Tropical Ecology

Description

This full-color illustrated textbook offers the first comprehensive introduction to all major aspects of tropical ecology. It explains why the world's tropical rain forests are so universally rich in species, what factors may contribute to high species richness, how nutrient cycles affect rain forest ecology, and how ecologists investigate the complex interrelationships among flora and fauna. It covers tropical montane ecology, riverine ecosystems, savanna, dry forest--and more. Tropical Ecology begins with a historical overview followed by a sweeping discussion of biogeography and evolution, and then introduces students to the unique and complex structure of tropical rain forests. Other topics include the processes that influence everything from species richness to rates of photosynthesis: how global climate change may affect rain forest characteristics and function; how fragmentation of ecosystems affects species richness and ecological processes; human ecology in the tropics; biodiversity; and conservation of tropical ecosystems and species. Drawing on real-world examples taken from actual research, Tropical Ecology is the best textbook on the subject for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. * Offers the first comprehensive introduction to tropical ecology * Describes all the major kinds of tropical terrestrial ecosystems * Explains species diversity, evolutionary processes, and coevolutionary interactions * Features numerous color illustrations and examples from actual research * Covers global warming, deforestation, reforestation, fragmentation, and conservation * The essential textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students * Suitable for courses with a field component Leading universities that have adopted this book include: * Biola University * Bucknell University * California State University, Fullerton * Colorado State University - Fort Collins * Francis Marion University * Michigan State University * Middlebury College * Northern Kentucky University * Ohio Wesleyan University * St. Mary's College of Maryland * Syracuse University * Tulane University * University of California, Santa Cruz * University of Central Florida * University of Cincinnati * University of Florida * University of Missouri * University of New Mexico * University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * University of the West Indies

John Kricher is professor of biology at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. His books include "The Balance of Nature: Ecology's Enduring Myth" and "A Neotropical Companion" (both Princeton).

"Overall, an ideal resource for a tropical ecology course ..."--Choice "Tropical Ecology provides a superb introduction to the tropics. Kricher does a remarkable job at bringing together an enormous amount of information and presenting it in an accessible but rigorous way. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and certainly recommend it."--John G. Blake, Biotropica "[A]n excellent college text ... it will become my tropical ecology shelf resource."--Wildlife Activist "Tropical Ecology has 15 chapters and is broadly organized into four sections: a large section dealing with biodiversity in tropical rain forests, a section on productivity and nutrient cycling, a section on other ecosystems in the tropics, and a final section on human ecology in the tropics, including relevant issues in conservation. The first chapter gives an overview of tropical ecology, providing a nice background on the rich history of tropical fieldwork including that of Darwin, Wallace, and Humboldt. It provides a useful synopsis of the advances in tropical ecology over the years. It further gives a nice overview of all the biomes around the world, and a wonderfully succinct and accessible summary of the climatic processes that create the global diversity in biomes... In general ... Kricher was successful in convincing the reader about the unique contributions of tropical ecology to our understanding of ecological processes, especially to our understanding of how biodiversity is generated and maintained. This textbook is a wonderful starting point or reference for students and those generally interested in learning more about tropical ecology."--Ecology "Tropical Ecology by John Kricher unifies both perspectives to a great textbook. While reviewing the different conceptual angels that are necessary to grasp the ecology of the world's tropics, many well-chosen examples illustrate the need to be aware of countless 'descriptive' facts and phenomena before theories can be used to explain them. By viewing topics from many different angles (such as climate, plant physiology, behaviour, evolution, geology), the book makes clear the multidisciplinarity of understanding tropical ecosystems... I think it is a great dual-purpose book. With its non-technical style, nice colour pictures and graphs, and good didactical organization (e.g., boxes for special case stories; accompanying slides for lecturing on http://press.princeton.edu/links/kricher/) it makes a highly recommended, multidisciplinary textbook for academic teaching. At the same time it can be used as a comprehensive review of the state of the art and as a guide to recent original literature for graduate students and researchers starting new on one of the topics."--Jan Beck, Elsevier "As this textbook follows at the heels of Kricher's successful Neotropical Companion, it is no surprise that the text is clearly written and should be accessible to undergraduate and starting graduate students, the primary target of this text. The textbook is written in a narrative that, despite its length, is easy to digest. Kricher uses approachable examples with clear illustrations, and the text is well organized. As a whole, the textbook is nicely done and should provide a wonderful complement for a course in tropical ecology."--J. Albert C. Uy, Ecological Society of America "The book can be dipped into for an in-depth read on many subjects and it is liberally scattered with colour photographs, graphs and quotes from many current research papers. Overall this is a comprehensive account of the ecology of the neotropics and is highly recommended for students."--John Feltwell, Biologist "I think it is a great dual-purpose book. With its non-technical style, nice colour pictures and graphs, and good didactical organization ... it makes a highly recommended, multidisciplinary textbook for academic teaching. At the same time it can be used as a comprehensive review of the state of the art and as a guide to recent original literature for graduate students and researchers starting new on one of the topics."--Jan Beck, Basic and Applied Ecology "Kricher has written the text in an easy to read style, which makes the study of the subject pleasurable, rather than a chore. Overall, Kricher provides a great text for the beginning and advanced student. I would recommend it as a text for students to obtain a good understanding of the concepts of tropical ecology."--Noel D. Preece, Austral Ecology