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World Biomes
Tropical deciduous forest
Introduction
• Tropical deciduous forests are like tropical rain
forests, but have a pronounced dry season
which causes the trees to lose their
leaves. This type of forest is found on the
fringes of the tropical rain forests. As the
climate gets drier, tropical deciduous forests
grade into savanna, and, eventually,
grasslands.
http://staff.aist.go.jp/old-gamo/2003.4a/4-2index.html
Distribution
Tropical deciduous forests grow in seasonally dry
areas of the tropics. These forests occur mainly
in India, the Myanmar-Vietnam-southern coastal
China region, eastern Brazil, smaller areas in
South and Central America north of the Equator,
the West Indies, south-eastern Africa, and
northern Australia.
Distribution
Warm desert
Dry
Tropical
grassland
Savanna
Tropical
deciduous
forest
Tropical
rainforest
Wet
Climate
• Well defined dry (winter) and wet
(summer) season
• Rainfall of 700-3000mm
• Like in the tropical rainforest climate,
temperatures remain high all year
Soil
Soil is richer in nutrients than
in tropical rainforest
because trees drop down
leaves and the trees grow
more sparsely.
Moist deciduous forests
• Moist deciduous forests are found in tropical
regions where both rainy and dry seasons
occur during the year. These forests are
different from tropical rain forests in that the
trees are not as tall and have rather thick bark.
In the first month of the dry season, the leaves
fall. New leaves sprout just before the rainy
season begins.
Dry deciduous forests
• Dry tropical deciduous forests occur in regions
that have long, severe dry seasons, such as
the savannas (grasslands) of Africa. The tallest
trees are shorter and more twisted than those
in a temperate forest, and the bark is thicker.
Some trees may store water in their trunks.
During the dry season, the trees lose their
leaves, and many produce flowers. Some,
such as wattle trees in Australia, have adapted
by producing thorns instead of many leaves.
Plants
• The trees here are typically not as close
together as in the tropical rainforests, so
more light can reach the forest floor,
especially when the deciduous species
have dropped their leaves. The
availability of sunlight on the forest floor
results in dense undergrowth, which
makes walking extremely difficult.
Animals
• Many animals live on trees
• Life on forest floor is more diverse
• Animals are adapted to dry season
People
• Dry tropical forests share many of the
problems of the rainforest, in terms of
pressures for agricultural development as a
consequence of human population pressure.
Recovery of these forests after disturbance
can take even longer than that of rainforest.
• Monsoon forests are now largely logged out in
SE Asia. Dry tropical forests also heavily
logged, nearly vanished in Indonesia.