In Tropical Forest Ecology, Egbert G. Leigh, Jr., one of the world's foremost tropical ecologists, introduces readers to the tropical forest and describes the intricate web of interdependence among the great diversity of tropical plants and animals. Focusing on the tropical forest of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, Leigh shows what Barro Colorado can tell us about other tropical forests--and what tropical forests can tell us about Barro Colorado. This book considers three essential questions for understanding the ecological organization of tropical forests. How do they stay green with their abundance of herbivores? Why do they have such a diversity of plants and animals? And what role does mutualism play in the ecology of tropical forests? Beautifully written and abundantly illustrated, Tropical Forest Ecology will certainly appeal to a wide variety of scientists in the fields of evolution, tropical biology, botany, zoology, and natural history.
This book considers three essential questions for understanding the ecological organization of tropical forests. How do they stay green with their abundance of herbivores? Why do they have such a diversity of plants and animals?
Importance of tropical forests. Functions of tropical forests. Economic. Forest products. Timber. Fuelwood. Non- timber forest products. Ecotourism. Environmental services. Reserve for biodiversity. Regulation of climate. Local effects. Global effects. Social. Subsistence for local populations. The need for an integrated approach to Forest conservation and management. Characteristics of tropical forests. Characteristics relevant to management and conservation. High diversity. Latitudinal gradients of species diversity. The latitude effect. Effects of elevation on species diversity. Effects of soil fertility on species diversity. Influence of stress on species diversity. Other factors influencing diversity. Theories to explain high diversity in the tropics. Benefits of high diversity. Defense against pests and diseases. Complementarity. Implications of high diversity for forest management. Reproductive ecology of tropical trees. Timing/frequency of flowering and seed production. Modes of reproduction of tropical trees. Species interactions in the tropics. Energy flow. Delineation of the tropics. Primary production. Production patterns within the tropics. Light environment of tropical forests. Availability of light. Responses of plants to light. Light distribution in the forest. Herbivory. Decomposition. Nutrient cycling. Cycling rates in the tropics. Leaching and weathering. Nutrient-conserving mechanisms. "Direct" nutrient cycling. Concentration of roots near the soil surface. Nutrient storage in wood biomass. Other nutrient-conserving mechanisms. Role of soil organic matter in nutrient conservation. Effects of disturbance on nutrient stocks in the soil. Implications for forestry. Conclusion. Classification of tropical forests. Classification based on forest structure. Classification based on forest function. Climatic classifications. Functional variation along climatic gradients. Classification based on species. Classification at the community level. Classification based on "temperament" of species. Classification based on successional stage. Forest classification based upon soil nutrient status. Implications for management. The unesco classification system. Conclusion. Deforestation in the tropics. Rates of deforestation. Causes of deforestation. Proximate causes of deforestation. Expansion of agriculture. Wood extraction. Development of infrastructure. Underlying causes of deforestation. Economic. Political and institutional factors. Technological. Cultural. Demographic. External debt and deforestation. Effects of deforestation. Environmental effects of deforestation. Social and economic effects of deforestation. Effects on indigenous peoples. Effects on traditional rural peoples. Effects on recently arrived rural peoples. Benefits and costs of deforestation at the international and national levels. International. National. Conclusion. Management of tropical forests. Introduction. Natural forest management. Sustainable forest management. Systems used in management of natural forests in tropical regions. Natural regeneration systems. Partial clearing systems. Reduced impact logging (ril). Ecological and economic feasibility of methods of management of natural tropical forests. Criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. Certification of forest management. Obstacles to sustainable forest management. Management of secondary forests. Techniques for management of secondary forests. Management for non-timber forest products (ntfps). Is forest management compatible with conservation of biodiversity?. Effects of forest management on wildlife. Reserves. Setting priorities. Conclusion. Plantations and agroforestry systems. Introduction. Plantation forestry: alternative to supplying the world's timber demand?. Plantation productivity. Sustainability of forest plantations. Plantations of native tree species. Mixed species plantations. Plantations and the conservation of biodiversity. Plantations in the landscape. Plantations as a tool for economic development. Agroforestry. Most frequently used agroforestry systems. Functions of agroforestry systems. Restoration of degraded tropical forest ecosystems. Recovery of degraded forests. Enrichment planting of degraded and secondary forests. Rehabilitation of degraded pasture and cropland. Recovery of the soil's productive capacity. Restoration of areas invaded by aggressive vegetation. Recovery of biodiversity in degraded lands. Conclusion. Approaches for implementing ustainable management techniques. Introduction. Top-down development. Top-down conservation planning. Bottom- up development. Participatory action. A case study of participatory action research and development case i: uruani: where par failed. Case ii: porto de moz: where par succeeded. Community forestry. Globalization. Globalization and forest resources. Case study of globalization. Locally centered development and integrated natural resource management (inrm). Importance of scale in efficiency of production. Conclusion. Conclusions. Introduction. Tropical forest classification. Tropical deforestation. Management of tropical forests. Plantations and agroforestry systems. Political and economic development strategies for sustainable forest development. References. Subject index.
Recovery of a tropical forest with maximum carbon content can take hundreds of
years (Montagnini and Nair 2004). Some tropical countries have recently started
programs of incentives to encourage tree plantation development to help offset C
emissions. Since 1966, Costa Rica has contributed payments for environmental
services (ES) such as promoting forest conservation, sustainable forest
management, and tree plantations through the assignment of differential
incentives for each ...
Our knowledge of the ecology of tropical rain-forest trees is limited, with detailed information available for perhaps only a few hundred of the many thousand of species that occur. Yet a good understanding of the trees is essential to unravelling the workings of the forest itself. This book aims to summarise contemporary understanding of the ecology of tropical rain-forest trees. The emphasis is on comparative ecology, an approach that can help to identify possible adaptive trends and evolutionary constraints and which may also lead to a workable ecological classification for tree species, conceptually simplifying the rain-forest community and making it more amenable to analysis.
Yet a good understanding of the trees is essential to unravelling the workings of the forest itself. This book aims to summarise contemporary understanding of the ecology of tropical rain-forest trees.
Acknowledgements Introduction I. New Ideas in Ecology 1. Deep Ecology II. Citizens at the Summit 2. Environment, Development and Debt 3. "You Have to Keep Swimming" III. From Commons to Catastrophe 4. The Last Assault 5. The People of the Forest 6. Preserving the Forest IV. The Age of Ecology 7. A Managed Planet 8. One-Eyed Science: A Conversation with Vandana Shiva 9. Ecology as Design: The Work of John Todd 10. Gaia: A Way of Knowing 11. David Ehrenfeld: Stewardship and the Sabbath V. Redefining Development 12. A Mental Ruins 13. Development and Democracy 14. The Steady State 15. The Ambivalence of Ecology Suggestions for Further Reading
Gaia: A. Way. of. Knowing. This programme profiled scientist James Lovelock
and cultural historian William Irwin Thompson. Just as Thomas Huxley was once
called "Darwin's bulldog," Thompson has been called Lovelock's bulldog for the ...
Industrial Ecology (IE) is an emerging multidisciplinary field. University departments and higher education programs are being formed on the subject following the lead of Yale University, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Leiden University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California at Berkeley, Institute for Superior Technology in Lisbon, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, and The University of Tokyo. IE deals with stocks and flows in interconnected networks of industry and the environment, which relies on a basic framework for analysis. Among others, Input-Output Analysis (IOA) is recognized as a key conceptual and analytical framework for IE. A major challenge is that the field of IOA manifests a long history since the 1930s with two Nobel Prize Laureates in the field and requires considerable analytical rigor. This led many instructors and researchers to call for a high-quality publication on the subject which embraces both state-of-the-art theory and principles as well as practical applications.
This handbook would be particularly useful for those who study LCA, energy and climate change policy, environmental product policy and sustainable consumption.
The stability-diversity-complexity debate has persisted as a central focus of theoretical ecology for half a century. The debate concerns the deceptively simple question of whether there is a causal relationship between the complexity and/or diversity of biological communities and their stability. Historical analysis of the debate shows that conflicting claims different studies seem to support indicate an underlying lack of conceptual clarity about the three concepts.
As Section 4 made clear, Strawson's criticism of explication was based on a more
substantive conception of conceptual analysis than discussed above (§5.1). This
view of conceptual analysis and the conception of definition that accompanies ...
Ecological data has several special properties: the presence or absence of species on a semi-quantitative abundance scale; non-linear relationships between species and environmental factors; and high inter-correlations among species and among environmental variables. The analysis of such data is important to the interpretation of relationships within plant and animal communities and with their environments. In this corrected version of Data Analysis in Community and Landscape Ecology, without using complex mathematics, the contributors demonstrate the methods that have proven most useful, with examples, exercises and case-studies. Chapters explain in an elementary way powerful data analysis techniques such as logic regression, canonical correspondence analysis, and kriging.
A full description of computer-based methods of analysis used to define and solve ecological problems. Multivariate techniques permit summary of complex sets of data and allow investigation of many problems which cannot be tackled experimentally because of practical restraints.
Direct gradient analysis is used to display the distribution of organisms along
gradients of important environmental factors. By contrast, ordination and
classification techniques generally start with the analysis of community data
alone and, only ...
