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Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management

Tropical rainforest characteristics and the nutrient cycle

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  • Paper 1

Overview

The climate, soil and water movement of the tropical rainforest, its vegetation layers, animals and indigenous uses, how climate, plants and soil depend on one another, the stores, transfers, inputs and losses of the Gersmehl nutrient cycle, and how food webs link producers and consumers.

What you need to know

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Key term

What soil forms under tropical rainforest, and why is it infertile?

Numbers

Describe the climate of the tropical rainforest.

Key term

How does water move through the rainforest?

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    Describe the climate of the tropical rainforest.

    Model answer

    Hot all year at around 26–28°C with a very small annual range, and heavy rain of over 2000 mm falling in every month.

  2. 2

    What soil forms under tropical rainforest, and why is it infertile?

    Model answer

    A deep red latosol; the heavy rain leaches nutrients downwards and the trees take up the rest at once, so only a thin surface layer is rich.

  3. 3

    How does water move through the rainforest?

    Model answer

    The canopy intercepts much of the rain and returns it by evapotranspiration, and what reaches the ground soaks slowly through litter and soil to the rivers.

  4. 4

    What are the layers of rainforest vegetation, from top to bottom?

    Model answer

    Scattered emergents, then the closed canopy, then the shady understorey, and finally the sparse forest floor.

  5. 5

    How do rainforest animals fit the structure of the forest?

    Model answer

    Most live high up where the fruit and leaves are, so they are climbers, gliders or fliers, and comparatively few large animals live on the dark floor.

  6. 6

    How do indigenous people traditionally use the rainforest?

    Model answer

    By shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering in small groups, taking only what will grow back so the forest recovers after they move on.

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ALess reliable rainfall slows both growth and decay.
BNutrients sit unused in litter.
CViolent storms wash more of them away in run-off.

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