The Tropical Rainforest biome is generally located in the southern hemisphere near the equator. Most of the forests are located in central Africa, southeast Asia, and Central/Latin America. Our park is located in the southwestern part of Costa Rica and sits on the Pacific Ocean and various rivers within the Osa Peninsula. (1) (2) At this location near the Earth's equator, there are no drastically distinct 'growing' seasons because the plants are able to perform photosynthesis all year long. (26) Because our ecosystem is near the equator, it receives more intense sunlight than other farther north places. This is also why our tropical ecosystem has a high average temperature as well as more light to allow plants to grow faster. (27)
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What are Biomes and Ecosystems?
A biome is a large, widespread area that contains characteristic climates and terrains in which animals typical of that biome live. An ecosystem, such as our park, is a smaller area within a specific biome that shows distinct interactions between the local organisms and the physical environment.
Quick Video Overview of Our Park (17)
For Further Reading
http://botany.si.edu/projects/cpd/ma/ma18.htm - This website provides a great deal of information about the in depth geography of our park and also discusses the individual regions that it can be divided into. Also, it contains information about many conservation organizations involved with our park.
http://www.whitehawkproject.org/about-the-white-hawk-project/about-corcovado-national-park/ - This website provides information about the White Hawk Project, a project to keep the biodiversity of our park sustainable by creating opportunities for our isolated ecosystem to continue to have gene flow, allowing evolution to change populations and maintain biodiversity.
https://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/troprain.htm - This website provides highly detailed information about all the different types of interactions that can be found in the tropical rainforest biome, what causes them, and what comes about due to them. It also contains information about the global biodiversity of tropical rainforests.
http://www.whitehawkproject.org/about-the-white-hawk-project/about-corcovado-national-park/ - This website provides information about the White Hawk Project, a project to keep the biodiversity of our park sustainable by creating opportunities for our isolated ecosystem to continue to have gene flow, allowing evolution to change populations and maintain biodiversity.
https://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/troprain.htm - This website provides highly detailed information about all the different types of interactions that can be found in the tropical rainforest biome, what causes them, and what comes about due to them. It also contains information about the global biodiversity of tropical rainforests.