AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -A rainforest is an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall. Rainforests are Earth’s oldest living ecosystems, with some surviving in their present form for at least 70 million years.

Detailed explanation-2: -The tropical rainforest biome has four main characteristics: very high annual rainfall, high average temperatures, nutrient-poor soil, and high levels of biodiversity (species richness).

Detailed explanation-3: -Vegetation in these regions is lush, with large trees and dense vegetation on the ground surface. However, due to high amounts of rainfall and fast uptake of nutrients from decomposing organic matter by plants, the soils in the tropical rainforest are generally nutrient-poor and non-fertile.

Detailed explanation-4: -Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. Two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests. A single hectare of rainforest may contain 42, 000 different species of insect, up to 807 trees of 313 species and 1, 500 species of higher plants.

Detailed explanation-5: -Temperate forests and temperate grasslands have thick, fertile soils. In contrast to temperate forest and temperate grassland biomes, desert biomes tend to have thin, sandy, less-fertile soil.