Forest Floor Layer Research Paper

Lastly, is the forest floor layer. This layer is dark, humid and full of many dead leaves, branches and dead plants. The forest floor is generally clear of vegetation with slight or no winds and rains reaching there. The forest floor is dark due to the deep darkness created by 100 feet of canopy plants above that are preventing the sunlight from entering the forest. It is estimated that only two percentage of the sunlight actually reaches the floor. The forest layer holds the significant to the proper operational of the entire rainforest ecosystem. The forest floor is one of the major sites of disintegration takes place. On the floor is a thin layer of fallen leaves, seeds, fruits, and twigs that very quickly decomposes. Only a thin layer of decomposing organic matter is found. In spite of its constant shade, the ground floor of the rainforest is the location for important collaborations and complex relationships. It is also home to thousands of plants and animals, and provides sustenance

A wide variety of insect, amphibian, and reptile species also populate the forest floor. The scorpion is a forest floor insect that feeds on other insects and spiders but has to guard out for snakes and other animals. Army ants, the most hazardous kind of ants, call the rainforest floor home. Their food source is abundant as they will move in colonies to attack and eat everything they come in interaction with, even humans. Giant anteaters, beetles, frogs, lizards, snakes including the giant anaconda, termites, and insects of every kind thrive by the millions in the moist, dark weather of the forest floor. Not all tropical rainforests have the same animals. Some other species that grow well on the tropical rainforest floor include elephants, mongoose, tapirs, Southern Cassowaries, okapis, armadillos, rainforest pigs and