Tropical Rain Forests

What are rain forests? Rainforests are very dense, warm wet forests that are haven to millions of all kinds of animals. The plants in a rainforest provide much of the earths oxygen and therefore play an important part in the ecology of the earth. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earths surface and even though the Rainforests now only cover 6% of the earth, they are home to almost half of the worlds population of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, bird life and plant life. Tropical rain forests are called the 'jewels of the earth', and the 'worlds largest pharmacy' because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there. The Amazon Rainforest has also been described as the 'Lungs of our Planet' because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

Distribution of rain forests Task: Describe and explain the global distribution of rainforests