AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -In the rainforest, most of the carbon and essential nutrients are locked up in the living vegetation, dead wood, and decaying leaves. As organic material decays, it is recycled so quickly that few nutrients ever reach the soil, leaving it nearly sterile.

Detailed explanation-2: -Soil-Many tropical rainforest soils are very poor and infertile. Millions of years of weathering have washed most of the nutrients out of the soil.

Detailed explanation-3: -Soils in the rainforest are mainly thin and poor. Nutrient levels in the soil are low due to the leaching (washing away of nutrients) by the heavy equatorial rain. This leaching means that the lower layers of the soils lack the nutrients and minerals the lush vegetation needs.

Detailed explanation-4: -In fact, rainforest soils are nutrient-poor because nutrients are not stored in them for very long. The heavy rains that occur in rainforests wash organic material from the soil.

Detailed explanation-5: -SOIL COMPOSITION Over two-thirds of the world’s rainforests–including much of those in Madagascar–can be considered “wet-deserts” in that they grow on extremely poor soils which are acidic and low in minerals and nutrients.