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The term "tropical vegetation" is frequently used in the sense of lush and luxuriant, but not all the vegetation of the areas of the Earth in tropical climates can be defined as such. Despite lush vegetation, often the soils of tropical forests are low in nutrients making them quite vulnerable to slash-and-burn deforestation techniques, which ...
Tropicality gained renewed interest in geographical discourse when French geographer Pierre Gourou published Les pays tropicaux (The Tropical World in English), in the late 1940s. [15] Tropicality encompassed two major images. One, is that the tropics represent a 'Garden of Eden', a heaven on Earth, a land of rich biodiversity or a tropical ...
extent of tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands. Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. [1] The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and tropical latitudes ...
Under both classifications, at least one month must average below 18 °C (64.4 °F) or the climate is considered tropical. Leslie Holdridge defined the subtropical climates as having a mean annual biotemperature between the frost line or critical temperature line, 16 °C to 18 °C (depending on locations in the world) and 24 °C. [1]
However, tropical forests are extensive, making up just under half the world's forests. [3] The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world's forests (45 percent), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains. [4] More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018. [5] [6]
They are home to 40–75% of all species globally, including half of the world's animal and plant species, and two-thirds of all flowering plant species. Their dense insect population and variety of trees and higher plants are notable. Described as the "world's largest pharmacy", over a quarter of natural medicines have been discovered in them.
This is a list of terrestrial ecoregions as compiled by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The WWF identifies terrestrial , freshwater , and marine ecoregions . The terrestrial scheme divides the Earth's land surface into 8 biogeographic realms , containing 867 smaller ecoregions.
As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon rainforest. [47] This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. [48]