Rainforest Layers

By Wendy Pan

The rain forest is made up of layers which will all have a different characteristic and be the home for a range of different birds, animals and insects. They will also support a huge variety of plant life which will vary according to the rain forest layers in which they exist. There are five rain forest layers which are clearly definable.

The lowest is the forest floor. Much of the sunlight does not penetrate here and in fact only around 2% of the sunlight reaches the floor. This layer will be home to millions of micro organisms and invertebrates which live amongst the fallen leaves. There will be some mosses and ferns growing in the warm and damp. Many larger animals will be found here including big cats, elephants and gorillas.

Next will be a shrub layer which is home to many varieties of shrubs and ferns. The rain forest layers then continue with a layer of small trees called the understory. Although these are small in comparison to the taller trees of the forest, they can still reach up to around 20 metres in height. These will grow until they are just under the canopy of the forest and will wait there until they find a space to grow into. You will find birds, snakes, butterflies and frogs here and the whole area will be filled with activity and colour.

The canopy, next layer up, is probably the best known of the rain forest layers. The trees will be up to 35 metres tall and form a canopy over the lower layers keeping out much of the light. Many monkeys make this area their home, as do sloths, snakes, lots of insects and some frogs and lizards.

Above the canopy will be the emergent layer. This is the highest of the rain forest layers and comprises the tops of the highest trees. It is not nearly as dense as the canopy and the trees almost look like umbrellas opened up over the top of the forest. The wildlife in this area is similar to that of the canopy although the animals may be smaller. You are not likely to find sloths, but there will be some small monkeys. This is a very difficult area to study due to its inaccessibility. Recently, however, there have been some walkways established so that researchers can record the activity in the layer.

Each of the rain forest layers is a separate community but they work together as a whole and no one layer can survive without the others. This is intuitive to them and they exist sympathetically as a complete unit. If we could learn to live with the same respect for each other down on the ground level, we may be able to save our rain forests and the rich community that lives there.