Use of fire to clear tropical forest is a common practice, which impacts air quality over a wide area, as well as increasing the risk of uncontrolled fires spreading into the forest. The loss of plant cover increases erosion. The loss of forest habitat as well as the fires used to clear it all contribute to climate change. 

 

Palm oil is an ingredient in a wide array of foods, cosmetics, and detergents, which provide a few ways to decrease the destruction of remaining tropical rainforest for palm oil plantations. Pressure on companies that consume palm oil to only use certified sustainable oil is one approach. Removal of incentives for deforestation to produce palm oil is another avenue being pursued by the World Wildlife Fund among others. Mandatory labeling of palm oil when used in products, instead of including it under the generic “vegetable oil”, has been a third strategy pursued in the European Union and elsewhere. All of these tactics aim to influence demand and make unsustainable land use practices unprofitable.

A saprotrophic fungus, the anemone stinkhorn breaks down decaying plant matter in it's environment, recycling essential nutrients and reducing leaf litter. There is a mutualistic relationship with flies, which feed on the sugary slime before  dispersing fungal spores to other locations with decaying organic matter.

Image: (c) Lon&Queta, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonqueta/4109088251/

 

Producers: Algae, Epiphytes, Lianas, large trees, bamboo, moss and ferns, orchids

Primary Consumers: a wide variety of insects, grasshoppers, beetles, slugs, and sloths

Secondary Consumers: woodpecker, frogs, toads, sloths, bats

Tertiary Consumers:  crocodiles, jaguars, birds of prey, boa constrictors and other snakes

Detrivores / Decomposers: fungi & microorganisms

Image from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/ztcch39/revision/4