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Primary rainforest in Brazil. (Photo by R. Butler)
THE FOREST FLOOR
The forest floor of primary tropical rainforest is rarely the thick, tangled jungle of movies and adventure stories. It is actually quite the opposite: the floor is relatively clear of vegetation due to the deep darkness created by perhaps 100 feet (30 m) of canopy vegetation above. The canopy not only blocks out sunlight, but damps wind and rain. A visitor to the rainforest during a rainstorm will usually not immediately feel falling rain because so much is deflected and collected by various canopy plants. The blocking of wind by the canopy makes the forest floor a calm place where only the slightest breeze blows during tropical thunderstorms. When hiking in primary tropical rainforest a flashlight may be more useful than a machete since the subdued lighting limits ground growth. Instead of choking vegetation, a visitor will find large tree trunks, interspersed hanging vines and lianas, and countless seedlings and saplings and a relatively small number of ground plants.
The term "jungle" is frequently applied to forest areas having dense ground growth. Such "jungle" is characteristic of disturbed forest, usually near the forest edges, in recently opened light gaps, river banks, and areas where the forest is reclaiming previously cleared land. Vigorous ground growth is only possible where plenty of light is available—where there is a break or thinning in the light-absorbing canopy which screens out all but the 0.5-5 percent of light that reaches the floor in the primary forest.
CHARACTERISTICS
Despite its constant shade, the ground floor of the rainforest is the site for important interactions and complex relationships. The forest floor is one of the principal sites of decomposition, a process paramount for the continuance of the forest as a whole. It is also home to thousands of plants and animals, and provides support for trees responsible for the formation of the canopy. The ground level is the region of the forest which was first explored and has been the most intensively studied.
Review questions:
What is the difference between jungle and rainforest?
Why is there generally little light on the forest floor?
Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study
(11/19/2009) Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.
Oil palm workers still below poverty line, despite Minister's statements
(11/19/2009) On October 19th, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok told parliament that oil palm harvesters and rubber tappers are living above Malaysia's national poverty line, according to a story in the Malaysian Insider. But now representatives of the workers are saying Dompok lied.
REDD may increase the cost of conservation of non-forest ecosystems
(11/19/2009) Policy-makers designing a climate change mitigation mechanism that will reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) aren't doing enough to ensure that the scheme protects biodiversity outside carbon-dense ecosystems, argues an editorial published in Current Biology by a group of scientists.
Indonesian government suspends license of logging company in controversial forest area
(11/19/2009) The Indonesian government today temporarily suspended the license of Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) for developing an area of forest and peatland in Sumatra pending a review of the company's permits, reports Greenpeace.
