The term "tropical vegetation" is frequently used in the sense of lush and luxuriant, but not all the vegetation of the areas of the Earth in
tropical climates can be defined as such. Despite lush vegetation, often the soils of
tropical forests are low in
nutrients making them quite vulnerable to
slash-and-burn deforestation techniques, which are sometimes an element of
shifting cultivation agricultural systems. Tropical vegetation may include the following habitat types:
Tropical rainforest Tropical rainforest ecosystems include significant areas of
biodiversity, often coupled with high species
endemism. Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet and roughly two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests. The most representative are the
Borneo rainforest, one of the oldest rainforests in the world, the Brazilian and Venezuelan
Amazon rainforest, and the eastern Costa Rican rainforests.
Tropical seasonal forest Seasonal tropical forests generally receive high total rainfall, averaging more than 1000 mm per year, but with a distinct
dry season. They include: the
Congolian forests, a broad belt of highland
tropical moist broadleaf forest which extends across the basin of the
Congo River; Central American tropical forests
in Panama and Nicaragua; the seasonal forests that predominate across much the Indian subcontinent,
Indochina,
and Queensland, northern Australia.
Tropical dry broadleaf forest Tropical dry broadleaf forests are territories with a forest cover that is not very dense and has often an unkempt, irregular appearance, especially in the dry season. This type of forest often includes
bamboo and
teak as the dominant large tree species, such as in the
Phi Pan Nam Range, part of the
Central Indochina dry forests. They are affected by often long seasonal dry periods and, though less biologically diverse than rainforests, tropical dry forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife.
Tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands are spread over a large area of the tropics with a vegetation made up mainly of low
shrubs and
grasses, often including
sclerophyll species. Some of the most representative are the
Western Zambezian grasslands in Zambia and Angola, as well as the
Einasleigh upland savanna in Australia and the
Everglades in the United States of America. Tree species such as
Acacia and
baobab may be present in these ecosystems depending on the region. ==See also==