Rainforest Soil

Because rainforests are such species-rich ecosystems you'd think that rainforest soil is also rich.

But in fact, often it is very poor on nutrients.



This is mainly because of all the rain. It rains so much in rainforests that the nutrients are leaked out of soils very quickly.

So how come so many plants thrive in the rainforests?

Plants love the moisture and warmth.




But, the life in the rainforests is not easy.

Competition is high and the soils are poor.

What makes up for the nutrients quickly disappearing from the soil is high productivity.

rainforest soil


Decomposing is very quick - about 10 times quicker than in other ecosystems.

This ensures that nutrients are quickly returned to the system, and hopefully picked up before they leak out.



Custom Search







What's New

Rainforest News

About Using Content




Bookmark and Share

[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
follow us in feedly
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines


You Are Secure!