The Bornean Rainforest Borneo is a island in South-East Asia and lies in between the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Its size is around 743,330 km²,
643,120km² bigger than South Korea (100,210 km²). It is in fact , the third largest island. The island is ruled separately by three countries, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Around 2009 the population of Borneo(from all 3 countries), was 18.5 million people, mainly spread out around the coastal areas. Its rainforest is the largest in Asia, and it presumed to be older than the Amazon Rainforest. The Bornean rainforest can be divided into 3 major ecosystem, the lowland rainforest, peat swamp rainforest and the mountain rainforest. The lowland rainforest takes up over half of the island and is estimated to be 420,000 km² in size. Like its name suggest, the lowland rainforest is found at the base of the the mountain rage that stretches from the North to the Central part of the island. It is also estimated that there are 267 species of dipterocarps, trees used to obtain resin and timber, 160 of them found only in Borneo. The peat swamp rainforest is found around the coasts of borneo. The peat swamp had rich soil, but they are less rich in species, compared to the lowland rainforest. Peat swamp forests serve a very important function of carbon reservoirs, but are weak to fire. When on fire, it sets large quantities of carbon into the air and sometime can travel underground and pop up at random locations in the peat swamp rainforest. The mountain rainforest is different from other rainforests by its plants and animals. It is found in the mountain range of the island and is cooler than the other rainforests. |