The Ecology of Trees in the Tropical Rain Forest
The Ecology of Trees in the Tropical Rain Forest
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.
- Unique in focusing on the trees that make up the forest
- Emphasises the comparative ecology of the different species
- Provides a critical analysis of ecological classification systems
Reviews & endorsements
"The book is well written, organized clearly, and includes many excellent figures redrawn from the literature, as well as extensive tables compiled by the author.... This book should be an inpsiration to ecologists to pursue studies on comparative ecology of tropical trees, and the magnitude of the literature review will certainly provide tropical ecologists with considerable assistance in studying these issues. Perhaps this will help lead to a more synthetic understanding of tropical rainforest tree ecology in the future." The Quarterly Review of Biology
"[A]n informed analysis of the comparative ecology, physiology, and structure of tropical rain forest trees. Regardless of one's familiarity with the ecology of tropical rain forests, this book should prove informative and a useful addition to the library of forest ecologists working in any biome." Ronald L. Hendrick, Forest Science
"An excellent reference book for personal use by the researcher, for its use as reference material for courses on tropical ecology and tropical forestry, and as a textbook for the more basic aspects dealt with in tropical ecology and tropical forestry courses at the graduate level." Journal of Sustainable Forestry
Product details
July 2001Hardback
9780521801836
316 pages
229 × 152 × 22 mm
0.64kg
78 b/w illus. 30 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The growing tree
- 3. Tree performance
- 4. Reproductive biology
- 5. Seeds and seedlings
- 6. Classificatory systems for tropical trees
- Bibliography
- Index.
