Tropical Montane Cloud Forests

✍ Scribed by Lawrence S. Hamilton, James O. Juvik, F. N. Scatena (auth.), Lawrence S. Hamilton, James O. Juvik, F. N. Scatena (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 424
• Series: Ecological Studies 110
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Until relatively recently the valuable tropical montane cloud forests (hereaf­ ter usually referred to as TMCFs) of the world had scarcely come under the assaults experienced by the downslope montane and lowland forests. TMCFs are not hospitable environments for human occupation, and their remoteness (except in places near Andean high mountain settlements and in the Ethiopian Highlands) and difficult terrain have given them de facto protection. The ad­ jacent upper montane rain forests have indeed been under assault for timber, fuelwood, and for conversion to grazing and agriculture for many decades, even centuries in the Andes, but true cloud forest has only come under ex­ ploitation as these lower elevational resources have disappeared. They have also been "nibbled" at from above where there have been alpine grasslands under grazing pressure. Increasingly now, however, these cloud forest eco­ systems are being fragmented, reduced, and disturbed at an alarming rate. It is now becoming recognized that steps must be taken rapidly to increase our understanding of TMCF and to achieve their conservation, because: their water-capture function is extremely important to society; • their species endemism is high; they serve as refugia for endangered species being marginalized in these environments by increasingly transformed lower elevation ecosystems; they are relatively little studied; yet, their value to science is extremely high; they have low resilience to disturbance; vii viii Preface and many other reasons, which will be discussed subsequently in this publi­ cation.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
The Puerto Rico Tropical Cloud Forest Symposium: Introduction and Workshop Synthesis....Pages 1-18
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Conservation Status and Management Issues....Pages 24-37
Hydrology and Biogeochemistry of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: What Do We Really Know?....Pages 38-78
The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests for Endemic and Threatened Birds....Pages 79-106
Ecology and Conservation of the Argentine Montane Forest....Pages 107-115
The Role of GIS in Evaluating Contour-Based Limits of Cloud Forest Reserves in Honduras....Pages 116-124
Reforestation with the Native Tree Alnus acuminata : Effects on Phytodiversity and Species Richness in an Upper Montane Rain Forest Area of Colombia....Pages 125-137
The Montane Cloud Forest in Southern Brazil....Pages 138-149
Cloud Forest, the Massenerhebung Effect, and Ultraviolet Insolation....Pages 150-155
Some Low Elevation Fog Forests of Dry Environments: Applications to African Paleoenvironments....Pages 156-164
Relationships Between Rainfall, Cloud-Water Interception, and Canopy Throughfall in a Hawaiian Montane Forest....Pages 165-182
Biophysical Conditions of the Montane Cloud Forests of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia....Pages 183-197
The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forest for Preserving Vertebrate Endemism in Peru: The Río Abiseo National Park as a Case Study....Pages 198-211
Cloud Forests of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda: Research and Management Possibilities....Pages 212-222
Conservation of Cloud Forests in Maui County (Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lana‘i), Hawaiian Islands....Pages 223-233
Montane Cloud Forest in the Tropical Pacific: Some Aspects of Their Floristics, Biogeography, Ecology, and Conservation....Pages 234-253
The Montane Cloud Forest and Its Gradational Changes in Southeast Asia....Pages 254-265
The Biological and Hydrological Values of the Mossy Forests in the Central Cordillera Mountains, Philippines....Pages 266-273
Montane Cloud Forests in Micronesia: Status and Future Management....Pages 274-283
Human Impacts on the Cloud Forests of the Upper Guayllabamba River Basin, Ecuador, and Suggested Management Responses....Pages 284-295
The Management of Luquillo Elfin Cloud Forest Ecosystems: Irreversible Decisions in a Nonsubstitutable Ecosystem....Pages 296-308
Lichens as Indicators of Cloud Forest in Hawai‘i....Pages 309-314
Cloud Forest Archipelagos: Preservation of Fragmented Montane Ecosystems in Tropical America....Pages 315-332
Endangered Species in Low Elevation Cloud Forest on Gau Island, Fiji....Pages 333-342
Biogeography and Ecology of the Upper Montane Rain Forest of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)....Pages 343-352
The Cloud Forest of Samoa....Pages 353-362
Distribution and Conservation of Peru’s Montane Forests: Interactions Between the Biota and Human Society....Pages 363-376
Back Matter....Pages 377-410

✦ Subjects

Ecology; Plant Sciences; Agriculture; Forestry; Geoecology/Natural Processes; Nature Conservation