The rainfall is always over 60 inches per year, and can be up to 160 inches. There is a predictable daily cycle of cloud buildup and rain. The soils are highly weathered, reddish in colour, and contain large amounts of Aluminum and Iron.
Rapid decomposition occurs, and nutrients are cycled quickly, stored mostly in the plant biomass.
The tropical rain forest has the greatest diversity of species of all communities, perhaps as many as all other terrestrial biomes combined. This great plant diversity also allows a great animal diversity. These include monkeys, sloths, parrots, toucans, bats, tapirs, frogs, and a wide variety of insects. Millions of hectares of tropical forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate - more than one half of earth s tropical rain forest is already gone, and it is likely these communities may disappear entirely by the end of the decade. This loss means the loss of the biological diversity of the forests.