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Ecology of Tropical Rain Forests

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Ecology and the Environment

Part of the book series: The Plant Sciences ((PLANTSCI,volume 8))

Introduction

Along with their extraordinary biodiversity and predominant influences on global carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and water cycles, tropical rain forests provide powerful inspiration that has driven biological inquiry for centuries. Theories in biogeography, ecology, and evolution by natural selection crystallized through the South America and Southeast Asian journeys of Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming – considered by some to be the founder of tropical ecology. From the lowland rain forests of Venezuela into the Andes, von Humboldt recorded the change in vegetation with climate, drawing the first conclusions that laid the groundwork for the field of biogeography. Both Darwin and Wallace developed their ideas of evolution by natural selection through their observations of exceptional species diversity in South America and Southeast Asian rain forests. Current research questions in tropical rain forest plant ecology...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, 325 Biosciences East, 1311 E 4TH ST, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Rachel E. Gallery

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  1. Rachel E. Gallery
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Correspondence to Rachel E. Gallery .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Natural Resources and the Environment and Laboratory for Tree Ring Research, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Russell K. Monson

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Gallery, R.E. (2014). Ecology of Tropical Rain Forests. In: Monson, R. (eds) Ecology and the Environment. The Plant Sciences, vol 8. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7501-9_4

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