Rainforest Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about the rainforest.

Rainforest Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What is a rainforest?
A: Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with annual rainfall in the case of tropical rainforests between 250 and 450 centimeters (98 and 177 in), and definitions varying by region for temperate rainforests.

The monsoon trough, alternatively known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating what?
A: The climatic conditions necessary for the Earth's tropical rainforests.

Around what percentage of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests?
A: 40% to 75%.

There may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms still what?
A: Undiscovered in tropical rainforests.

Why have tropical rainforests been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy"?
A: Because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there.

Rainforests are also responsible for of the world's oxygen turnover?
A: 28%.

The undergrowth in some areas of a rainforest can be restricted by poor penetration of what?
A: Sunlight to ground level.

If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by what?
A: A dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees, called a jungle.

What other term is also sometimes applied to tropical rainforests generally?
A: Jungle.

Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to what?
A: Deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere.

Tropical rainforests are characterized by a warm and wet climate with no what?
A: No substantial dry season: typically found within 10 degrees north and south of the equator.

Mean monthly temperatures exceed during all months of the year?
A: 18 °C (64 °F).

Average annual rainfall is no less than 168 cm (66 in) and can exceed how much?
A: 1,000 cm (390 in) although it typically lies between 175 cm (69 in) and 200 cm (79 in).

Many of the world's tropical forests are associated with the location of the what?
A: The monsoon trough, also known as the intertropical convergence zone.

The broader category of tropical moist forests are located where?
A: In the equatorial zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

Tropical forests have been called the "Earth's lungs", although it is now known that rainforests contribute what?
A: Little net oxygen addition to the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

A tropical rainforest typically has a number of layers, each with what?
A: Different plants and animals adapted for life in that particular area.

Examples include what?
A: The emergent, canopy, understory and forest floor layers.

The emergent layer contains a small number of very large trees called what?
A: Emergents.

Emergents grow above the general canopy, reaching how high?
A: Reaching heights of 45 to 55 m, although on occasion a few species will grow to 70 to 80 m tall.

They need to be able to withstand what?
A: The hot temperatures and strong winds that occur above the canopy in some areas.

This layer is inhabited by what?
A: Eagles, butterflies, bats and certain monkeys.

The canopy layer contains the majority of the largest what?
A: Trees, typically 30 meters (98 ft) to 45 meters (148 ft) tall.

Where are the densest areas of biodiversity found?
A: In the forest canopy, a more or less continuous cover of foliage formed by adjacent treetops.

The canopy, by some estimates, is home to 50 percent of all what?
A: Plant species.

Epiphytic plants attach to trunks and branches, and obtain water and minerals from what?
A: Rain and debris that collects on the supporting plants.

The fauna is similar to that found in the emergent layer, but different how?
A: It’s more diverse.

What percentage of all insect species are believed to exist in the rainforest canopy?
A: 25%.

Scientists have long suspected the richness of the canopy as a habitat, but have only recently developed what?
A: Practical methods of exploring it.

As long ago as 1917, naturalist William Beebe declared what?
A: That "another continent of life remains to be discovered, not upon the Earth, but one to two hundred feet above it, extending over thousands of square miles."

True exploration of this habitat only began when?
A: In the 1980s, when scientists developed methods to reach the canopy, such as firing ropes into the trees using crossbows.

Exploration of the canopy is still in its infancy, but other methods include the  use of what?
A: Balloons and airships to float above the highest branches and the building of cranes and walkways planted on the forest floor.

The science of accessing tropical forest canopy using airships or similar aerial platforms is called what?
A: Dendronautics.

The understory or understorey layer lies where?
A: Between the canopy and the forest floor.

It is home to a number of what?
A: Birds, snakes and lizards, as well as predators such as jaguars, boa constrictors and leopards.

The leaves are much larger at this level and insect life is what?
A: Abundant.

Only about how much of the sunlight shining on the rainforest canopy reaches the understory?
A: 5%.

This layer can be called a what?
A: A shrub layer, although the shrub layer may also be considered a separate layer.

The forest floor, the bottom-most layer, receives how much of the sunlight?
A: Only 2%.

Only plants adapted to what can grow in this region?
A: Low light.

Away from riverbanks, swamps and clearings, where dense undergrowth is found, why is the forest floor relatively clear of vegetation?
A: Because of the low sunlight penetration.

Many forms of what growing there help decay the animal and plant waste?
A: Fungi.

The great diversity in rainforest species is in large part the result of what?
A: Diverse and numerous physical refuges, i.e. places in which plants are inaccessible to many herbivores, or in which animals can hide from predators.

Having numerous refuges available also results in much higher what?
A: Total biomass than would otherwise be possible.

Despite the growth of vegetation in a tropical rainforest, soil quality is often what?
A: Quite poor.

Rapid bacterial decay prevents what?
A: The accumulation of humus.

Why do most trees have roots near the surface?
A: Because there are insufficient nutrients below the surface.

Most of the trees' minerals come from where?
A: The top layer of decomposing leaves and animals.

Human-induced deforestation plays a significant role in causing what?
A: Rainforests to release carbon dioxide, as do other factors, whether human-induced or natural, which result in tree death, such as burning and drought.

Some climate models operating with interactive vegetation predict a large loss of Amazonian rainforest around 2050 due to what?
A: Drought, forest dieback and the subsequent release of more carbon dioxide.

Five million years from now, the Amazon rainforest may long since have what?
A: Dried and transformed itself into savannah, killing itself in the progress (changes such as this may happen even if all human deforestation activity ceases overnight).

Tropical rainforests provide timber as well as animal products such as what?
A: Meat and hides.

Many foods originally came from tropical forests, and are still mostly grown on plantations in regions that were what?
A: Formerly primary forest.

On January 18, 2007, FUNAI reported also that it had confirmed the presence of 67 different un-contacted “what” in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005?
A: Tribes.

With this addition, Brazil has now overtaken the island of New Guinea as the country having the largest what?
A: Number of un-contacted tribes.

The province of Irian Jaya or West Papua in the island of New Guinea is home to how many un-contacted tribal groups?
A: An estimated 44.

The tribes are in danger because of what?
A: Deforestation, especially in Brazil.

Central African rainforest is home of whom?
A: The Mbuti pygmies, one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterized by their short height (below one and a half meters, or 59 inches, on average).

They were the subject of a study by whom?
A: Colin Turnbull, The Forest People, in 1962.

Tropical and temperate rainforests have been subjected to heavy legal and illegal what?
A: Logging for their valuable hardwoods and agricultural clearance.

What percentage of West Africa's rainforest has been destroyed?
A: Almost 90%.

Since the arrival of humans, Madagascar has lost how much of its original rainforest?
A: Two thirds.

At present rates, tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in 10 years and Papua New Guinea in how long?
A: 13 to 16 years.

According to Rainforest Rescue, an important reason for the increasing deforestation rate, especially in Indonesia, is the expansion of what?
A: Oil palm plantations to meet growing demand for cheap vegetable fats and biofuels.

In Indonesia, palm oil is already cultivated on how many hectares?
A: Nine million.

Together with Malaysia, the island nation produces about how much of the world’s palm oil?
A: 85 percent.

Several countries, notably Brazil, have declared their deforestation a what?
A: A national emergency.