tropical rainforest - Sierterm UEM | Terminología trilingüe

CG: n

CT: Tropical rainforests – Characteristics of tropical rainforests

Tropical rainforests are an important ecosystem with distinct characteristics and adaptations. Tropical rainforests face threats which need to be managed to ensure their survival.

Characteristics of tropical rainforests

Tropical rainforests have distinct characteristics that support a wide variety of different species.

This means that they have a high biodiversity. The biotic or living components of the ecosystem and the abiotic or non-living components of the ecosystem depend on one another – a change in one leads to a change in the other.

S: BBC – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx8n39q/revision/1 (last access: 18 April 2025)

N: 1. – tropical (adj): 1520s, “pertaining to the celestial tropics,” from “tropic” + “-al” (1). In reference to the torrid zones of the earth, from 1690s. Meaning “hot and lush like the climate of the tropics” is first attested 1834.

– rainforest or rain forest (n): “dense forest in an area of high rainfall with little seasonal variation,” 1899, apparently a loan-translation of German Regenwald, coined by A.F.W. Schimper for his 1898 work “Pflanzengeographie.”

2. tropical rainforest. Also known as: tropical rain forest.

tropical rainforest, luxuriant forest found in wet tropical uplands and lowlands around the Equator. Tropical rainforests, which worldwide make up one of Earth’s largest biomes (major life zones), are dominated by broad-leaved trees that form a dense upper canopy (layer of foliage) and contain a diverse array of vegetation and other life. Contrary to common thinking, not all tropical rainforests occur in places with high, constant rainfall; for example, in the so-called “dry rainforests” of northeastern Australia, the climate is punctuated by a dry season, which reduces the annual precipitation. This article covers only the richest of rainforests—the tropical rainforests of the ever-wet tropics.
Tropical rainforests represent the oldest major vegetation type still present on the terrestrial Earth. Like all vegetation, however, that of the rainforest continues to evolve and change, so modern tropical rainforests are not identical with rainforests of the geologic past.
Tropical rainforests grow mainly in three regions: the Malesian botanical subkingdom, which extends from Myanmar (Burma) to Fiji and includes the whole of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu and parts of Indochina and tropical Australia; tropical South and Central America, especially the Amazon basin; and West and Central Africa (see biogeographic region). Smaller areas of tropical rainforest occur elsewhere in the tropics wherever climate is suitable. The principal areas of tropical deciduous forest (or monsoon forests) are in India, the Myanmar–Vietnam–southern coastal China region, and eastern Brazil, with smaller areas in South and Central America north of the Equator, the West Indies, southeastern Africa, and northern Australia.

3. Ecosystems: tropical rainforest, tropical rain forest.

A [forest] consisting of tall, close-growing trees, their columnar trunks more or less unbranched in the lower two-thirds, and forming a spreading and frequently flat crown[, and that] occurs in areas of high temperature and high rainfall.
Rainforest. Dense forest in an area of high rainfall that varies little with the seasons, especially that in the tropics … Temperate rainforest occurs in some moist coastal areas; tropical rainforest is more extensive, and is usually dominated by tall, broad-leaved evergreen trees. The tropical rainforest is notable for its rich variety of animal and plant species, including numerous lianas and epiphytes.
Rainforest occurring within or close to the tropics.

4. Ecosystems; Silviculture: temperate rain forest, temperate rainforest, rain forest, rainforest.

Woodland of temperate but usually rather mild climatic areas with heavy rainfall usually including numerous kinds of trees and being distinguished from tropical rain forest by the presence of a dominant tree (as the podocarpus forests of New Zealand.)
Temperate rainforest. Terms used to describe this class are laurisilva, laurel forest, cloud forest, notohylaea, moss forest, and sometimes subtropical forest.
The term “rainforest” alone may refer to both temperate rain forest and tropical rain forest.
rain forest: term used by Parks Canada.
French equivalents: forêt pluviale tempérée, forêt ombrophile tempérée, forêt ombrophile, forêt pluviale.
Spanish equivalent: bosque húmedo, bosque lluvioso.

5. A type of forest which exists in tropical regions where precipitation is heavy (in generally more than 2500 mm per year).

6. The Tropical-subtropical forests biome includes moderate to highly productive ecosystems with closed tree canopies occurring at lower latitudes north and south of the equator. Fragmented occurrences extend to the subtropics in suitable mesoclimates.

High primary productivity is underpinned by high insolation, warm temperatures, relatively low seasonal variation in day length and temperature (increasing to the subtropics), and strong water surpluses associated with the intertropical convergence zone extending to wetter parts of the seasonal tropics and subtropics. Productivity and biomass vary in response to: i) strong rainfall gradients associated with seasonal migration of the intertropical convergence zone, ii) altitudinal gradients in precipitation, cloud cover, and temperatures, and iii) edaphic gradients that influence the availability of soil nutrients.

7. Collocations with “rainforest”: coastal rainforest, dense rainforest, rainforest area.

8. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the book Tropical Rainforests (2010) by Seymour Simon.

OV: tropical rain forest

S: EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/tropical-rainforest (last access: 18 April 2025); TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=tropical+rain+forest&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 18 April 2025).

SYN: equatorial forest, equatorial rainforest, selva(s). (depending on context)

S: GDT – https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/26516549/pluvisylve-tropicale (last access: 18 April 2025)

CR: biome, ecology, jungle, silviculture.