Group1 - Location1 : Natural Vegetation

GEOGRAPHY
LABRADOR PARK FIELDTRIP 2006

The Labrador Park Fieldtrip is our second trip of the year. The main purpose of having this trip is to step out of the classroom and take a look on the features of rainforest, coast studies, as well as weatherings. The main focus of our group is on the Natural Vegetation. The main intention of having this field trip was to allowed us to see how does a real Tropical Rainforest looks like , rather than viewing it blankly in the textbooks or notes .

Introduction of the Tropical Rainforest

Tropical Rainforest are found mainly around the area of the Equator, where it experience equatorial climate all year round. Tropical rainforest are abundant in parts of Central and South America, Central Africa and parts of Southeast Asia eg. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and so on.

Tropical rainforests around the world are quite diverse, but share several defining characteristics including climate, precipitation, canopy structure, complex symbiotic relationships, and different kinds of species. The tropical rainforest is able to grow under optimal growing conditions like abundant precipitation and year round warmth. There is no annual rhythm to the forest; rather each species has evolved its own flowering and fruiting seasons. Sunlight is a major limiting factor. A variety of way to be seen in order to reach light and to adapt to the low intensity of light beneath the canopy.


Structure of the Tropical Rainforest

The Tropical Rainforest is made up of five various distinct layers. They are the Emergent, Canopy, Understorey, Shrub and Ground Layers

The Emergent layer - Widely spaced trees 40 to 50 meters tall and with umbrella-shaped canopies extend above the general canopy of the forest. They are often large with straight trunks, supported by a system of shallow, wide speading buttress roots.

The Canopy layer- A closed canopy of 30 meters trees. Light is readily available at the top of this layer, but greatly reduced below it. Therefore, the closed canopy grows so close that its crowns appear to interlock, forming a continuous canopy. This actually helps to shuts off most of the sunlight from the forest floor.

The Understorey layer – Small slender trees which grow to a height of between 10 to 30 meters. There is little air movement in this zone and consequently humidity is constantly high.

The Shrub layer - Less than 3 percent of the light intercepted at the top of the forest canopy passes to this layer. Arrested growth is characteristic of young trees capable of a rapid surge of growth when a gap in canopy above them opens.

The Ground layer - Sparse plant growth. Less than 1 percent of the light that strikes the top of the forest penetrates to the forest floor. In such darkness few green plants grow. Only plants like ferns mosses, fungi, which does not need many sunlight will grow in that layer. Moisture is also reduced by the canopy above: one third of the precipitation is intercepted before it reaches the ground.

Other than seeing the distinct layer of the Tropical Rainforest, we also are able to see the various Typical of Rainforest plants, found in both Canopy and Understorey layer. They are the Epiphytes, Lianas and Climbers.

Epiphytes - The so-called air plants grow on branches high in the trees, using the limbs merely for support and extracting moisture from the air and trapping the constant leaf-fall and wind-blown dust. Bromeliads (pineapple family) are especially abundant in the neotropics; the orchid family is widely distributed in all three formations of the tropical rainforest. As demonstration of the relative aridity of exposed branches in the high canopy, epiphytic cacti also occur in the Americas.

Lianas - Woody vines grow rapidly up the tree trunks when there is a temporary gap in the canopy and flower and fruit in the tree tops of the understorey and canopy layers.

Climbers - Green-stemmed plants such as philodendron that remain in the understory. Many climbers, including the ancestors of the domesticated yams (Africa) and sweet potatoes (South America), store nutrients in roots and tubers.

Characteristics of the Tropical Rainforest

The Tropical Rainforest has different characteristics to adapt to the changes of the Equatorial Climate. The following below shows the different kinds of the characteristics that enable the Forest to continue to grow.

Buttresses roots are roots which have broad, woody flanges at the base of the trunk. Believed to help support the tree other than that buttresses channel stem flow and it’s dissolved nutrients to the roots.

Broad leaves are common among trees of the Emergent layer. Young individuals of trees destined for the canopy and understorey layers may also have large trees. When the reach the canopy new leaves will be smaller. The large leaf surface helps intercept light in the sun-dappled lower strata of the forest.

Downward Dripping tips leaves are facilitate drainage of precipitation off the leaf to promote transpiration. They occur in the lower layers and among the saplings of species of the emergent layer.

Comparing Tropical Rainforest to the other Forests

In drier, temperate deciduous forests a thick bark helps to limit moisture evaporation from the tree's trunk. Since this is not a concern in the high humidity of tropical rainforests, most trees have a thin, smooth bark. The smoothness of the bark may also make it difficult for other plants to grow.

Why Is There A Need To Conserve The Tropical Rainforest?

Tropical Rainforest is known as one of the world’s richest ecosystems, therefore it also provide many resources like woods to burn fires, papers, furniture- making, ropes and are also used in construction industries. Other than woods, the Tropical Rainforest include resins, which provide natural dyes. Plants which contains spices, also local fruits like berry and mangoes. There are also medically valuable plant species.

Nowadays, rainforest have been seriously depleted by the increasing land being used for commercial, recreational and industrial uses .Tropical rainforest trees and plants also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their roots, stems, leaves, and branches. Imagine , if the rainforest were to become extinct due to human actions , there will be lesser plants to recycle the air , thus , we will have to breathe in most of the carbon dioxide ! Scary isn't it ?

Therefore , conserving Tropical rainforest is certainly important and neccessary ! Whenever you want to waste any natural resources , stop and think of the dreadful consequences

Soil Conversation

There are many different kinds of soil conversation to prevent soil erosion, such as putting net, placing the tiles to prevent soil erosion . At the Labrador Park, we are able to observe several kinds of soil conversation, which were shown above. The kinds of conservation were man-made . However , these are not the best resolution as they may actually cost a bomb if the government wanted to build a lot of it. Therefore , these kind of man-made conservation are only affordable to the developed countries like Singapore. For developing countries like India, they will have to plant a lot more trees, as the roots help to stabilize and hold the soil together on slopes to prevent erosion. Futhermore , it's much more cheaper planting more trees ,instead of constructing the man-made soil conservation.

Why Is There A Need Of Having Soil Conservation?

There is a need to have soil conversation in the Tropical Rainforest is to prevent soil erosion. Especially in the Countries which experience hot and wet climate all year round. Countries like India, which may experience flooding due to prevailing monsoon. Therefore by having soil conversation, it helps to prevent loss of soil fertility (nutrient cycle and soil leaching), preventing increasing in water pollution and flooding, increase in greenhouse effect and loss of plant and animal species.

Nature slowly wears away land, but human activities such as construction increase the rate of erosion 200, even 2,000 times that amount. When we remove vegetation or other objects that hold soil in place, we expose it to the action of wind and water and increase its chances of eroding.

With all the contributiing factors, the enitire Tropical Rainforest’s habitat will gradually be destroyed , if the worst come to worst, it may lead to greenhouse effects and changes in Global Climate , which may result in global warming . Infertile of soil can also lead to extinction of trees .

Sources:Secondary 3 Geography Textbook

Pictures taken by Group Members at Labrador Park
www.yahoo.com
www.stagsleapwinery.com/art/2002_fall/Geology.pdf

Done by :

Chng Pei Sze

Chua Mei Qi

Goh Pan Hui

Ho Yenn Ting

Ann Lee

Chan Li Zhong

Chia Kuan Koon

Eric Ng

Eddie Koh

of sec3B'06