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Amazon River rain forest in Peru. Tropical rainforests are hot and wet. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C (64 °F) during all months of the year. [4] Average annual rainfall is no less than 1,680 mm (66 in) and can exceed 10 m (390 in) although it typically lies between 1,750 mm (69 in) and 3,000 mm (120 in). [5]
A tropical rainforest climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as Bermuda, the coast of southernmost Florida, United States (Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach), and Okinawa, Japan that fall into the tropical rainforest climate category.
About half of the world's tropical rainforests are in the South American countries of Brazil and Peru. Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earth's land surface. Scientists estimate that more than half of all the world's plant and animal species live in tropical rainforests.
The Köppen climate classification is the most widely used climate classification system. [2] It defines a tropical climate as a region where the mean temperature of the coldest month is greater than or equal to 18 °C (64 °F) and does not fit into the criteria for B-group climates, classifying them as an A-group (tropical climate group). [3]
Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. [2] Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere. [3]
A Sapele tree in the Republic of the Congo. The Congolian rainforest is the world's second-largest tropical forest, after the Amazon rainforest.It covers over 500,000,000 acres (2,000,000 km 2) across six countries and contains a quarter of the world's remaining tropical forest.
Most of the interior of the Amazon basin is covered by rainforest. [6] The dense tropical Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. [2] It covers between 5,500,000 and 6,200,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 and 2,400,000 sq mi) of the 6,700,000 to 6,900,000 square kilometres (2,600,000 to 2,700,000 sq mi) Amazon biome.
Borneo rainforest. Some tropical forest types are difficult to categorize. While forests in temperate areas are readily categorized on the basis of tree canopy density, such schemes do not work well in tropical forests. [1] There is no single scheme that defines what a forest is, in tropical regions or elsewhere.