Tropical rain forests: Ecologists unite for diversity

Tropical Rain Forests

Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs.

The commonly observed high diversity of trees in tropical rain forests and corals on tropical reefs is a nonequilibrium state which, if not disturbed further, will progress toward a low-diversity equilibrium community. This may not happen if gradual changes in climate favor different species. If equilibrium is reached, a lesser degree of diversity may be sustained by niche diversification or by...

Modelling Selection Harvesting in Tropical Rain Forests

VANCLAY, J.K. 1989. Modelling selection harvesting in tropical rain forests. Long term yield estimates for natural forests require a harvesting model to enable future yields to be estimated reliably. The model should predict the felled stems, the proportion of these which are merchantable, and any damage to the residual stand. Regression analyses was used to develop a model of current logging p...

Beta-Diversity in Tropical Forests

Condit et al. (1) and Duivenvoorden et al. (2) discussed beta-diversity of tropical rainforest trees and came to some conclusions that we find problematic. Condit et al. argued that betadiversity of lowland rainforest trees is higher in Panama than in western Amazonia, based on observation of a steeper distance-decay of floristic similarity in 34 Panamanian tree plots compared with 16 Ecuadoria...

Tree diversity in tropical rain forests: a validation of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.

The "intermediate disturbance hypothesis," which postulates maximum diversity at intermediate regimes of disturbance, has never been clearly proved to apply to species-rich tropical forest tree communities and to local-scale canopy disturbances that modify light environments. This hypothesis was tested on a sample of 17,000 trees in a Guianan forest, 10 years after a silvicultural experiment th...