Tropical forests grow in the Tropics and the Tropics form a belt on either side of the equator bounded by lines of latitude. Latitude 23.45° N marks the tropics of Cancer and 23.45°S marks the tropics of Capricorns.
In the land tropical rainforest, the trees grow tall and year round. Some tree may grow to heights in excess of 150 feet. And each tree may be home to thousands of other plants that live in it, each getting its water from the wet air, their roots hanging from the green canopy above.
Such plants known as epiphytes, may cover the trees. Other plants, known as lianas, form woody vines that climb up the tree trunks like snakes.
Many tropical forests abound in different species, but others are dominated by a very few species of trees. In some areas there may be only one or two species for over a large area.
Mangrove forests, growing near coasts, contain very few tree species because few species can tolerate the conditions in which mangroves thrive.
Tropical rainforest cover approximately 6% of the Earth’s surface. A hundred years ago, they may have once covered as much as15%, but human activities have reduced them severely, and the destruction continues.
Tropical forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle and hence the rates of climate change; about 40% of terrestrial carbon stocks lie within tropical forests. Up to three times the amount of carbon found in the atmosphere is contained by tropical forests.
FAO estimated that in 1990 there were, 1756 million ha of natural tropical forests, with the largest forest are (52%) located in the Americas and lesser amounts in Asia (18%) and Africa (30%).
Tropical forest
