The Rainforest
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As the name implies, the Amazon rainforest gets a lot of rain, essential for its growth and ultimately for the exceptional level of biodiversity. Biodiversity is often defined by ecologists as the "totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region", i.e.,
genetic diversity: diversity of genes within a species;
species diversity: diversity among species in an ecosystem;
ecosystem diversity: diversity of ecosystems.
It´s not the heat.
This region's climate is classified as Tropical and Humid, with annual temperatures between 23-25.5ºC/ 73-78ºF, humidity between 70-90%, and annual rainfall up to 3000 mm/118 in! Though it can rain on any given day, in general the months from November through February are defined as the "dry" season and the months of March through October as the "wet" season; around here, the months of May to July are the wettest.
Due to the proximity to the Equator, seasonal variations in day length are not as dramatic as in the temperate zones, the 12-hour day varying little throughout the year and the average temperature fluctuating little throughout the "seasons".
Nights in this part of the Amazon are not always hot and humid, and the early morning hours can be quite cool.
