Ecosystems (TRFs and Hot Deserts)

• Plants in the rainforest


  • Adapted to high rainfall
  • Adapted to high temperatures
  • Adapted to competition for light
• How trees compete for sunlight

  Growing tall
• Leaves of rainforest plants

  • Thick, waxy with pointed drip-tips
  • Channel rainwater to the point, encouraging runoff
  • Waxy coating helps repel rain
• Climbing plants


  • Use tree trunks to reach sunlight
• Bark of rainforest trees


  • Smooth, thin as no need to protect from cold
• Roots of rainforest trees

  • Large, stable buttress roots support tall trunks
• Leaf shedding in rainforest plants


  • Gradual throughout the year, allowing year-round growth
• Rainforest plant layers


  • Emergent trees
  • Main canopy
  • Undercanopy
  • Shrub layer
• Emergent trees


  • Only have branches at their crown where most light is available
• Undercanopy plants


  • Have large leaves to absorb as much sunlight as possible
• Animals in the rainforest canopy

  • Have strong limbs to move around quickly and easily
  • Some have short, pointed wings to manoeuvre between trees
  • Some have suction cups to climb
  • Some have flaps of skin to glide between trees
• Camouflaged rainforest animals


  • Leaf-tailed geckos look like leaves to hide from predators
• Rainforest floor animals


  • Have sharp senses like smell to detect predators without seeing them
• Nocturnal rainforest animals


  • Feed at night when it's cooler to save energy
• Rainforest animals


  • Many can swim to cross river channels
• Causes of deforestation in the Amazon

  • Commercial farming
  • Subsistence farming
  • Commercial logging
  • Mineral extraction
  • Energy development
  • Population growth
  • Road building
• 95% of deforestation in Amazon occurs within 50 km of roads or rivers
• Deforestation in the Amazon

  Leads to climate change. The Amazon stores 140 billion tonnes of co2 and deforestation releases some of this. 75% of brazils emissions come from deforestation.
• Deforestation in the Amazon

  Brazil is losing up to 100 tonnes of top soil per hectare due to soil erosion. This can lead to landslides and flooding.
• Selective logging


  • Less damaging to the forest than clearing a whole area
  • Allows the forest to regenerate
• Replanting


  • New trees are planted to replace the ones that are cut down
  • Important that the types of trees replanted match those that were cut down
  • Some countries have laws to make logging companies replant trees
• Ecotourism


  • Minimises damage to the environment and benefits local people
  • Only a small number of visitors are allowed into an area at a time
  • Provides a source of income for local people
  • Can raise awareness of conservation issues and bring in money to help protect rainforests
• Ecotourism has been very successful in Costa Rica, it is the largest source of income for the country and has led to 21% of the country being protected from development
• Hardwood


  Wood from certain tree species, e.g. mahogany or teak, that is dense and hard, often used to make furniture
• High demand for hardwood from consumers in richer countries means that some tropical hardwood trees are becoming increasingly rare as more are cut down
• International hardwood agreements


  • Try to prevent illegal logging and promote the use of hardwood from sustainably managed forests
• The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) mark sustainably-sourced timber so that consumers can choose products that don't contribute to unsustainable deforestation
• Reducing debt


  Means countries don't have to log, farm and mine in the rainforests to make money to pay back debt, allowing the rainforests to be conserved
• In 2011, the USA reduced Indonesia's debt by $29 million in exchange for conserving their rainforests
• Education is responsible for up to 10% of global CO2 emissions each year, more than all of the world's transport emissions combined
• Economic development in Brazil

  • Brazil exported almost $600 million of beef in March 2018
  • Brazil is the world's second largest exporter of soy beans
• Mining company in Peru


  • Buenaventura mining company employs over 8000 people
• Logging


  • Contributes a huge amount to Brazil's economy
  • Can destroy resources that countries depend on, e.g. timber
  • Can reduce the attractiveness of the area to tourists
• Local Brazilian rubber tappers who extract natural rubber from rubber trees have lost their livelihoods as trees have been cut down
• Annual Global Tree Cover Loss from 2007-2017 was 35 hectares