How Rainforests are Formed, and How They are Being Destroyed
Tropical rainforests are one of the world’s most complex ecosystems.
These hot and humid forests harbor millions of species—10 percent of the world’s known species
can be found in the Amazon alone—which together form a unique structure that rises in stories
from the forest floor to the tops of the tallest trees.
Each of these layers holds its own unique community of plants, animals and other creatures
that interact to create a rainforest.
This complex ecosystem is a sum that is truly more than its parts, but its complexity means
that disturbances to individual layers are in fact threats to the entire forest’s natural order.