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Tropical Rain Forest

( Article Type: Explanation )

Tropical rain forests appear like a girdle around the equator and occupy approximately 8% of the earth’s land surface, yet they comprise about half of all growing wood on the face of the earth and provide habitats for at least two fifths of all the earth’s total species. Scientists have still only identified one in six of the estimated two million species that exist in these forests. The rain forests also acts as a ‘green lungs’ for the earth, producing vast quantities of oxygen for us to breathe and survive, and absorbing similar quantities of carbon dioxide as a part of the greater carbon cycle. These forests provide an important balance in managing the air quality of the earth on which we live . Temperatures in tropical rain forests usually remain between 20 and 35 degrees Centigrade all year , and rainfall typically varies from 125 to 510 centimetres per year. The soil in tropical rain forests is usually very thin and low in nutrients so when the canopy cover is removed by, for example, hardwood logging activities, the land becomes seriously degraded very quickly and is lost through being washed away by tropical rainstorms.