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Not like a desert, water is not an issue in the tropical rainforest. Still, there may be intense competition, only in this case other sellers is for light and nutrients. the canopy layer of the rainforest.
Not like a desert, water is not an issue in the tropical rainforest. Still, there may be intense competition, only in this case other sellers is for light and nutrients. the canopy layer of the rainforest.
the canopy layer of the rainforest
Having many tall trees forming a multi-layer canopy, not very much light gets to the forest bottom, and competition for light is strong. Sometimes the forest floor may be relatively bare because there is simply not enough light. With this competition to be a backdrop, the profusion of epiphytes and vines from the tropical rainforest makes sense. Rather than grow huge trunks to hold on to their leaves up to the light-weight, epiphytes and vines "cheat" by growing on the top down. Here's how it is effective: A monkey or bird eats the fruit of epiphyte, and scurried or flies completely to another spot, where it defecates. The plant seeds, embedded in a rich pile connected with feces, get caught up on the bark or from the crotch of a tree high up from the canopy where there is more light-weight. In the case of vines, they rapidly send roots because of the ground to get minerals (mineral water is plentiful); epiphytes may grow up against the tree or form a basin because of their leaves. The basin will fill with a number of water and feces from canopy dwelling animals along with the epiphyte can extract minerals from that trapped water. Perhaps no vine exhibits this tactic better than the Strangler Fig (suitable). The seeds germinate in the crown on the canopy and a root slithers because of the forest floor. Making contact, the item immediately begins to send nutrients skyward, along with the fig in the crown responds by means of dropping additional roots down the trunk area. Eventually the roots completely encircle the trunk and to fuse; above in the canopy this fig is shading out the coordinator tree's leaves. The host tree sickens in addition to dies, and eventually decomposes. This actually leaves the strangle fig standing tall, its fused roots forming a hollow trunk as tall for the reason that original tree.
