Where Do I Live?

[click on the numbers to see the people]

The Amazon rainforest can be thought of as a highrise apartment building, or a multi-level shopping mall might be a better comparison. On the bottom floor are the food court and services like the bank and post office. On the next floor are stores and shops. Then comes the office tower, with maybe a restaurant on the top floor. Each area serves a different purpose and different kinds of people are usually found at each level. Depending on the time of day, you might see different people at different levels. You usually don't find too many people on the roof. Around lunch time, the office workers come down from the tower to the food court to eat. After closing, the security guards and cleaning staff come out. Mall rats are usually found in small to large groups at the food court, but can be found anywhere almost any time of the day, but some kinds of mall rats can only be found after dark!

Rainforests also come in distinct levels or layers:

Emergent Layer: In the emergent layer of the rainforest, trees grow as tall as skyscrapers. The trees often have thick waxy leaves to protect them from the hot sun and from strong winds and rain. The tops of the trees are umbrella-shaped, and the trunks are long and thin. Some of the trees are supported by buttresses or stilt roots to keep them secure.

The Canopy: The Canopy of the rainforest forms a continuous green roof over the forest below. This layer gets much of the rainfall. Many of the leaves on the plants in the canopy are pointed so the rain can run off the tips of the leaves. These "drip tips" keep the leaves dry and free of mold. They also channel water down the trunks of trees to the forest floor. In the canopy, there is abundant food and sunlight for thousands of animals and plants. Most of the animal and plant species in the rainforest live in the canopy or in the understorey.

The Understorey: The understorey is a tangle of shrubs, young trees, palms and woody plants that can grow in the shade of the taller trees in the next layer. The leaves of many of the plants in the understorey are especially large, so they can absorb as much sunlight as possible. The plants in this layer rarely grow higher than 3.5 metres.

The Forest Floor: The floor of the rainforest is a fairly open area, carpeted with moss and decaying leaves. Small plants that need little light grow here, because the dense forest above blocks out most sunlight. This layer of the rain forest is dark and humid and incredibly green.