Tropical Forests

Sean C Thomas, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jennifer L Baltzer, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Published online: September 2002

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003179

Tropical forests, while occupying only one-tenth of the world's land area, are disproportionately important in terms of global biogeochemical cycles and as home to more than half of the world's species. Research on these most complex of ecological systems has focused on mechanisms for the maintenance of high diversity, and forest responses to fragmentation, logging, and other human impacts.

Keywords: biomes; forests; species diversity; tropical forests; vegetation

Figure 1. Global distribution of tropical forests (adapted from various sources).
Figure 2. Latitudinal gradient in species richness of bird and tree species, in both cases showing a peak in tropical forest areas near the equator. Data are from Gaston 1998) and the 0.1 ha forest plot data archive of Alwyn Gentry (Gentry, 1988 and unpublished data)
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 Further Reading
    book Brown K and Pearce DW (eds) (1994) The Causes of Tropical Deforestation: The Economic and Statistical Analysis of Factors Giving Rise to the Loss of Tropical Forests. London: University College Press.
    Burslem DFRP, Garwood NC and Thomas SC (2001) Tropical forest diversity – the plot thickens. Science 291: 606–607.
    Gaston KJ (2000) Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature 405: 220–227.
    Gentry AH (1988) Changes in plant community diversity and floristic composition on environmental and geographical gradients. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 75: 1–34.
    Grace J, Lloyd J, McIntyre J et al. (1995) Carbon dioxide uptake by an undisturbed tropical rain forest in southwest Amazonia, 1992 to 1993. Science 270: 778–780.
    book Hubbell SP (2001) The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    Hubbell SP, Foster RB, O'Brien ST et al. (1999) Light-gap disturbances, recruitment limitation, and tree diversity in a Neotropical forest. Science 283: 554–557.
    Pinard MA and Putz FE (1996) Retaining biomass by reducing logging damage. Biotropica 28: 278–295.
    book Richards PW (1996) The Tropical Rain Forest: an Ecological Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    Skole DL and Tucker CJ (1993) Tropical deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the Amazon: satellite data from 1978 to 1988. Science 260: 1905–1910.
    book Turner IM (2001) The Ecology of Trees in the Tropical Rain Forest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    book Whitmore TC (1998) An Introduction to Tropical Rain Forests, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    book Wilson EO (1999) The Diversity of Life,, new edn. New York: WW Norton.

Related Sub-Topics:

Biomes and Ecosystems | Community Structure | Plant Ecology
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Article Title: Tropical Forests
 
How to Cite close
Thomas, Sean C, and Baltzer, Jennifer L(Sep 2002) Tropical Forests. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0003179]