Tropical rainforests are located near the equator in areas like Central America, the Amazon, Southern Asia, Africa, and Northern Australia. They have 5 distinct layers - an emergent layer of the tallest trees, a main canopy layer of tall trees, an understory layer of smaller trees between 10-20 meters high, a shrub layer, and a herb layer of ferns over 6 meters tall. The climate is very humid with around 250 cm of rainfall per year and daytime temperatures between 30-35C and nighttime temperatures of 20-25C. The soil is latosol which is red or yellow in color and low in nutrients, causing trees to develop shallow root systems and buttress roots.