Rainforest
-Geo. ProjectDesigned by
Chan Mei Shuen(1),Chau Tsz Ying(4), Yip Hau Yan(19),Sin Ka Ching(36), Fong Fu
Tong(25), Leung Ngai Chung (31), Wong Siu Feat(39).
Content
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What is rainforest?
Where are the rainforests?
Strata of the Rainforests
Why rainforests are important?
People in the rainforests
Animals in rainforests
Plants in rainforests
Danger of rainforests
Solve the deforestation
What is rainforest?
• What is rainforest: Rainforests perhaps are the most important place in the
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earth. It covered fifteen per cent of the Earth’s land. Rainforests are very dense, warm
and wet forests. They are havens for millions of plants and animals.
And there are two types of rainforests
(1) Tropical rainforests (2) Temperature rainforests.
• The temperature: The weather is always wet. The temperature in the rainforest
never freezes and never gets very hot. The range of temperature in a tropical rainforest
is usually between 75° F and 80° F (24-27° C). Temperate rainforests rarely freeze or get
over 80° F (27° C).
• Rainfall: Most rainforests have more than 200 mm of rain in a month. In Belem, Brazil,
it rains on about 243 days each year. And the rain is heavy too! It is almost always
raining in the rainforest. Rainforests get over 80 inches (2 m) of rain each year. It is
about 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) of rain each week.
Where are the rainforests?
• The Location:
Tropical rainforests are
located near the equator.
Temperate rainforests are
found in coastal areas. The
largest temperate
rainforests are along the
Pacific Northwest coastline,
from Oregon to Alaska.
• The map of the rainforest
Strata of the Rainforests
• Different animals and plants live in different
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parts of the rainforest. Scientists divide the
rainforest into strata (zones) based on the
living environment. Starting at the top, the
strata are:
EMERGENTS: Giant trees that are much
higher than the average canopy height. It
houses many birds and insects.
CANOPY: The upper parts of the trees.
This leafy environment is full of life in a
tropical rainforest and includes: insects,
birds, reptiles, mammals, and more.
UNDERSTORY: A dark, cool environment
under the leaves but over the ground.
FOREST FLOOR: Teeming with animal life,
especially insects. The largest animals in
the rainforest generally live here.
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The tree layers
THE TREE LAYERS
Why are rainforests
important?
• Rainforests are home of native people,
plants and animals
• Control the amount of carbon dioxide and
oxygen
• Plants made medicine
• For eating and rubber
Why are rainforests
important?
• (1)Rainforests are home
of native people, plant
and animals: Rainforests are
home to about fifty million people
and more than half the species of
plants and animals of the earth live
in the rainforests. In 10,000
squares meters of rainforest there
can be more than 8,00 different
species of plants. (In all of Great
Britain there are only 1443 different
species of plants)
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People in the rainforest
Why are rainforests
important?
• (2)Control the amount
of carbon dioxide
and oxygen: The leaves of
rainforests’ trees make one-third
of the Earth’s oxygen. The trees
of rainforests help the Earth’s air
because their leaves use carbon
dioxide and make oxygen, which
we need to live. Also they control
some of the Earth’s weather.
Through their large leaves, they
give out water vapour, which
makes heavy clouds. The clouds
then move to other parts of the
Earth and give rain. The clouds
also protect the Earth from the
sun.
• Clouds and water vapour
Why are rainforests
important?
• (3)Plant made medicines:
Also the peoples of rainforests have
always used plants to make medicines.
Today, all over the world, people use
medicines made from rainforest plants.
Rainforest trees are used to make many
things which we use every day. In 1970,
a disease destroyed half the maize in the
United States of America. Scientists
began to look for new species of maize
in the rainforests. In 1987, in the
Mexican rainforest, they found a new
species, which is stronger than other
species.
• The Maize Plantation
Why are rainforests
important?
• (4)For eating and
rubber: Rubber, for
example, is used to make
many things. The fruits of
many forest trees are good to
eat – forest people have eaten
them for thousands of years.
Today, all over the world,
people eat rainforest food
plants; for example, coffee,
tea, oranges, and rices.
• Rubber trees
People in the
rainforests
• Peoples: More than fifty million people live
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in the rainforests of the world.
The Yanomami
Chico Mendes
The Gavioes people
The Huli Wigmen
People in the
rainforests
• The Yanomami : They
live along the rivers of the
rainforest in the north of Brazil.
They are a group of forest people
that can literally run up heavy
trunked emergent trees (over 200
feet) without breaking a sweat.
It's because of their remarkably
wide feet which also have
advantages running around the
muddy rainforest floors.
• The Yanomami
People in the
rainforests
• Chico Mendes: He
was famous in Brazil
because he wanted to keep
the forest for his people. ‘I
want the Amazon forest to
help all of us- forest people,
Brazil, and all the Earth,’ he
said.
• Chico Mendes (right)
People in the
rainforests
• The Huli Wigmen:
They live on an island, called
Papua New Guinea, just off
the coast of Australia. The
men of this tribe wear large
wigs of matted human hair,
that they grow themselves.
• The Huli Wigmen ceremony
People in the rainforests
• The Gavioes
people: They are
living in Brazil and they
use the forest, but they
protect it as well. They
find and sell the Brazil
nuts, which grow on the
forest trees.
• The Gavioes people opening
Brazil nuts with machetes
Animals in the
rainforests
• Animals: In the rainforest, there are many different
kinds of animals. You can find bats with
wingspans up to 5.5 feet, moths with wingspans of
12 inches, frogs so big they could eat rats, and rats
themselves weighing up to 100 pounds.
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The piranha
The saltwater crocodiles
The anaconda
The leaf cutter ants
Vampire bats
The blue jeans frog
Animals in the
rainforests
• The piranha: It is a small
fish that is activated into a
feeding frenzy by the smell of
blood. Their teeth are so
sharp that they can strip a
100 pound animal to the bone
in a minute. No telling what
they could do to a box of
Kellogg's* Froot Loops*
cereal!
• The Piranha
Animals in the rainforests
• The saltwater
crocodiles: It can grow to
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more than 20 feet long. They are
one of the most aggressive
animals on earth. They've been
known to attack canoes out at
sea. You don't want to dial this
croc's number.
The anaconda: It's a
water boa and is the largest
snake in the world at 37.5 feet
long and weighing over 500
pounds. They've been known to
eat people now.
• The saltwater crocodiles
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The anaconda
Animals in the
rainforests
• The leaf cutter ants: They are
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one of the first life forms on earth to
engage in a form of agriculture. They
use the leaves to form an organic
mulch that nurtures the growth of a
certain type of mushroom, which the
ants cultivate and eat as their sole diet.
Vampire bats: They’re medium
sized bats that pierce the skin of their
victim, usually a cow or pig, with razor
sharp teeth. The victim is unaware of
the cut because the bat's saliva
contains an effective anesthetic, as
well as an anti-coagulant, to keep the
blood flowing while the bat feeds.
Blood is the sole form of food for this
bat.
• The leaf cutter ants
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The Vampire bats
Animals in the
rainforests
• The blue jeans frog: This
little amphibian has been
nicknamed the blue jeans frog. The
skin of this frog contains a
powerful toxin used by hunters to
poison the tips of their arrows and
blow gun darts. Even in the rain
forest the cool animals wear blue
jeans.
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The blue jeans frog
Plants in the rainforests
• In every rain forest there are many kinds of plants. In fact,
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inside a single hectare (2.47 acres) you can find up to 750
types of trees and 1,500 types of plants! But this entire
range of species can easily be broken down into four
categories, grouped by how they take up nutrients:
Carnivorous plants eat small animals.
Saprophytic plants eat decaying matter.
Parasitic plants take nutrients directly from other living
plants.
Autotrophs take nutrients from the soil.
Plants in the rainforests
• The Bamboo: It’s a giant
grass found in the rain forest and
can grow up to 120 feet high and
have stems 12 inches in diameter.
One Bamboo plant was recorded
growing at a rate of 36 inches in
24 hours.
• The Bamboo Shoot
• The giant water lily: It
has leaves that can grow over 5
feet across. It is actually strong
enough for a kid to stand on.
• The giant water lily
Plants in the rainforests
• The rafflesia: It is a parasite
that has the world's largest flower.
It's over 3 feet across and can hold
several gallons of water. When it
opens, the rafflesia makes a hissing
sound like a cobra. It also has the
strong odor and color of rotting meat,
which attracts flies that pollinate it.
The rafflesia
• Monkey ladders: They
are these very cool vines that grow in
a zig-zag fashion and look like
ladders. They're filled with pure water, •
so travelers only need their machete
to get a quick drink if they want one. •
The money
ladder
Plant of the rainforests
• The venus fly trap: It
grows in poor soil swamps. To
ensure they get enough nitrogen
they hunt insects by giving off an
odor that attracts them. An insect
lands on the leaf which triggers it
to snap shut. This one has caught
an insect. Venus fly traps taken
and grown in other parts of the
world have even been known to eat
small bits of raw ground beef.
They're obviously not picky eaters
• Venus Fly Trap eating insect
Disappearing
rainforests
• Why are we destroying the rainforests that
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so QUICK? The answer was mainly about
MONEY.
Cutting trees
Cattle ranching
Coffee and sugar plantation
Rapid population
Building dams
Disappearing rainforests
• Cutting trees: Countries with
rainforest cut down about 50,000 square
kilometers of trees every year, and sell the
wood to the rich countries like Japan,
Europe, America… If you want to help the
rainforests, you must not buy furniture
made of rainforest wood. Also, when people
look for metals in the rainforest, they also
destroy the forests. For example, when
people look for gold, they use deadly
mercury to wash the gold. The mercury
goes into the rivers where it kills fish and
other animals. International business buy
rainforests in the Latin America where land
is very cheap. They cut down the trees, sell
the wood, and use the land for cows.
• The logging trees
Disappearing
rainforests
• Cattle ranching: Thousands
of trees and animals have died, and
forest people have lost their homes,
so that today North America can eat
cheap meat only. Ninety per cent of
Latin America meat goes to North
America because it is so cheap.
Now, all over the world, people eat
140 million tones of meat every year.
And the rich countries of the north
eat sixty per cent of this.
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Cattle ranching
Disappearing
rainforests
• Coffee and sugar
plantation: Many countries
cut down rainforests and
plant coffee and sugar which
they can sell to rich
countries. Not many insects
and animals can live in
coffee or sugar plantation
because they damage the
coffee and sugar.
• Coffee Plantation
Disappearing rainforests
• Rapid population: In many
rainforest countries, there are too many
people in the cities, and many people
move to the rainforests to grow food for
themselves. Also the people of many
rainforest countries use wood from forest
trees to make fires to cook their food. We
must help them to plant new trees, and
perhaps to find other ways of cooking. We
also need to learn about the trees of the
rainforests, before we destroyed them.
One famous tree is the petroleum nut tree,
from the Philippines. This tree makes oil
which we can use for fires for cooking or
lighting. One of these trees can make fifty
litres of oil every year.
• The Population
Disappearing rainforests
• Building dams: In Latin
America, many countries want to
build dams to make more
electricity for their cities. In many
places forest people and animals
have lost their homes, and
thousands of trees have died
because dams need a lot of water
to make electricity. In Australia, the
rainforest in Northern Queensland
is in danger because a dam on the
Tully river will destroy many
squares kilometers of forests.
• Dams
Solve the deforestation
• We can raise money to buy large quantities of
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land and declare it off limits for loggers, farmers
and ranchers.
We can educate people about the value of the
rainforest. How about buying an acre of the
forest! For $37.50, individuals can purchase
protection of an acre of forest land.
Reduce the use of paper and do not use things
that made in the rainforest
Conclusion
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Rainforests really take an important part of our life. They
affect us very much. If the rainforests were deforested, all the
animals and plants would lose their good living environment.
Also, the great numbers of species and the trees of the
rainforests which controlled the amount of carbon dioxide and
oxygen would be decreased rapidly. Oxygen is the main
product that human beings need, and if more and more carbon
dioxide were produced, global warming would be occurred.
Then after a few years, the earth and all living organisms
would died. So we must protect our living place and stopped
the deforestation in order to have a better living environment. I
hope that the native people and those who destroyed the
forests can be co-operated , in order to make a wonderful
world.
Feeling
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After doing this project, we knew the importance
of rainforests and the rapid growth of deforestation.
Are there any methods to solve the great problems?
We can absolutely say the answer is “Yes”, but the
people are too selfish because of earning more
money. They have never thought about their future
and their generations. Destroying the rainforests will
also make a great damage to the environment. But
why the people are still destroying them? Also we
learnt much skills of how to present our project and
technical of using the computer.
Work List
• Chan Mei Shuen (1): Leader, information collector,
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designer, typist, scraper, make the decoration, read the
books, find the websites
Chau Tsz Ying (4): Information collector, make the
decoration, grammar corrector
Yip Hau Yan (19): Information collector, make the
decoration
Fong Fu Tong (25): Information collector
Leung Ngai Chung (31): Information collector
Sin Ka Wing (36): Information collector
Wong Siu Faat (39): Information collector,make the
decoration