Abstract
Classifications of tropical forests are essential for production forestry, conservation planning, REDD, and ecological research. There is no single, agreed, pantropical classification system for forests, and a wide range of different characteristics have been used as a basis for classification, from floristic composition to physiognomy (appearance). Floristic composition predicts most other characteristics of interest, but the high diversity of tropical forests makes floristic classifications difficult. Classifications based on plant functional types can potentially be used at all spatial scales but are currently mostly used at the broadest scales. Climate, soils, altitude, inundation, and disturbance history are all useful at intermediate scales.
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Corlett, R.T. (2016). Classifying Tropical Forests. In: Pancel, L., Köhl, M. (eds) Tropical Forestry Handbook. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54601-3_52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54601-3_52
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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