Brazil: Rainforests

A beam of sunlight makes its way through the leaves and lights up the brightly colored wings of a macaw. An enormous butterfly flits from plant to plant. Monkeys shout and chatter as they swing from tree to tree looking for breakfast. The rainforest is waking up.

“Rainforest” is a term for a forest of broad-leaved evergreen trees that receives high annual rainfall and is characteristically associated with tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The broadest definition of “rainforest” also encompasses humid forests in some temperate regions. Tropical rainforest habitat is one with generally warm, equable temperatures, with those in equatorial regions typically receiving at least five to eight feet (1.5 to 2.4 meters) of rain each year. Sunlight hardly penetrates the lush growth of the canopy (upper level) and subcanopies in many areas. The natural continental rainforests of Africa, South America, and Asia and those of other large landmasses such as Borneo and New Guinea have a higher diversity of plant and animal species than any other terrestrial habitats in the world. Although the different regions vary in the particular species present, the ecological processes are the same.