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Tropical Moist Forests

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Global Biodiversity

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Abstract

The terms ‘rain forest’ and ‘tropical moist forest’ are often used as synonyms; although neither has a standard definition, the latter is more inclusive than the former. Schimper first used the term rain forest in 1903 (Schimper, 1903) and defined it as a forest that is “evergreen, hygrophilous in character, at least 30m high, rich in thick-stemmed lianas and in woody as well as herbaceous epiphytes”. Sixty or so years later, Baur (1964) extended this definition somewhat to “a closed community of essentially but not exclusively broadleaved evergreen hygrophilous trees, usually with two or more layers of trees and shrubs with dependent synusiae of life forms such as vines and epiphytes. It includes the characteristic vegetation of the humid tropics, even when this has a somewhat seasonal climatic regime, as well as those of moist elevated areas of the tropics”.

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  1. Brian Groombridge
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Groombridge, B. (1992). Tropical Moist Forests. In: Groombridge, B. (eds) Global Biodiversity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2282-5_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2282-5_20

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