TROPICAL RAINFOREST Rainfall 80 to 450-plus inches per year.
Nicknamed “the world’s largest pharmacy” because more than 25 percent of modern medicines originate from tropical rainforest plants.
Area
Carbon Storage
Covers just 2 percent of Earth’s surface, yet houses more than half of the world’s plant and animal species.
Carbon stored in forest biomass decreased in Africa, Asia and South America between 1990 and 2005.
Flora & Fauna A typical four square-mile patch contains as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.
Natural Capital Rainforests play a critical role in maintaining biological diversity, modulating precipitation, infiltration and flooding, and increasing scientific knowledge, among other ecosystem services.
Soil
197M ha
CHINA
303M ha
USA
310M ha
CANADA
478M ha
BRAZIL
RUSSIA 809 million (M) hectares (ha)
Despite an abundance of decaying forest biomass, heavy rainfall and runoff result in poor soils deficient in soluble nutrients.