TROPICAL MONSOON NATURAL VEGETATION

The natural vegetation of tropical monsoon lands depends on the amount of summer rainfall. The monsoon lands with three distinct seasons, cold, hot and rainy, exert great influence on the appearance of the vegetation. Trees have to be fairly tolerant of local physical and climatic conditions to survive. They grow rapidly in the rainy season, shed their leaves during the hot dry season and remain comparatively inactive in the cool season. Trees are normally deciduous since they shed their leaves during hot dry season tn withstand excessive transpiration. The overall vegetation varies from dense tropical evergreen vegetation to thorny scrubland, due to differences in precipitation in different parts of the monsoon lands. Where the rainfall is heavy, e.g. Southern Burma, peninsular India, northern Australia and coastal regions with a tropical marine climate, the resultant vegetation is forest. The forests are more open and less luxuriant than the equatorial forest with far fewer species. The less dense forest allows more sunlight to reach the ground, resulting in denser undergrowth. Bamboo thickets which predominate in regions of intermediate rainfall often grow to great heights.

THE TROPICAL MARINE CLIMATE

This type of climate is exprience along the eastern coasts of tropical lands, receiving steady rainfall from the Trade Winds all the time. The rainfall is both orographic, where the moist trades meet upland masses as in eastern Brazil, and convectional, due to intense heating during the day and in summer. Its tendency is towards a summer maximum as in monsoon lands, but without any distinct dry period. There is no month without any rainfall. The range of temperature is typical of the tropical latitudes with a maximum of 28 'C (82 'F) in January and a minimum of 21 'C (70 'F) in July - a range of 6.6 'C (12 'F) for the year. Due to the steady influence of the trades, the Tropical Marine Climate is more favourable for habitation, but it is prone to severe tropical cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons.