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Tropics

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Geography

                                                          CAPTION: Seasons

                                                                  Tropical

                                                                Dry season

                                                                Wet season

                                                          CAPTION: Seasons

                                                                 Temperate

                                                                    Spring

                                                                    Summer

                                                                    Autumn

                                                                    Winter

   A noontime scene from the Philippines on a day when the sun is almost
   directly overhead.
   Enlarge
   A noontime scene from the Philippines on a day when the sun is almost
   directly overhead.

   The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the
   equator (parallel 0) 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.

   This area includes all the areas of the Earth where the sun reaches a
   point directly overhead at least once during the solar year. (In the
   temperate zones, north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic
   of Capricorn, the sun never reaches an altitude of 90° or directly
   overhead.) 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 plants and animals are those species native to the tropics.
   Tropical is also sometimes used in a general sense for a tropical
   climate, a climate that is 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.
   Places in the tropics which are drier with low humidity are such as the
   Sahara Desert and Central Africa and Northern Australian Outback.

Tropical ecosystems

   Tropical ecosystems may consist of rainforests, dry deciduous forests,
   spiny forests, desert and other habitat types. There are often
   significant areas of biodiversity and species endemism present
   particularly in rainforests and dry deciduous forests. Some examples of
   important biodiversity and/or high endemism ecosystems are: Costa Rican
   rainforests, 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.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropics"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
