The Congo: Tropical Rainforest of Africa

Introduction There are many different biomes that cover the surface of the planet, but there is one that is of particular importance, the tropical rainforest of Africa, The Congo. This vast rainforest is home to almost half of Africa’s animal species and is the second largest rainforest in the world.(“pbs.org”, n.d.) The Congo plays an important role in climate regulation, both locally and globally, and contains a wealth of biodiversity, including thousands of endemic plants and animals. Identify factors in this ecosystem that affect diversity. How do these factors work together to produce diversity and evolutionary differentiation? There are many factors in the tropical rainforests that affect diversity. Tropical regions are large and complex environments which allow for separation of groups within a species. This geographical separation can cause groups of a species to diverge and become a separate species. In Africa’s rainforest, factors such as deforestation, building roads, Illegal wildlife trade, and slash and burn agriculture has had an enormous impact on the diversity of the forest, and has already wiped out ninety percent of West Africa’s forest. (“pbs.org”, n.d.). Illegal poaching remains one of the biggest threats to many species in the rainforest. Animals such as the rhino, elephant, and tiger are being hunted to near extinction for their horns, tusks, and skins. Time, size, and climate are the biggest factors in rainforest diversity. With the rainforests being some of the oldest biomes on Earth, species have had the most time to diversify.
The size of the rainforest provides opportunity for geographic separation for groups within a species which may result in speciation, and a predictable climate allows for species to specialize in food sources that are available during the year. Unfortunately the diversity of the African rainforest is threatened due to logging, hunting, and poor