Tropical forests revisited

Abstract

The fascination for tropical forests, one of the most intriguing ecological systems on the planet, is greater than ever. The rapid development of tropical forest ecology since the seventies, although providing answers to many research questions, simultaneously triggered a hype of theories, approaches, discoveries, and questions, which this book tries to summarize and integrate into an overall picture. As it certainly will be for scholars interested in tropical community ecology, this volume should be highly stimulating for ecologists specialized in a wide array of disciplines and habitats. The book offers the peer-reviewed works of 57 contributors who aptly linked theory with empirical information, supporting their work with more than 2,000 milestone references. The editors played the role of an orchestra conductor by selecting and organizing a series of topics that depict the state of the art in tropical forest community ecology. Such an ambitious goal was achieved by organizing the book into six sections, each representing a specialized synthesis: (1) Introduction; (2) Large-scale patterns in tropical communities; (3) Testing theories of forest regeneration and the maintenance of species diversity; (4) Animal community ecology and trophic interactions; (5) Secondary forest succession, dynamics, and invasion; and (6) Tropical forest conservation. The Introduction is the only section built around a single Chap. 1. It presents the book’s scope and provides a short overview of the remaining sections and chapters, describing the key points and the connections between them. This is a perfect starting point, especially for those who may choose to read the book in a non-linear way. In Sect. 2 (Chaps. 2–7) the spatial variation of plant diversity is explored through a wide range of methods that use environmental, historic and biogeographic factors occurring at multiple scales. The detailed discussion around the scale issue makes this section a must for anyone interested in understanding the spatial distribution of species in a landscape. In Sect. 3 (Chaps. 8–15) we find a thorough debate around old and new theories on the regeneration and maintenance of species diversity in tropical forests. Among the others, Chap. 9 stands out as it presents Hubbell’s own defense of his ‘‘Neutral Theory’’. The relevance of this theory to the progress of ecological knowledge is undeniable even if one disagrees with its tenets. For this reason, no one should miss reading this chapter, even if feeling uneasy about the numerous formulas that accompany it. In Sect. 4 (Chaps. 16–21), animals as a further trophic level are added and ecosystem J. A. Gallardo-Cruz (&) Department of Ecology and Natural Resources, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 04510 Mexico, D.F, Mexico e-mail: jagc@ciencias.unam.mx