Rain Forest is just a more technical word that raplacced the word "JUNGLE"
What Keith may not understand is that there are many definitions of tropical rain forests especially for scientists which vary around the world depending which scheme classification is used.
One of the most useful of those schemes is the Holdridge pyramid. This is particularly popular in the Americas where it originated, and it?s often used to distinguish between different types of ?rain forest? in parts of the Neotropics, especially Central America. Rain forest in this scheme is actually divided into ?moist forest?, ?wet forest?, and ?rain forest?. It uses the factors of water and temperature, and their variations, to determine the type of vegetation. Within Australia, a system designed by Specht is commonly used. It is based on canopy cover and the height and form of the dominant vegetation. In this classification, tropical rain forest comes under the general vegetation type ?closed forest. So even when we scientifically define ?tropical rain forest? we run into difficulties. For example, what the public would consider ?tropical rainforest? in Australia may be called ?closed forests? by Australian scientists, but would be considered mere ?moist forest? or ?wet forest? by American ecologists. In the end, we must remember that definitions and classifications are all artificial constructs.
What Keith may not understand is that there are many definitions of tropical rain forests especially for scientists which vary around the world depending which scheme classification is used.
One of the most useful of those schemes is the Holdridge pyramid. This is particularly popular in the Americas where it originated, and it?s often used to distinguish between different types of ?rain forest? in parts of the Neotropics, especially Central America. Rain forest in this scheme is actually divided into ?moist forest?, ?wet forest?, and ?rain forest?. It uses the factors of water and temperature, and their variations, to determine the type of vegetation. Within Australia, a system designed by Specht is commonly used. It is based on canopy cover and the height and form of the dominant vegetation. In this classification, tropical rain forest comes under the general vegetation type ?closed forest. So even when we scientifically define ?tropical rain forest? we run into difficulties. For example, what the public would consider ?tropical rainforest? in Australia may be called ?closed forests? by Australian scientists, but would be considered mere ?moist forest? or ?wet forest? by American ecologists. In the end, we must remember that definitions and classifications are all artificial constructs.