich biodiversity in the canopy and quick decomposition from fungi and bacteria prevent the accumulation of nutrient-rich humus. Nutrients are confined to the rainforest’s thin layer of topsoil. For this reason, most of the towering trees in tropical rainforests have very shallow, widespread root systems called “buttress roots.”

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Out of the forest

We have thought of humans for a century or more as creatures of the savannah, shaped in every way by grassland life. not so.

by Patrick Roberts   + BIO

In a sweltering tropical rainforest on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I started to appreciate why archaeologists and anthropologists had long ignored ‘jungles’ in their search for humanity’s origins. The mosquitoes, leeches, harsh terrain and difficult footing were bad enough, but now a summer monsoon downpour was rapidly approaching. As we slogged on under a canopy of green, the forest grew quiet. The usual chattering life had been smart enough to seek shelter, leaving us alone to face the monsoon rains.

It was the summer of 2014, and I was trudging through a tropical rainforest in Sri Lanka with my close friend and colleague, the archaeologist Oshan Wedage. We’d come here to do archaeological fieldwork, to look for traces of past human activity, and to challenge prevailing narratives about our species’ evolution. We’d come for answers to a controversial question: what if our distant ancestors had chosen to live in humid, insect-ridden forests like this one?

This is a controversial question because, since Charles Darwin, many scholars have avoided tropical forests and focused instead on dry ‘savannahs’ as the key to early hominin evolution in Africa. There are many reasons for this, including the groundbreaking fossil discovery of ‘Lucy’ in Ethiopia, the multi-year campaigns of the British-Kenyan archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey in eastern Africa, and the analysis of the earliest stone tools, which were found in Kenya and later determined to be 3.3 million years old. The contexts of these remarkable finds all seemed to suggest that it was out in the open – not in dense rainforests – that our hominin ancestors apparently first became increasingly upright, freed up their hands for experimentation with tools, and hunted large game to fuel their growing brains. This focus on open spaces, with an additional consideration of coastal habitats, has not only dominated the study of our hominin ancestors but also the study of our own species. It has dictated how we understand our unique behavioural traits, and our incredible feats of dispersal after Homo sapiens emerged in the Middle Pleistocene, roughly between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago.

Throughout this vast span of human history, tropical forests remained the challenging habitats we ‘left behind’. But during the past few years, several truly remarkable sites and findings have catapulted tropical forests to the centre of key debates in human evolution. In fact, it was one of those sites, a cave called Batadomba-lena – a Sinhalese name that literally means ‘the cave surrounded by bamboo and domba trees’ – that slowly emerged in the sodden distance as a source of shelter from monsoon rains back in 2014. What was found in that cave, and many other recently explored archaeological sites around the world, confounds accepted narratives about Homo sapiens and its ancestors. It forces us to ask new questions of our origins. Does the hominin story in fact begin in tropical forests? And, if so, does this change how we understand ourselves as a species?

F or the past two centuries, the most widely accepted account of our origins is a story that begins in the open savannahs of Africa. The ‘savannah hypothesis’, as applied in palaeoanthropology and archaeology, refers to the idea that early processes of human evolution were characterised by hominins in Africa leaving forests and woodlands, and heading for more open grasslands. The most common formulation of this argument posits that climate change during the Middle and Late Miocene, which intensified around 8 million years ago, led to a retreat of tropical forests and the expansion of these grasslands, which forced our ancestors to step onto the ‘savannah’ and make a living in a new, open world. Such ideas were expressed as early as 1809 in the writings of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and later in Darwin’s The Descent of Man (1871). But it is Raymond Dart who is often credited with thrusting ‘savannahs’ to the top of the palaeoanthropological research agenda. In 1925, he wrote about his famous ‘Taung child’ discovery in South Africa – a fossilised skull from the hominin species Australopithecus africanus , which we now know lived from 3.7 to around 3 to 2 million years ago – and argued that adaptations to harsh, arid grassland settings were central to hominin evolution.

As more remarkable fossil findings emerged from volcanic landscapes in eastern Africa during the 20th century, these early variations of the ‘savannah hypothesis’ continued to influence anthropological and archaeological discourse. The most well known of these is probably ‘Lucy’, named after the Beatles’ song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ (1967), which was playing in the field camp after her discovery. This remarkably complete hominin skeleton of the species Australopithecus afarensis was excavated in Ethiopia’s Afar desert. Dating to roughly 3.2 million years ago, she is just one member of a sequence of increasingly upright, specialised hominin bipeds. These hominins seem to have emerged in environments that gradually became more open around 5 to 2 million years ago. These bipeds include the hominin Homo habilis found in Oldupai (formerly Olduvai) Gorge in Tanzania, which first emerged around 2.4 million years ago and was long assumed, prior to the discoveries mentioned above, to have produced the first stone tools in the archaeological record.

Further support for the ‘savannah hypothesis’ came from the chemical analysis of preserved teeth from African hominins, which revealed a growing reliance on food expected to have come from grasslands. This research was pioneered in the 1980s by my former supervisor, the South African archaeological scientist and geochemist Julia Lee-Thorp. She was the first to study teeth in early hominin fossils using stable carbon isotope analysis, which allowed her to distinguish between diets focused on woody and shrubby habitats, and those centred on tropical grasslands. The comprehensive dataset of hominins that has been produced using these methods – spanning Ardipithecus ramidus (aka ‘Ardi’) from around 5 million years ago, to our genus, Homo , 3 to 2 million years ago – documents a shift towards the use of resources from open habitats like grasslands. But there is some significant variability in resource use between individuals of the same species: the exact resources these early hominins consumed, reflected in the chemistry of their fossilised teeth, is up for debate.

Tropical forests remained an important source of food, and perhaps offered protection from predators

During the past few decades, however, a few leafy spanners have been thrown in the works of the ‘savannah’ narrative. The earliest hominins, dating from around 7 to 5 million years ago, show that our ancestors’ first experiments with bipedalism occurred in mixed forest and woodland settings. (Among the Great Apes alive today, the orangutan uses bipedalism the most frequently, doing so as it reaches for sugar-rich fruits high up in the canopy.) Not only that, but analyses of fossil hominin skeletons dating between 5 to 2 million years ago, including that of ‘Lucy’ and those of our own genus, show that many of them still had arms, shoulders and hands adapted to climbing (a skill necessary for life in the forest) even as their interactions with terra firma increased.

Environmental reconstructions have also introduced complexity to the classic ‘savannah’ narrative. Researchers once assumed that bipedalism was driven by an expansion of grasslands. It was believed that, as those habitats spread, hominin physiology changed as it adapted to a new life on the open savannah. For this theory to hold water, these landscapes would have needed to expand roughly at the same time that physiological changes appear in hominin fossils. However, sediments from deep-sea marine cores show that ancient tropical African grasslands had already expanded by 10 million years ago, long before the first hominins took their first bipedal strides around 7 to 5 million years ago.

With this evidence, the assumed close relationship between grassland proliferation and the first branching of our hominin family tree seems to break down. Additionally, environmental information from the fossil remains of plants and animals, as well as chemical studies of sediments on land, in lakes and in the ocean, show that many sites where hominins (and their tools) were found were not entirely open grasslands but once had stable tree cover. Today, the term ‘ savannah ’ also actually encompasses a range of micro-habitats. Indeed, depending on local rainfall and geology, you can find trees and even patches of forest in contemporary African savannahs.

Although open environments played a major role in early human evolution, tropical forests and forest patches still provided a significant backdrop for our first hominin ancestors as they emerged in the tropics of Africa. They likely took their first tentative steps as bipedal mammals in tropical forests, or at least mixed forest habitats. Right until the appearance of the genus Homo , between 3 to 2 million years ago, tropical forests and woodlands remained an important source of food, and perhaps offered protection from predators. Given that most of the hominin fossils from this deep time period still come from eastern and southern Africa, it is also possible that in the years to come new discoveries in the continent’s warm, wet centre and its west will yield further insights into our tropical origins.

T he Pleistocene, which began about 2.58 million years ago and ended around 12,000 years ago, saw hominin horizons extend beyond Africa. From 1.8 million years ago, stone tools turn up in the cool climes of Dmanisi in Georgia and later in wet and windy Norfolk in the United Kingdom. Finds of crafted ‘Acheulean’ hand-axes act as ‘breadcrumbs’ for the extension of our genus from Africa into South Asia, the Middle East and Europe between 1.7 and 1 million years ago. Homo erectus was a key hominin player in this expansion. This hominin emerged in Africa around 2 million years ago and, as the name suggests, specialised in walking upright. Discoveries of stone tools and butchered animal carcasses suggest it also focused on hunting and scavenging meat from animals, including elephants and antelope, and preferred open grassland environments.

With this meaty menu in mind, the first expansions of our ancestors beyond Africa have often been associated with periods of climate change that would have resulted in the extension of grassland ‘corridors’ out of Africa. Extending across the Middle East, Europe and Asia, these habitats supposedly provided open conveyor belts for the large animals that had become important sources of food for hominins. According to this theory, our ancestors followed their prey out of the continent. But what happened when these early hominin navigators reached tropical forest realms beyond Africa? We know that Homo erectus had made it to Java in Indonesia 1.5 million years ago. Was it met by a wall of dense tropical rainforest, or did it benefit from the penetration of grassland corridors down towards the equator?

Nicknamed ‘the Hobbit’, its small stature has been considered evidence of its adaptation to tropical forests

Recent evidence suggests that tropical forest environments shrank at the time of Homo erectus ’ arrival in Southeast Asia – a change that may have led to the demise of the forest-adapted Gigantopithecus , the largest ape to have ever lived. Homo erectus ’ appearance in tropical Southeast Asia coincides with a big shift in the wider animal community, including the expansion of the ancient elephant-like Stegodon . Does the shrinking of forests and the changing of animal communities suggest that the ‘savannah’ played a prominent role in this hominin’s settlement of the Asian tropics? The evidence seems to suggest this, but caution is required. The plants and animals found alongside Homo erectus and its stone tools tend to indicate a mixed environment of marshy settings, grasslands, woodlands and rainforest edges, rather than a homogeneous ‘savannah’. While tropical forests were certainly present on the Southeast Asian landscape when Homo erectus arrived, future research is needed to clarify the specific ecological adaptations of this roaming hominin.

Startling fossil and archaeological finds in the past half-decade have shown that Homo erectus was not the only hominin to make its home in tropical Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene. In 2004, researchers discovered a new hominin species, Homo floresiensis , on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Nicknamed ‘the Hobbit’, its small stature has been considered as possible evidence of its adaptation to tropical forests. This claim follows Bergmann’s rule, which states that smaller species are found in warmer areas because a higher surface-area-to-volume ratio enables them to dissipate more heat. Another hominin species, the Denisovans, may have also left some traces in the tropics of this region. There’s no formal name for Denisovans yet, due to the lack of a complete fossil record, but it’s suggested that this species interbred with Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia or Oceania. Denisovans were first identified as a distinct lineage based on ancient DNA from a fingerbone in a Siberian cave (though a study from early 2022 has apparently revealed its presence at a cave site in tropical Laos). Finally, in 2019, a new species, Homo luzonensis , was recorded in the Philippines, adding to the diverse tropical cast of Southeast Asian hominins.

Tropical forests have provided the modern setting for these remarkable findings and dramatically altered our understanding of human evolution. However, the exact relationship of each of these hominin species to tropical forests in the past remains hotly debated. Direct evidence for their use of tropical forest plants or animals is scarce and, even in the case of ‘the Hobbit’, mixed grassland and forest habitats seem to have been much more important than a particular reliance on one or the other, with its diminutive stature perhaps linked to island isolation rather than a response to warm temperatures. What’s certain is that roughly 300,000 to 200,000 years ago one hominin species emerged that could inhabit and use tropical forests more effectively than any of those that went before: Homo sapiens .

O ur species has often been considered the final descendant in a long line of hominins that evolved by adapting to open grasslands (and the mammalian prey and predators that inhabited them). When not thought of in terms of grasslands, our origin story is also commonly understood by palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists in terms of adaptations to coastal environments. At cave sites on the southern and northern coasts of Africa, personal ornaments, art and complex technologies have been found suggesting that, in addition to grasslands, our species may have adapted to use protein-rich marine resources. Unlike grasslands or coasts, tropical forests have been seen as comparatively unattractive ‘barriers’ to Homo sapiens , due to their small, difficult-to-catch prey, poisonous plants and tropical diseases. But the idea that tropical forests were avoided by Late Pleistocene humans is no longer tenable.

There is growing evidence for the role of tropical forests in our species’ evolution and dispersal, and Batadomba-lena cave, where we started this essay, is a key site. This cave has rewritten tropical forests into European and North American accounts of human history. Over the course of the past two decades, tropical sites like Batadomba-lena (alongside nearby caves Fa-Hien Lena and Kitulgala Beli-lena) have produced some of the most important archaeological and anthropological insights into the evolution, behaviour and capabilities of early Homo sapiens. These caves in Sri Lanka have demonstrated that the first humans who arrived on this island did not head straight for the coasts or the open grasslands. Instead, the first human traces and fossils found here, dating back 45,000 years, come from dense tropical rainforests. Well-preserved fossils and artefacts in these cool cave environments have shown that humans hunted monkeys and giant squirrels with bow and arrow technology. They used carbohydrate-rich nuts and nearby freshwater streams. And they may even have made clothes to protect themselves – not from the cold, but from a myriad of vampiric pests.

Humans were not only able to use tropical forests when they first arrived in Sri Lanka, they actively chose to. This is something increasingly witnessed at archaeological sites across the tropics. Archaeological findings in Africa, where our evolutionary story begins, are raising suspicions that humans may have already been well at home in the forests of Central and Western Africa as early as 300,000 to 200,000 years ago. A genetic study published in 2021 has further highlighted the likelihood that our species emerged from interactions between populations living in a diversity of environments across the African continent. One of them, of course, being tropical forests.

Tropical forests are home to the oldest cave art ever recorded

There is clear evidence on the tropical coast of Kenya that, by 78,000 years ago, Pleistocene humans were interacting closely with these forests. In 2021, a Kenyan cave called Panga ya Saidi shot to fame as the site of the earliest human burial in Africa. But that’s not the only reason this site is important. Detailed reconstructions of past environments from plant and animal remains, as well as biochemical methods, show that humans at this site made use of grasslands and tropical forests. Also, despite Panga ya Saidi being on the coast, there is limited evidence that marine critters were used as food sources during the early periods when it was occupied by humans. This pattern is repeated across the diverse tropical forests of the Pleistocene, highlighting that flexibility and adaptability characterise what it means to be human, rather than any focus on a single specific habitat.

On the island of Sumatra, recent archaeological investigations have pushed back human arrival in Southeast Asia to around 70,000 years ago – a remarkable 30,000 years earlier than previous estimates. In Borneo, evidence from the Niah Caves shows that humans were managing forests with fire and processing toxic plants around 45,000 years ago. Around almost the same time, humans in Oceania used starch-rich tree nuts in the montane tropical forests of New Guinea. In the wet tropics of Queensland in Australia, a peak in charcoal found in lake sediments from around 45,000 years ago has also been linked to the arrival of humans (though this hasn’t yet been confirmed by unearthed artefacts in the region). In South America, between 14,000 and 12,000 years ago, humans colonised tropical forests, from the high-altitude Andes down to the Amazon basin where they painted remarkable images of now-extinct megafauna on the walls of rock shelters.

These rock art images from the Colombian Amazon highlight how tropical forests were a key part of the aesthetic world of early human populations. Based on well-known cave drawings in Lascaux and Altamira in western Europe, we often associate early art with animals that inhabited grassy steppes: big cats, wild oxen and horses. However, at Serranía de la Lindosa in Colombia, humans were painting giant sloths and mastodons, which have been found in tropical forest settings across the region. In 2021, amazing discoveries at a Sulawesi limestone cave called ‘Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4’ found that tropical forests are home to the oldest cave art ever recorded, dating to at least 45,500 years ago. These drawings show figures hunting wild pigs – animals known to enjoy forest habitats. Tropical forests were not just a key part of our species’ experimentation with different ecologies, but also cultural materials and perhaps also an important setting for the emergence of storytelling.

By the time the Pleistocene ended, around 12,000 years ago, our species had occupied and utilised practically every type of tropical forest on Earth. These environments may provide some clues as to what makes Homo sapiens unique among hominins. In Southeast Asia, recent discoveries show that Homo erectus persisted right down to 100,000 years ago and Homo floresiensis down to 50,000 years ago. This makes Homo erectus ’ time on the planet far longer than our own to date. Around that time, dense tropical rainforests and the fauna that still characterise these habitats today, such as orangutans, expanded across the region. This seemed to place significant and unique pressures on the diverse cast of hominins inhabiting Southeast Asia at the time. Only one would survive: us.

I t was in Batadomba-lena where I first began to study our species’ interaction with tropical forests, investigating the chemistry of ancient human teeth to show that the earliest occupants of Sri Lanka practised a full-time, forested livelihood. Since that fieldwork in 2014, it has become clear that these environments continue to provide groundbreaking insights into the origins, dispersals and adaptations of our species and its ancestors. Not only that, but these ‘extreme’ environments provide us with action-packed snapshots into some of Homo sapiens ’ greatest successes. In tropical forests we can explore how, by the end of the Pleistocene, we became the first hominin to colonise most of the world’s varied environments, and then became the last hominin left.

Of course, other habitats are critical to the human story as well. There is now evidence that humans were making themselves at home in deserts, high mountains, and the Arctic circle by 45,000 years ago. Evidence found in tropical forests, as well as these other places, is encouraging archaeologists and anthropologists to move away from an exclusive focus on savannahs and coasts. They’re recognising that studying a plethora of Pleistocene climates and environments might provide the best clues to our origin story – and to what it means to be human.

Indigenous peoples have long emphasised the human history of tropical forests and their cultural heritage

It is also in tropical forests that we find some of the earliest indications of humans manipulating plants, animals and even whole habitats. In New Guinea and Borneo, and perhaps Australia, there is evidence that humans were deliberately managing tropical forests using fire around 45,000 years ago, promoting plant growth and wild-animal numbers. In the Bismarck Archipelago, just off the coast of New Guinea, there is even evidence that, by 20,000 years ago, humans were deliberately moving tropical forest animals from one island to another, bolstering their sources of protein. These tropical interventions in the natural world provide early signs of the emergence of cultivation , herding and food production that would leave lasting marks on tropical forests, and other landscapes, the world over.

Thanks to the array of revolutionary findings discussed above, the ‘savannah hypothesis’ is becoming increasingly unattractive in palaeoanthropological and archaeological discourse. Instead, environments such as tropical forests are playing a critical role in highlighting that climatic and environmental variability provided the setting for the grand evolutionary romp of our species and its hominin ancestors. Climate changes during the Miocene and the subsequent expansion of African grasslands were important players in hominin evolution and behavioural change, and savannahs and coasts were undoubtedly used by Homo sapiens from its first emergence in Africa and during its near-global Pleistocene dispersals. Nevertheless, a raft of emerging evidence shows that it is dynamism and diversity that best characterises the past 7 million years of our history. And tropical forests are an important, once-overlooked part of this diversity.

But it would be wrong to assume that palaeontologists and archaeologists are the only ones championing this new view of our diverse past. For centuries, if not millennia, Indigenous peoples have emphasised the long human history of tropical forests and the cultural heritage locked within them, though they have often been marginalised or ignored. Along with recent archaeological and palaeoanthropological discoveries, Indigenous groups have clearly demonstrated that, as tropical forests disappear, we lose not only immense plant and animal biodiversity but also many secrets about where we come from and what makes us human.

Since the Victorian era, especially in literature and film, tropical forests have often been seen as ‘wild’ and hostile backwaters, or pristine and ‘natural’ havens untouched by humans. Yet, we now see that vibrant tropical forests provided the evolutionary cradle for the earliest hominins. They accompanied the genus Homo out of Africa (in some form). And they give us critical insights into the unique adaptive capacities of our species. Early artistic musings found in Colombia and Sulawesi also show us that tropical forests have long been a source of human creativity and cultural representation. Tropical forests are, and have always been, a key part of our remarkable human story. They have been constant companions along our journey. The challenge now is to ensure that they remain by our side during whatever comes next.

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Francesca Peacock

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To take care of the Earth, humans must recognise that we are both a part of the animal kingdom and its dominant power

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Mental health

The last great stigma

Workers with mental illness experience discrimination that would be unthinkable for other health issues. Can this change?

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The Importance of Tropical Forests: Why We Should Conserve Them and How They Affect the Rest of the World

Image Credit:Jami Dwyer

Tropical forest constitutes the most diverse and complex biomes on Earth. Since Humboldt to the present day, the ecology of these biomes has been captivating and challenging scientists. The speciality of the ecology of these biomes reaches further than pure natural history; they are of key importance to the world: from timber, to medicine, to regulating the global climate. Now many people consider these unique biomes to be at a crossroads. With increased deforestation and fragmentation of tropical forests in the shadow of global warming, there has never been a more pressing time to understand the ecology of these vital biomes than the present day. This highlights what is particularly special about the ecology of tropical biomes: we know very little about it. To conserve these biomes effectively and sustainably we must understand their ecological functions and systems.

Diversity, and complexity

In the tropics there is high annual rainfall, and relatively stable average temperature, with only two seasons: wet and dry. The high annual rainfall results in leaching of the soils causing nutrient poor soils. Although the tropics share these similar climate and soil conditions, there are many different types of tropical forests: from dry to rain, and from mangrove to eucalyptus. They are divided along gradients of temperature, humidity, altitude, and flooding; as well as being divided by their evolutionary history, with different species playing similar roles in different forest types, for example new world monkeys compared to old. From nutrient poor soils has arisen the most productive, diverse, and complex terrestrial ecosystems on Earth.

As well as a large diversity of forest types, the biodiversity within the forests is the highest on Earth, harbouring around 50% of the world species. One of the most noticeably biodiverse groups in the forest are invertebrates, particularly insects. Nigel Stork fogged ten trees of just five different species with insecticide, which brought down around 2800 different species of arthropod, and, what was truly amazing, was that most of these species were represented by a single individual! Now, with Bornean forest having as many as 300 tree species per hectare, and then considering the biodiversity of arthropods in the leaf litter, or in epiphytes, one starts to comprehend how special these ecosystems are. In fact, a study in 2004 investigated how much of the canopy biodiversity was living among large epiphytes. From just five basket ferns they collected around 250,000 individual arthropods, and they concluded that epiphytes contain about as much animal life as does the canopy above it, doubling the estimate of invertebrate biomass in the rainforest canopy from just five plants. This is also just invertebrate biodiversity; the plant diversity is equally staggering, with orchids, ferns, bromeliads, lianas, mosses, liverworts, algae, and lichen covering the branches of trees, and on top of that epiphytes growing on epiphytes, creating a fractal image of plant life.  

Tropical forests are not just a random combination of organisms, but a complex ecological web of interactions between species. As written in ‘On the Origin of Species’ (1859): ‘When we look at the plants and bushes clothing an entangled bank, we are tempted to attribute their proportional numbers and kinds to what we call chance. But how false a view this is!’. I think this complexity is best shown by the forest’s sensitivities. The Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project shows that when the forests become fragmented, the entire ecological community changes. For example, in a one-hectare fragment after 2 years of isolation, the number of bird species declined by 60%. The high complexity means changes in the population sizes and community compositions can trigger a chain reaction, with synergistic effects, that ripples through the forest, impacting many other species.

Practising ecology in tropical forests

In my opinion, what is particularly special about the ecology in tropical forests, is that we are still in the very early stages of understanding this field: ‘The science of biodiversity is not much farther along than medicine was in the Middle Ages. We are still at the stage, as it were, of cutting open bodies to find out what organs are inside’ –   The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography (2001). Tropical forest ecology was for a long time focused on describing specific patterns and processes, but Hubbell’s Neutral Theory disrupted this into carefully questioning many of its most fundamental assumptions.  

Along with this theoretical turning point in tropical forest ecology, practical ones have come with modern technology. One of the reasons why we know relatively little about tropical forest ecology is because tropical forests present many challenges to ecologists, particularly how to representatively survey the most biodiverse area on Earth, which happens to be up to 30m high in the canopy. This challenge has produced some creative solutions: from training macaques to collect specimens; to mini zeppelins; to construction cranes. Now with modern technology it is becoming safer and easier to survey these areas, though it is still by no means easy. As with deep sea and space exploration, much of tropical forest ecology is still in the dark, which makes it very exciting.

The changing ecology

Now our lack of understanding and knowledge is more important than ever, because, as we run into the Anthropocene, the ecology of tropical forests is changing. This reveals another speciality of tropical forest ecology: how to sustainably conserve the most exploited, complex, least understood, and important terrestrial environment on Earth, while allowing for development of communities who live in/rely on tropical forests.

Tropical forests are not just changing due to deforestation for timber and agricultural land, but also due to selective extractions of plants, poaching, biological invasion, fragmentation, and climate change. These changes are particularly hard to combat because several threats are likely to interact synergistically with one another, as well as precipitating indirect and direct effects through poorly understood interaction webs.

It is important to conserve tropical forests not just because they support around 50% of described species, and possibly an even larger number of undescribed species, but because they also play a disproportionate role in global carbon and energy cycles. In the early 2000s forests in 75 tropical counties studied contained 247 billion tons of carbon (NASA). This means that the deforestation of tropical forests is a significant contributor to carbon emissions. Another important reason for their conservation is that tropical forest provides a livelihood for millions of people.

There is some debate about the extent to which tropical forests are being negatively affected by climate change, but if anything, this just highlights the need for more knowledge on tropical forest ecology. It is crucial to understand the ecological effects of this anthropogenic change if we want to effectively conserve tropical forests.

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Clear-cut swaths of the Amazon rain forest in Quiandeua, Brazil, are often planted with manioc, or cassava, a shrub grown for its starchy root. Farmers slash-and-burn large parcels of forest every year to create grazing and crop lands, but the forest's nutrient-poor soil often renders the land ill-suited for agriculture, and within a year or two, the farmers move on.

Rain Forest Threats

Learn about what threatens the wet, layered forest and what you can do to help.

More than half of Earth’s rain forests have already been lost due to the human demand for wood and arable land. Rain forests that once grew over 14 percent of the land on Earth now cover only about 6 percent. And if current deforestation rates continue, these critical habitats could disappear from the planet completely within the next hundred years.

The reasons for plundering rain forests are mainly economic. Wealthy nations drive demand for tropical timber, and cash-strapped governments often grant logging concessions at a fraction of the land’s true value. “Homesteader” policies also encourage citizens to clear-cut forests for farms. Sustainable logging and harvesting rather than clear-cutting are among the strategies key to halting rain forest loss.

• Logging interests cut down rain forest trees for timber used in flooring, furniture, and other items.
• Power plants and other industries cut and burn trees to generate electricity.
• The paper industry turns huge tracts of rain forest trees into pulp.
• The cattle industry uses slash-and-burn techniques to clear ranch land.
• Agricultural interests, particularly the soy industry, clear forests for cropland.
• Subsistence farmers slash-and-burn rain forest for firewood and to make room for crops and grazing lands.
• Mining operations clear forest to build roads and dig mines.
• Governments and industry clear-cut forests to make way for service and transit roads.
• Hydroelectric projects flood acres of rain forest.

Campaigns that educate people about the destruction caused by rain forest timber and encourage purchasing of sustainable rain forest products could drive demand down enough to slow deforestation, and these practices in particular could save millions of acres of rain forest every year.

• Sustainable-logging regimes that selectively cull trees rather than clear-cut them
• Encouraging people who live near rain forests to harvest its bounty (nuts, fruits, medicines) rather than clear-cutting it for farmland
• Government moratoriums on road building and large infrastructure projects in the rain forest

For Hungry Minds

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• RAINFORESTS
• DEFORESTATION
• AGRICULTURE
• SUSTAINABILITY
• SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

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May 28, 2024

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Tropical forest resilience to seasonal drought linked to nutrient availability

by University of Göttingen

Tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems, accounting for nearly half of the global forest carbon sink. If tropical forests can no longer remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the effects of climate change may become even more severe.

In recent times, these forests have been found to be increasingly limited in nutrients, which may affect their resilience to seasonal droughts and the rate at which they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

To investigate this, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen established Africa's first largescale nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium addition experiment in the Budongo Forest of Uganda. Their research showed that increasing the availability of certain nutrients can potentially sustain the productivity of these forests even under intense drought conditions—conditions already prevalent in most parts of the world. The results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience .

The researchers investigated how nutrients control the production of leaf litter onto the forest floor . Plant leaves actively remove human-produced carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they photosynthesize to make their own food. This process leads to carbon accumulation in the plant's wood or in the leaves themselves. However, under drought conditions most trees respond by shedding their leaves, which reduces the rate of carbon removal from the atmosphere.

Eventually, the whole plant dies if the drought persists for a prolonged period. However, the researchers found in particular that for trees which were deficient in potassium, increasing the availability of this nutrient during the drier period delays the timing when most leaves are lost by four weeks.

To overcome the low potassium levels, the trees had reallocated the potassium from their dying leaves to the rest of the plant before shedding them. Lead author Dr. Raphael Manu from the University of Göttingen explains, "That low potassium and phosphorus availability can make this vital tropical forest ecosystem more vulnerable to drought and a less effective carbon sink."

In dry conditions, potassium helps plants to effectively regulate the minute pores in their epidermis, and phosphorus plays an important role in conserving water within the plant. This explains why these two nutrients are so important when conditions become drier in the future.

Professor Edzo Veldkamp from the University of Göttingen adds, "This is the first time that we have experimentally linked soil nutrient availability to the seasonal drought response of tropical forests ."

Journal information: Nature Geoscience

Provided by University of Göttingen

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Poor neighborhood in Peru’s Amazon region hosts film festival celebrating tropical forests

Children are reflected in a mirror of vendor Manolo Apagueno as he walks past in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Spectators watch a film from boats during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, showcasing films from countries with tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

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Youth watch a film during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, showcasing films from countries with tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, on Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Spectators watch from boats a film projected on a screen set up on a wooden structure during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, that celebrares tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Spectators sit in boats watching a film projected on a screen set up on a wooden structure during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Spectators sit on boats watching a film projected on a screen set up on a wooden structure during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, that celebrares tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Six-year-old Kiara rests while her mother works selling produce at a street market in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. The Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon known as the “Venice of the Jungle” is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, celebrating tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A woman sits in the doorway of her home in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday May 25, 2024. The Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon known as the “Venice of the Jungle” is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, celebrating tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A man holds his pet monkey while looking out from his home in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday May 25, 2024. The Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon known as the “Venice of the Jungle” is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, celebrating tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Mototaxis circulate in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Sunday, May 26, 2024. The Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, that showcases films from tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Men lift a pig onto a boat at a slaughterhouse in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. This Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, which celebrates tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Children are reflected in a mirror of vendor Manolo Apagueno as he walks past in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday May 25, 2024. The Indigenous community in the heart of Peru’s Amazon known as the “Venice of the Jungle” is hosting the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, celebrating tropical forests. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

BELÉN, Peru (AP) — In the heart of Peru’s Amazon region, a poor neighborhood put aside the trials and tribulations of everyday life and celebrated an international film festival with works from countries with tropical forests.

Many who attended the 10-day event had never seen a movie on the big screen, and the one used for the festival was itself unique due to the area’s geography.

Residents watch a film from boats during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, showcasing films from countries with tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Residnets watch a film from boats during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

“The festival aims to be a tribute to the jungles of the world and its people, to the Indigenous communities, in which we believe lies the answer to the challenges and destruction that forests face now that everyone is talking about climate change,” Daniel Martínez-Quintanilla, co-executive director of the festival that ends Sunday, said.

Life in the community of Belén revolves around water. Houses and businesses are built on stilts because rains regularly lead to monthslong floods. Families own canoes to move around, but children who lack one sometimes use large plastic containers instead.

A woman sits in the doorway of her home in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

An aerial view of the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

So, members of the Muyuna Floating Film Festival — muyuna in the Quechua language means “a whirlpool formed in mighty rivers” — set the screen on a 10- meter (33-foot) high wooden structure, allowing residents to enjoy the films from their canoes or the windows of their homes.

“For the first time, we are getting to know these settings that are bringing us to this community,” said Belén resident Jorge Chilicahua, a 60-year-old farmer who raises chickens and plants cassava, corn and vegetables to meet his family’s needs. He has never been to a movie theater.

Much of the population of Belén comes from rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon and are part of various Indigenous groups, including the Kukama, Yagua and Bora, that migrated in search of better economic, educational and health opportunities. Their challenges abound.

Men lift a pig onto a boat at a slaughterhouse in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A boat transport commuters on the Itaya river in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A vendor arranges her fish filets on her stall at a street market in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Saturday May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Mototaxis circulate in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

People fish by making holes in the wooden floors of their houses, which forces mothers to keep a watchful eye over their children who do not yet know how to swim so that they don’t fall into the water and drown. Health authorities have reported malnutrition and diarrhea are common due to lack of drinking water.

Martínez-Quintanilla said the event included films from Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan, Panama and other countries with tropical forests, as well as others made by young Peruvians.

The works screened included the Peruvian animated short film “The Engine and the Melody,” which tells the story of an ant that fells Amazonian trees and a cicada that manages to regenerate the forest by playing a prodigious flute — until everything changes when a forest fire occurs.

Youths watch a film during the Muyuna Floating Film Festival, showcasing films from countries with tropical forests, in the Belen neighborhood of Iquitos, Peru, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Briceño reported from Lima, Peru.

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On the Brazilian Coast, a Tropical Town Beloved by Artists and Makers

A guide to Paraty, on the Costa Verde, with tips on where to stay, shop and island hop from the artist Vik Muniz and four other insiders.

By Nora Walsh

T’s monthly travel series, Flocking To , highlights places you might already have on your wish list, sharing tips from frequent visitors and locals alike. Sign up here to find us in your inbox once a month, and to receive our weekly T List newsletter. Have a question? You can always reach us at [email protected] .

Roughly halfway between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the coastal town of Paraty (population 45,000) isn’t the easiest place to reach. It requires a four-hour, mostly mountainous drive from either city, a 45-minute helicopter charter or arrival by sea. It’s that relative seclusion that keeps the tourist hordes and unbridled development at bay, despite the town’s obvious appeal. Set on Brazil’s Costa Verde, with mountains covered in rainforest on one side and the emerald green waters of Ilha Grande Bay on the other, Paraty (pronounced para-CHEE by locals), preserves more than 30 blocks as its historic quarter, a grid of pedestrian-only cobblestone streets lined with whitewashed 18th- and 19th-century facades, many of them remnants of the Portuguese colonial era.

Starting in the mid-1600s, the town grew prosperous as a seaport during the country’s gold rush (many of the biggest gold mines were in the neighboring inland state Minas Gerais) — and as a hub for the slave trade. African slaves not only worked in the mines but built much of the town’s early infrastructure, such as its roads. Once the gold stopped coming through Paraty for export in the early 1700s, the town continued to harvest sugar cane and produce cachaça, the national spirit, before shifting its economic focus to the coffee trade. At the end of the 19th century, Santos, 190 miles to the south, supplanted Paraty as the country’s primary coffee-exporting port, and the town began to languish. “It fell off the map,” says Luana Assunção, the owner of the Rio-based travel company Free Walker Tours. “It became isolated and poor. Many houses were abandoned.”

By the 1970s, a new highway and an influx of urban transplants had given Paraty an infusion of new life. Lured by the area’s affordability, a number of artists, designers and other creative types began renovating the old mansions and opening a handful of galleries, boutiques, cafes and small hotels, turning the long-forgotten town into an alluring vacation destination.

“I was worried that mass tourism would endanger the future of the culture and the nature in Paraty, but it didn’t happen,” says the nature photographer Dom João de Orleans e Bragança, who has been visiting Paraty since 1968 and now lives there most of the year. He credits the strict building codes for imbuing the town with a certain timeless quality, even after the pandemic when the area’s second-home owners began spending more time in Paraty. “You’ll never see a skyscraper, and we don’t have big resorts or hotels here.”

What Paraty does have is easy access to the dozens of small islands and sandy coves across the bay (local traineiras , renovated wooden fishing boats; large schooners; and speedboats are all available for visitors to rent for daylong outings), and the countless hiking trails, waterfalls and beaches that are part of the massive Serra da Bocaina National Park. Visitors can also make day trips to a handful of villages home to Indigenous and historic Black settlements that have maintained a strong cultural identity. “There’s layer upon layer here,” said Lena Santana, a Brazilian costume and fashion designer who has been living in Paraty for the last decade. “It creates a certain kind of depth that makes people want to stay.” Here, Santana and four other locals and longtime Paraty visitors share their recommendations for where to stay, eat and explore.

The Insiders

Silvia Furmanovich , a fine-jewelry designer based between São Paulo and New York City, has been traveling to Paraty every other year for the past three decades.

The artist and photographer Vik Muniz , who lives in Rio de Janeiro and New York City, has been visiting Paraty since 1999.

Diana Radomysler is a partner and director of the interiors and design department at the São Paulo-based architecture firm Studio MK27. She travels to Paraty annually with her family.

Lena Santana , who was born in Salvador, Brazil, and moved to Paraty a decade ago after 15 years in London, owns a boutique, Atelier Napele, in the historic center, and Bus Stop Paraty, a guesthouse, 12 miles outside of town in Playa Grande.

Gisela Schmitt , originally from São Paulo, is the chef and owner of Paraty’s Gastromar restaurant and a boat-catering company.

Illustrations by Richard Pedaline

“I love to stay at Casa Turquesa , built on the ruins of an 18th-century mansion in the old town. Everything in the Turquoise Suite is white and turquoise, from the fabrics to the artwork. One room has prints from the British botanical artist Margaret Mee, who spent decades traveling to the Amazon documenting flora, which have inspired my work in the past.” (Rooms from about $520 a night.) — Silvia Furmanovich

“I always suggest that friends stay at the Pousada Literária de Paraty, a cozy hotel within a cluster of historic mansions that surround a tropical garden — they return enchanted by both the hotel and its restaurant.” (Rooms from about $350 a night.) — Diana Radomysler

“The Brazilian travel company Matueté has a selection of villas. You can rent the interior designer Linda Pinto’s house in the historic quarter close to the waterfront. It has a beautiful courtyard, so the house is flooded with natural light.” (Rentals from about $1,500 a night, with a three-night minimum.) — Gisela Schmitt

Eat and Drink

“At Banana da Terra , the chef Ana Bueno cooks contemporary Caiçara [the main Indigenous community of the area] cuisine in a charming restaurant in the historic quarter. She offers things like mango and shrimp salad and a hamburger made with crab meat. After dinner, go to Gelateria Miracolo for ice cream and try the flavor made with cupuaçu, an Amazonian fruit that’s closely related to cacao.” — S.F.

“Head to Graúna [about 12 miles north of Paraty], a beautiful valley in the Atlantic Forest, for lunch at Le Gite d’Indaiatiba . The chef is like a wizard of the forest. She makes her ravioli with taioba, an edible plant from the jungle [similar to collard greens]. Call ahead and ask them to prepare the sauna, which is next to a swimmable waterfall on the property.” — G.S.

“ Fugu Japanese Food is a new restaurant that only serves fish that’s been caught fresh the same day, like sororoca [a white local fish] and prejereba [tripletail]. Don’t miss the tuna starter with locally grown shiitake mushrooms or the teishoku, a wooden box with 12 different small portions of menu items, including the day’s fresh catch. There’s also a great sake selection. For dessert, have the wasabi ice cream.” — D.R.

“Recently, one of my favorite designers from São Paulo, Flavia Aranha , opened a store in Paraty. Her pieces are timeless, produced in organic fabrics or natural fibers dyed with Brazilian plants and herbs.” — D.R.

“For handwoven baskets, go to Cestarias Regio Paraty in the historic center. They come in all sizes and are made by local communities. I love the ones made from covo, a fiber extracted from bamboo, that are used to go fishing.” — G.S.

“Visit the village of Cunha in the Paraíba Valley, where the Japanese couple Mieko and Toshiyuki Ukeseki started firing ceramics in a noborigama [a traditional Japanese wood-fired chamber kiln] in the 1970s. A small community of ceramists joined them, and you can buy their pieces at their ateliers or at the ceramics festivals that Cunha hosts throughout the year.” — L.S.

“To pick up authentic Indigenous arts and crafts, such as vases and musical instruments, go to Canoa Arte Indígena . I bought several baskets from there that now decorate my office in São Paulo.” — S.F.

“Paraty has some of the best cachaça in Brazil. My favorite brand is Cachaça Maria Izabel . [Maria Izabel] and her daughters own a sugar cane plantation in Sítio Santo Antônio, about six miles north of Paraty, where they still produce the spirit by hand. You can do a tasting at the distillery and buy bottles there, or at shops in town.” — V.M.

“The Livraria das Marés is a big-city bookstore in a small town. It’s a contemporary space designed by the architect Bel Lobo with black metal shelves and a wood-paneled floor and ceiling. There’s a delightful cafe at the back.” — D.R.

“Don’t miss Saco do Mamanguá, which is the world’s only tropical fjord. You can only get there by boat, and you’ll pass Caiçara villages along small beaches. From there, you can hike to the peak of Mamanguá’s Pão de Açúcar for dramatic views of the entire Ilha Grande Bay. Another option is to rent kayaks at one of the beaches and paddle deep into the mangroves at the very end of the fjord.” — G.S.

“ Fazenda Bananal is a great place to take children. It’s a nature preserve in the forest with a farmhouse. There are walking trails, farm animals and a restaurant called Ninho that’s absolutely incredible. Many of the ingredients come from the farm. I had the best slow-cooked pork of my life there.” — V.M.

“Visit Quilombo do Campinho [a settlement about 10 miles south of Paraty founded at the end of the 19th century by formerly enslaved people]. There’s a restaurant that serves fresh grilled fish and a shop with beautiful wooden animal sculptures, rugs made of straw, bamboo furniture and jewelry made from local tropical seeds. On the way home, stop at the village of Paraty-Mirim, where you can buy artisanal wares from the Guaraní tribe; then swim at its gorgeous beach, which is bordered by mountains and a river.” — L.S.

“One of the best ways to enjoy Paraty by sea is to book Gisela Schmitt’s Sem Pressa boat tour, which takes you to the surrounding coves and swimming spots (my favorite is Saco da Velha) while offering delicious local plates like cachaça- and beet-cured prejereba [tripletail fish], fresh oysters and mussels.” — V.M.

Practical Matters

“It’s fun to be in Paraty during one of its festivals. There’s FLIP [Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty], a large and influential literary festival [this year it will be held in October] and loads of other events throughout the town.” — L.S.

“The best time to visit is from May to August, when there’s less rain, the sky is beautiful and the sea is wonderful.” — G.S.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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