Everything about The Tropics totally explained
The
tropics are the geographic region of the
Earth where the sun passes through the
zenith twice during the solar year (once as the sun appears to go north and once as it appears to go south). At the limits, called the tropics of
Cancer and
Capricorn, this occurs once at the relevant
solstice.
This area is centered on the
equator and limited in
latitude by the
Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere, at approximately 23°26' (23.4°) N latitude, and the
Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at 23°26' (23.4°) S latitude. This region is also referred to as the
tropical zone and the
torrid zone (see
geographical zone).
On the other hand, in the
temperate zones, north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun never reaches the zenith, always passing south (north) of it in the northern (southern) hemisphere.
The word "tropics" comes from
Greek tropos meaning "turn", because the apparent position of the Sun oscillates between the two tropics with a period that defines the average length of a
year.
Tropical seasons and climate
» Main article: Tropical climate
The seasons in the tropics are dominated by the movement of the
tropical rain belt (or
ITCZ), which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year, thus causing the
dry season and the
wet season in turn.
Tropical is sometimes used in a general sense for a
tropical climate that's warm to hot and moist year-round, often with the sense of lush vegetation. However, there are places in the tropics that are anything but "tropical" in this sense, with even
alpine tundra and snow-capped peaks, including
Mauna Kea,
Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the
Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of
Chile and
Argentina. There are also places in the tropics which are
desert, with extreme heat, such as the
Sahara Desert and
Australian Outback.
Tropical ecosystems
Tropical plants and animals are those species native to the tropics.
Tropical ecosystems may consist of
rainforests, dry deciduous forests, spiny forests,
desert and other habitat types. There are often significant areas of
biodiversity, and specie
endemism present particularly in
rainforests and dry deciduous forests. Some examples of important biodiversity and/or high endicism ecosystems are:
Costa Rican and
Nicaraguan rainforests,
Brazilian and
Venezuelan
Amazon Rainforest territories,
Madagascar dry deciduous forests,
Waterberg Biosphere of
South Africa and eastern
Madagascar rainforests. Often the soils of tropical forests are low in
nutrient content making them quite vulnerable to
slash-and-burn techniques, which are sometimes an element of
shifting cultivation agricultural systems.
In
biogeography, the tropics are divided into
paleotropics (Africa, Asia and Australia) and
neotropics (Central and South America). Together, they're sometimes referred to as the
pantropics. The neotropic region shouldn't be confused with the
ecozone of the same name; in the Old World, this is unambiguous as the paleotropics correspond to the Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and partly the Australasian and Oceanic ecozones.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tropics'.
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