Rainforests in the globe play a vital role in the planet’s ecosystem. Rainforests are home to almost half of animal and plant species of the world. The biggest rainforests in the globe are absorbing enormous volume of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere and it helps in maintaining balance of air we are breathing while playing crucial role of curbing global warming.
And even though its immense value, the biggest rainforests are under threat. Whether you believe it or not, more than half of trees on Earth have been lost from the time started cutting them down. These days, deforestation has taken place in various forms such as:
- Farming
- Mining and
- Logging
All of this to supply the needs for rapid development of world as a whole. If the rate of deforestation will keep going like this, it’s not for long that rainforests would disappear within a century.
Different Types of Rainforests
There are two types of rainforests and these are:
- Temperate
- Tropical
Tropical rainforests are situated close to the equator between 23.5° south of the equator on Tropic of Capricorn and 23.5° north of Tropic of Cancer.
They have wet and warm climate, looks evergreen and receiving rainfall of at least 2000mm consistently every year. Tropical rainforests had once covered 14 percent of the land surface of Earth. But due to world development and industrialization, it is down to 6 percent only.
Out of all the tropical rainforests in the world, 57 percent of it are located in Latin America with the third of it is in Brazil.
How the Two are Different?
For Temperate rainforests on the other hand, it is accounting for roughly 25 percent of forests in the world. They’re moist and growing on mountain rangers and normally along western coasts where western winds are bringing high precipitation.
Temperate rainforests do spread further south and north compared to its tropical counterparts. The similarity between these two is that, it is receiving 2000mm of rainfall every year. However, the experience drier. It also has lesser biodiversity in comparison to tropical rainforests.
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