Tropical Rainforest Project |
OVERVIEW
Primary Succession:
In the Tropical Rainforest, flooding happens quite often from the profuse rain. This strips the topsoil, so the environment must create new. Secondary Succession: Humans cut down large areas of trees and after a few years the soil becomes infertile. After humans move, secondary succession sets in, fertilizing the soil and growing small plants and trees again until the forest, after hundreds of years, has grown back. Keystone Species- Agouti and Orangatang Metapopulations: The tropical rainforest provides a suitable metapopulation environment. The high species diversity present in tropical rainforests is because of the high metapopulation dynamics as well as the environment itself. For example, the Amazon River Basin (surrounding the Amazon rainforest) is an area of varied patchy environments. This makes it a prime environment for metapopulations dynamics to occur. |
K- Selected R- Selected
- Stable environment, density dependent interactions - Unstable environment
- Large size of organism - Small size of organisms
- Energy used to make each individual is high - Energy used to make each individual is low
- Fewer offspring are produced - Many offspring are produced
- Late maturity, often after a prolonged period of parental care - Early maturity
- Long life expectancy - Short life expectancy
- Individuals can reproduce more than once in their lifetime - Each individual reproduces only once
- Type I or II survivorship pattern in which most individuals live - Type III survivorship pattern
near the maximum life span
- Stable environment, density dependent interactions - Unstable environment
- Large size of organism - Small size of organisms
- Energy used to make each individual is high - Energy used to make each individual is low
- Fewer offspring are produced - Many offspring are produced
- Late maturity, often after a prolonged period of parental care - Early maturity
- Long life expectancy - Short life expectancy
- Individuals can reproduce more than once in their lifetime - Each individual reproduces only once
- Type I or II survivorship pattern in which most individuals live - Type III survivorship pattern
near the maximum life span