Q1. What is a Tropical Rainforest?

Question 1 – What is a Tropical Rainforest?

Did you know that tropical rainforests only exist between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer? Did you also know that Australia’s tropical rainforests make up about only about 0.001% of the world’s tropical rainforests? Or perhaps you already knew that rainforests cover only 0.2% of the Australian continent?

These are all important pieces of information, but still, they don’t really tell us what tropical rainforests are, do they? Let’s try to break down the words ‘tropical rainforest’ to see if we can sort out a definition. Firstly, what do we mean by the word ‘tropical’? What words do you associate with ‘tropical’? Do you associate warm temperatures, a humid climate and lush green forests? Do you associate the northern part of Australia with the tropics? What about snow, does that fit in? What about rain or mosquitoes?

What about the word ‘rainforest’? It would be pretty safe to assume that in a rainforest it rains a fair bit, wouldn’t it? But how exactly do rainforests work?

Focus Questions

What does a tropical rainforest look like?
With practice, you can learn to identify a tropical rainforest. Once you’ve figured out the structure, you’ll be spotting tropical rainforests all over the place (that’s if you live in a tropical climate, like Cairns). The first two activities give you the chance to figure out exactly what a tropical rainforest is.

How do tropical rainforests evolve?
Rainforests are unique and they operate in certain ways. To better understand how a rainforest functions and evolves, it is necessary to understand how food webs, water cycles and photosynthesis work. The second two activities will help you better understand these complex ideas.

Are you ready to start on the first learning activity? (1.1)