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Children's Tropical Forests (U.K.) Fact Sheet
The Physical Environment
Tropical rainforests are located in warm humid places around the world's equator.
Average daily temperature is about 25 degrees Celsius. Yearly rainfall is at least
1,500 mm, however some forests receive as much as 10,000 mm! Most of the rain
falls during the monsoon, "the rainy season" between mid July and mid September.
On most days in the Tropics the rainforests receive 12 hours of sunshine providing
plenty of energy for plant growth. But they grow in very poor soil as millions of
years of rain has washed away the nutrients. Conveniently, the rainforest has adapted
to these conditions and gets its nutrients by recycling the dead plants that fall to the
forest floor. Micro-organisms rapidly break down this matter into usable nutrients
like calcium, nitrogen and phosphorus.
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