Tropical Rain Forests An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison

by Corlett, Richard T.; Primack, Richard B.

• ISBN13: 9781444332551
• ISBN10: 1444332554
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-14
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The first edition of Tropical Rain Forests: an Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison exploded the myth of 'the rain forest' as a single, uniform entity. In reality, the major tropical rain forest regions, in tropical America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and New Guinea, have as many differences as similarities, as a result of their isolation from each other during the evolution of their floras and faunas. This new edition reinforces this message with new examples from recent and on-going research. After an introduction to the environments and geological histories of the major rain forest regions, subsequent chapters focus on plants, primates, carnivores and plant-eaters, birds, fruit bats and gliding animals, and insects, with an emphasis on the ecological and biogeographical differences between regions. This is followed by a new chapter on the unique tropical rain forests of oceanic islands. The final chapter, which has been completely rewritten, deals with the impacts of people on tropical rain forests and discusses possible conservation strategies that take into account the differences highlighted in the previous chapters. This exciting and very readable book, illustrated throughout with color photographs, will be invaluable reading for undergraduate students in a wide range of courses as well as an authoritative reference for graduate and professional ecologists, conservationists, and interested amateurs.

Author Biography

Richard B. Primack, a Professor at Boston University, is the author of two leading textbooks in conservation biology and is the Editor in Chief of the journal, Biological Conservation. He has carried out research in Central America, Malaysia, and Australia, and is currently studying the impact of climate change on plant and animal communities. He is former President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.

Table of Contents

Preface to the first edition	p. viii
Preface to the second edition	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. x
Many Tropical Rain Forests	p. 1
What are tropical rain forests?	p. 3
Where are the tropical rain forests?	p. 4
Rain forest environments	p. 9
Rain forest histories	p. 18
Origins of the similarities and differences among rain forests	p. 25
Many rain forests	p. 29
Conclusions	p. 31
Plants: Building Blocks of the Rain Forest	p. 32
Plant distributions	p. 33
Rain forest structure	p. 36
How many plant species?	p. 37
Widespread plant families	p. 40
Neotropical rain forests	p. 53
Asian rain forests	p. 58
Rain forests in New Guinea and Australia	p. 65
African rain forests	p. 66
Madagascan rain forests	p. 71
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 72
Primate Communities: A Key to Understanding Biogeography and Ecology	p. 76
What are primates?	p. 76
Old World versus New World primates	p. 80
Primate diets	p. 84
Primate communities	p. 88
Primates as seed dispersal agents	p. 98
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 100
Carnivores and Plant-eaters	p. 102
Carnivores	p. 102
Herbivores of the forest floor	p. 120
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 135
Birds: Linkages in the Rain Forest Community	p. 138
Biogeography	p. 139
Little, brown, insect-eating birds	p. 144
Forest frugivores	p. 148
Fruit size and body size	p. 161
Flower visitors	p. 162
Ground-dwellers	p. 167
Woodpeckers	p. 172
Birds of prey	p. 173
Scavengers	p. 176
Night birds	p. 176
Migration	p. 179
Comparison of bird communities across continents	p. 180
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 182
Fruit Bats and Gliding Animals in the Forest Canopy	p. 184
Fruit- and nectar-feeding bats	p. 184
Flying behavior	p. 190
Foraging behavior	p. 192
Bats as pollinators and seed dispersal agents	p. 192
Gliding vertebrates	p. 194
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 200
Insects: Diverse, Abundant, and Ecologically Important	p. 203
Butterflies	p. 204
Ants	p. 212
Termites	p. 224
Bees	p. 229
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 236
Island Rain Forests	p. 239
Pacific islands	p. 240
Evolution on islands	p. 242
Indian Ocean islands	p. 248
Atlantic islands	p. 250
Caribbean islands	p. 251
Natural disasters	p. 251
Human impacts	p. 252
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 255
The Future of Tropical Rain Forests	p. 257
Different forests, different threats	p. 257
The major threats	p. 264
The forces behind the threats	p. 275
Global climate change	p. 279
Saving the many rain forests	p. 282
Conclusions and future research directions	p. 293
References	p. 297
Index	p. 318
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