PLANET EARTH Jungles

In the Amazon, the largest unbroken stretch of rainforest in the world, half of all the rainwater that falls, comes from clouds produced by the trees themselves. With so much rain, it's not surprising that many of the world’s largest rivers are found in rainforests. Inside the forest, the high humidity creates the perfect conditions for a strange world, where life is built on decay.



Amoeba（阿米巴） like slime（黏的） molds（霉） cruise the surface, feeding on bacteria and rotting vegetation. Fungi（真菌） also flourish on decay. These are the fruiting bodies of the fungi, the only visible sign of a vast underground network of fungal filaments. In temperate forests, the buildup of leaf litter creates rich stores of nutrients. That however, doesn't happen here.



Nutrients that reach the soil are leeched out by the rain but fungi are connected to tree roots by their underground filaments and by quickly consuming the dead they help to recycle crucial minerals straight back into the trees. And this recycling happens faster here, than anywhere else on the planet. There are thought to be nearly a million different types of fungi in the tropics.