Tag: natural regions of the world

Equatorial regions are the regions located on or near the equator. Equatorial regions have hot and wet climate. The Amazon Basin (South America), the Congo Basin (Africa), Malaysia, Indonesia and some areas in northern Australia are located in equatorial region. These regions receives vertical sun rays. The climate in equatorial regions is characterized by heavy rainfall and constant high temperature. These regions do not have winter or dry season. The diurnal range of temperature is usually greater.

Tropical rainforests have four layers: Emergent Layer, Canopy Layer, Understory Layer and Forest Floor each with different plants and animals adapted for life in that particular area. 

Convectional type of rainfall mostly found in the equatorial zone. Two causes of this type of precipitation, (1) the intense heating of the surface so as to expand and raise the lower layer of the atmosphere and (2) abundant supply of moisture in the air to provide it with a high relative humidity. This type of rainfall mainly occurs in the summer month and in the warm part of the day. This type of precipitation is of very short duration and consist of heavy showers. Convectional rainfall is less effective for crop growth than the steady rain.   

Tropical rainforests or Natural forest have four layers:

Emergent Layer: These giant trees thrust above the dense canopy layer and have huge mushroom-shaped crowns.

Canopy Layer: The broad, irregular crowns of these trees form a tight, continuous canopy 60 to 90 feet above the ground.

Understory: Receiving only 2-15% of the sunlight that falls on the canopy, the understory is a dark place. It is relatively open and contains young trees and leafy herbaceous plants that tolerate low light. Many popular house plants come from this layer.

 Forest Floor: The forest floor receives less than 2% of the sunlight and consequently, little grows here except plants adapted to very low light. 

Amazon River is the largest river of the world. The basin made by this river is known as Amazon basin. It is the largest lowland in Latin America. It has a total area of 7 million square kilometers. Amazon basin is famous for dense forest cover. More than two-third of this basin is covered by immense forests. About half of the Earth's rain forests is found in Amazon basin.

The tropics are a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. They are delimited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at 23.5°) N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at 23.5°). The tropics are also referred to as the tropical zone and the torrid zone. 

The equatorial forest region experience very high temperatures throughout the year, the annual average temperature is being about 27 degrees celsius. The daily range of temperature is between 10 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees celsious. The rainfall is very heavy and distributed throughout the year. This region also received a sufficient amount of sunshine for all these the humidity level is very high in this region.

In equatorial region the temperature is high throughout the year, the annual average temperature is about 27 degree calcious. Rainfall is heavy and distributed throughout the year. The annual average rainfall is about 250cm. The constantly high temperature and all the year round rainfall helps to produce the most luxuriant evergreen vegetation in the region. So the forests of equatorial region are also known as evergreen. 

In forestry and ecology, understory comprises plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but above the forest floor. Only a small percentage of light penetrates the canopy so understory vegetation is generally shade tolerant.

What makes up most of the Canopy Layer is a tangled mix of vegetation including branches, vines and trees of different sizes. The trees rise to as much height as possible to gain maximum sunlight.