Cape York Peninsula: A Natural History. (iii) A third type of tropical climbers has been also identified i.e., the epiphytes which do not have their roots on the ground surface, rather these are evolved on the trunks, stems, branches and leaves of trees, shrubs and herbs, climbers etc.The epiphytes live in almost all the strata or layers of the forests and they do not require climbing ability as they grow upward and reach the uppermost canopy of the forest in search of sunlight. To learn more about impacts of environment change and disturbance on driving forest community, we investigated shifts in functional composition over past 24 years in an old … Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. Temperate evergreen forests, coniferous, broadleaf, and mixed, are found largely in the temperate mid-latitudes of North America, Siberia, Canada, Australia, Africa, Scandinavia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, Himalayas and western ghats of India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (i) Mammals have generally larger and sturdy bodies so that they can move by pushing thickets of plants away. The binding, circuitous and criss-crossing networks of various types of climbers facilitate easy movement of these climbing animals through all the vertical strata. Thus it is obvious that the plant species of almost similar characteristics and features can survive in this competition. Broad-leaved evergreen podocarp forest on the North Island of New Zealand containing light-barked matai (Podocarpus spicatus) and totara (P. totara). ‘They ramble through the forest, scaling the highest emergent trees and frequently looping down to the ground and then ascending further sections of the forests. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elongated leaves, known as "laurophyll" or "lauroid". There are numerous species of plants in the various parts of the tropical evergreen rainforest biome.For example, 6000 to 7000 species of flowering plants in the western Africa (Congo Basin); 20,000 species of flowering plants but quite different from the western Africa in Malaysia; 40,000 species of flowering plants in Brazil and 2000 species of flowering plants in Panama Canal Zone have been identified. This layer is also called as dominant layer. There is maximum interception of falling rains by the uppermost canopy of the forest cover and thus the intercepted rainwater reaches the ground through the leaves, branches and stems of trees and other plants in the form of aerial streamlets which allow maximum infiltration of rainwater in the ground surface.The interception of rainwater by the uppermost forest canopy also allows much evaporation of intercepted rainwater because the rainwater is held at the outer surfaces of the leaves.
Tree is the most significant member of the tropical evergreen forests. Only one third of the total rainfall received at the uppermost forest canopy reaches the ground surface.It is obvious that the vegetation has been controlled and determined by the typical characteristics of equatorial climate and in turn the vegetation has given birth to typical micro-climates in several strata of the vertical structure of the vegetation community of the tropical evergreen rainforest biome.The tropical evergreen rainforest biome accounts for the largest number of plant species. (i) There is regular growth of plants throughout the year and therefore there is regular and constant supply of abundant food for the animals, with the result they have not to migrate for food.
It well be virtually impossible to present all the species of plants by names if all the species of all plants of the tropical evergreen rainforest biome become known to the botanists.Tree is the most significant member of the tropical evergreen forests. These epiphytes provide certain habitats to micro-organisms such as planarians, earthworms, snails, woodlice, millipedes, centipedes, termites, ants, grasshoppers, earwigs, scorpions, snakes, tree frogs, lizards and a host of insect larvae. Most of the rainfall is received through convectional mechanism which yields heavy downpour through cumulonimbus clouds daily normally between 2p.m. Montane Wet Temperate Forest; Himalayan Moist Temperate Forest; Himalayan Dry Temperate Forest; Subalpine Forest. Isolation in these fragmented habitats, particularly on islands, has led to the development of Laurel forests occur in small areas where their particular climatic requirements prevail, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. This biome has developed, infact, in true equatorial climatic region though in some areas the spatial coverage of this biome far extends beyond the equator. Wood constitutes the largest share of the total biomass and net primary production.There is maximum competition among the various members of vegetation communities of the tropical evergreen rainforest biome to get light.