Tropical Rain Forests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison

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.

Preface to the first edition.

Preface to the second edition.

Acknowledgments.

1 Many Tropical Rain Forests.

What are tropical rain forests?

Where are the tropical rain forests?

Rain forest environments.

Rain forest histories.

Origins of the similarities and differences among rainforests.

Many rain forests.

Conclusions.

2 Plants: Building Blocks of the Rain Forest.

Plant distributions.

Rain forest structure.

How many plant species?

Widespread plant families.

Neotropical rain forests.

Asian rain forests.

Rain forests in New Guinea and Australia.

African rain forests.

Madagascan rain forests.

Conclusions and future research directions.

3 Primate Communities: A Key to Understanding Biogeographyand Ecology.

What are primates?

Old World versus New World primates.

Primate diets.

Primate communities.

Primates as seed dispersal agents.

Conclusions and future research directions.

4 Carnivores and Plant–eaters.

Carnivores.

Herbivores of the forest floor.

Conclusions and future research directions.

5 Birds: Linkages in the Rain Forest Community.

Biogeography.

Little, brown, insect–eating birds.

Forest frugivores.

Fruit size and body size.

Flower visitors.

Ground–dwellers.

Woodpeckers.

Birds of prey.

Scavengers.

Night birds.

Migration.

Comparison of bird communities across continents.

Conclusions and future research directions.

6 Fruit Bats and Gliding Animals in the ForestCanopy.

Fruit– and nectar–feeding bats.

Flying behavior.

Foraging behavior.

Bats as pollinators and seed dispersal agents.

Gliding vertebrates.

Conclusions and future research directions.

7 Insects: Diverse, Abundant, and EcologicallyImportant.

Butterflies.

Ants.

Termites.

Bees.

Conclusions and future research directions.

8 Island Rain Forests.

Pacific islands.

Evolution on islands.

Indian Ocean islands.

Atlantic islands.

Caribbean islands.

Natural disasters.

Human impacts.

Conclusions and future research directions.

9 The Future of Tropical Rain Forests.

Different forests, different threats.

The major threats.

The forces behind the threats.

Global climate change.

Saving the many rain forests.

Conclusions and future research directions.

References.

Index.

Richard Corlett, a Professor at the National University ofSingapore, has studied tropical rain forests in New Guinea,Southeast Asia, and southern China. His major current researchinterest is in how rain forest plants and animals survive inhuman–dominated landscapes. He has previously taught ecology at theUniversity of Chiang Mai, in Thailand, and the University of HongKong, in China, and is author or co–author of several books on theecology of the Asian tropics.

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

This well–written, superbly illustrated, book should becompulsory reading for politicians and international bureaucrats,because, however good the ecological science conducted inrainforest, it will be a matter of preaching to the converted if itremains in scientific journals and does not reach the broaderpublic.   (Austral Ecology, 11 July 2013)

Recommended.  Lower–division  undergraduatesthrough graduate student; general readers.   (Choice, 1May 2012)

"In summary: this is a fascinating book. I enjoyed it, I learnedfrom it and I recommend it. It will be of value to academics,researchers and students, and, due to its accessible style andillustrations, it will appeal to many others too. Columbus wouldhave found it helpful–but over half a millennium later so mightmany of us." (Frontiers of biogeography, 3 January 2011)