TROPICAL RAIN FOREST AND DESERT

A few weeks back I read in the newspapers that Sahara Desert was once covered with thick forest. It doesn’t come as a surprise as tropical rain forest when allowed to disappear may resemble very much like that of a desert with arid conditions and all. It shows that there is a close connection between the tropical rain forest and that of a desert although peripherally and in physical appearance both may be of the extreme kinds.

This is mainly due to precipitation that one finds in a tropical rain forest thick with trees each jostling and inching out the other closely where both humidity remains amidst heat and cold. This perhaps makes sense as these trees are continuously getting water from the atmospheric canopy that allows air to circulate and rise up and at the same time allow precipitation so that water vapor is again returned back to the soil. And this cycle goes on and on and on. Of course, this is only as long as there is still that thick coverage of forest.

Unlike in the temperate zones where precipitation is not necessary as the coolness of the climatic conditions is enough to keep plants and trees in growing condition and with the help of little rain this surely helps in the process, the tropical rain forest condition is extremely vulnerable in comparison.

This is because for sustaining during hot weather climate a tropical rain forest must always be undergoing the process of precipitation repeatedly or otherwise it may become a desert sooner or later. It may perhaps be proved in the future that some specific trees that were rampant in the tropical rain forest may have dwindled due to lack of precipitation or are never able to grow alone in isolation. This may also explain the lack of rainfall in these areas have slowed down the whole cycle of heating, evaporation, precipitation and in turn drizzling. Scientists may perhaps be able to provide the answer for this.

It is again something to think about that when an area of tropical rain forest has been cleared and left as it is for sometime then the next round of trees or vegetation do not grow with the same strength or vigor as they had earlier been. Hence, a tropical rain forest is surely more vulnerable to man made disasters than a temperate forest cover.

It may not be something of the mark to say that there is a closer connection between the tropical rain forest and a desert that scientists need to study.