1. Tropical Rainforest
Lexi Reid
Period 6
May 22, 2008
Food Webs

2. Tropical Rainforest

3. Tropical Rainforest
Competition for the minerals is fierce. If a leaf falls from a tall tree, or a piece of fruit is knocked off a branch, it may fall to the forest floor. Immediately the detritivores (bacteria and fungi that eat (break down) dead material) get to work and start digesting the fallen piece of organic matter. Their digestive processes make the minerals available again, and the net of shallow plant roots lies ready to soak them up and send them up into the trees and vines. This means that the nutrient "wealth" of the forest is all being used by the life forms living there. If the rain forest is cut down, nothing remains but a thin layer of low fertility soil.

4. Tropical Rainforest

5. Tropical Rainforest Reference: http://www.world-builders.org