The Tropical Rain Forest: A First Encounter

✍ Scribed by Marius Jacobs (auth.), Remke Kruk (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 309
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book deals with both the biological and the human aspects of the tropical rain forest. Starting with an account of the present situation and the reasons for the mounting public concern, it then tells how scientific research is conducted in these immensely high forests. Climate and soil, as basic factors in the ecology of the rain forest, are discussed, and the other characteristics of a rain forest are also carefully considered: their enormous variety of species, the woody character of those species and consequent difficulties of regeneration, and the intricate relationships which have evolved between plants and animals in the "closed circuit" rain forest existence. The focus of the book is on the tropical rain forest in optima forma, at its present peak of evolution, and is therefore general in concept. Special attention is paid to ecological problems. The approach of the subject is such that the book should appeal to biologists and laymen alike.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XVI
A Matter of Public Awareness....Pages 1-13
How Rain Forests Are Studied....Pages 14-41
Climate....Pages 42-51
Soils and Cycles....Pages 52-59
The Trees....Pages 60-65
Other Life Forms....Pages 66-76
Composition....Pages 77-88
Primary and Secondary Forest....Pages 89-99
Tropical America....Pages 100-124
Malesia....Pages 125-131
Tropical Africa....Pages 132-137
Relationships of Plants and Animals....Pages 138-152
Evolution....Pages 153-165
How Species Are Formed....Pages 166-177
At the Fringes of the Rain Forest....Pages 178-196
Values of the Rain Forest....Pages 197-211
Damage and Destruction....Pages 212-236
Protection....Pages 237-249
Forest and Man....Pages 250-272
Back Matter....Pages 273-295

✦ Subjects

Agriculture; Forestry; Ecology; Plant Sciences