Plants:
● Factors that help plants survive with poor soils
○ Rapid cycling of nutrients through the ecosystem
○ Absorption of sunlight → photosynthesis
○ Warm and humid climate is ideal for plant growth
○ Ability of plants to adapt as they compete for sunlight/nutrients
● Heat and humidity
○ Constant recycling of water occurs everyday
■ Waxy leaves and drip tips → allows water to run off them
■ Flexible leaf stems → leaves can move with the sun
○ Uses circulating water as a cooling system
○ Passes water to the soil or returns it to the atmosphere
○ Has leaves that can cope with large amounts of water falling on them
● Competition for sunlight
○ Plants have adapted to physical conditions in each layer, mainly the available sunlight
■ Most sunlight received at top
■ Due to shading effect → least sunlight is received close to forest floor
○ Little photosynthesis to convert small amount of light into plant food
○ Plants have to get food from the soil instead of relying on photosynthesis to make food
Animals:
● Competition for food
○ Many animals = lots of competition
○ Some animals are very specialised → they live off a specific plant that few others eat
■ eg/ parrots and toucans have developed hard beaks → eat hard nuts
○ Relationships between plants and animals
■ Some trees depend on animals to spread the seeds of their fruit
■ Birds and mammals eat the fruit and travel before excreting seeds
● Other survival strategies
○ Camouflage
■ Prey use it to escape being eaten
■ Predators use it to hide and help catch prey
○ Poisons and bright colours
■ Warn predators to leave them alone
● eg/ poisonous arrow frogs