Deforestation and land use change have led to a strong reduction of tropical forest cover during the last decades. Climate change will amplify the pressure to the remaining refuges in the next years. In addition, tropical regions are facing increasing atmospheric inputs of nutrients, which will have unknown consequences for the structure and functioning of these systems, no matter if they are within protected areas or not. Even remote areas are expected to receive rising amounts of nutrients. The effects of higher rates of atmospheric nutrient deposition on the biological diversity and ecosystem functioning of tropical ecosystems are poorly understood and our knowledge of nutrient fluxes and nutrient limitation in tropical forest ecosystems is still limited. Yet, it will be of paramount importance to know the effects of increased nutrient availability to conserve these ecosystems with their biological and functional diversity. During the last years, research efforts have more and more focused on the understanding of the role of nutrients in tropical ecosystems and several coordinated projects have been established that study the effects of experimental nutrient addition. This Research Topic combines results from experiments and from observational studies with the aim to review and conclude on our current knowledge on the role of additional nutrients in ecosystems.

Historically, tropical ecology has been a science often content with descriptive and demographic approaches, which is understandable given the difficulty of studying these ecosystems and the need for basic demographic information. Nonetheless, over the last several years, tropical ecologists have begun to test more sophisticated ecological theory and are now beginning to address a broad array of questions that are of particular importance to tropical systems, and ecology in general. Why are there are so many species in tropical forests and what mechanisms are responsible for the maintenance of that vast species diversity? What factors control species coexistence? Are there common patterns of species abundance and distribution across broad geographic scales? What is the role of trophic interactions in these complex ecosystems? How can these fragile ecosystems be conserved? Containing contributions from some of the world’s leading tropical ecologists, Tropical Forest Community Ecology provides a summary of the key issues in the discipline of tropical ecology: Includes contributions from some of the world’s leading tropical ecologists Covers patterns of species distribution, the maintenance of species diversity, the community ecology of tropical animals, forest regeneration and conservation of tropical ecosystems

Plants in tropical regions are coping with enormous challenges of physiological stresses owing to changing environmental and climatic conditions. Rapid growth of human population and rampant exploitation of fossil fuels and other developmental activities are actively contributing to such perturbations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected a sustained increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and thereby a rise in global temperature in the coming decades. The resultant changes in precipitation patterns are now evident across the globe due to intensication of hydrological cycle. Moreover, gaseous and particulate pollutants are also an immense challenge for tropical plants. Such vagaries in environmental conditions have signicant impacts on the ecophysiological traits of plants, resulting from altered interactions of tropical plants with each other, as well as other biotic and abiotic components within the ecosystem. Books available in the market that particularly focus on ecophysiological responses of tropical plants to abiotic and biotic environmental factors under climate change are limited. This book intends to fill this knowledge gap and provides a detailed analysis on ecophysiological responses of tropical plants to these environmental challenges, as well as suggesting some approachable measures for plant adaptations to these challenges. The book is equally applicable to undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, teachers and forest managers, and policy makers. Salient features of the book are: 1. A comprehensive discussion on adaptive mechanisms of plants through their ecophysiological responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses. 2. Elaboration on the recent techniques involved in ecophysiological research. 3. A detailed account of evolutionary responses of plants to changing climate. 4. Discussion of recent research results and some pointers to future advancements in ecophysiological research. 5. Presentation of information in a way that is accessible for students, researchers, and teachers practicing in plant physiology and ecology.

This book presents the latest information on tropical tree physiology, making it a valuable research tool for a wide variety of researchers. It is also of general interest to ecologists (e.g. Ecological Society of America; > 3000 or 4000 members at annual meeting), physiologists (e.g. American Society of Plant Biologists; > 2,000 members at annual meeting), and tropical biologists (e.g. Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, ATBC; > 500 members at annual meeting). (American Geophysical Union(AGU), > 20000 members at annual meeting). Since plant physiology is taught at every university that offers a life sciences, forestry or agricultural program, and physiology is a focus at research institutes and agencies worldwide, the book is a must-have for university and research institution libraries.

Importance pf tropical forests; characteristics of tropical forests; classification of tropical forests; deforestation in the tropics; management of tropical forests; plantatios and agroforestry systems; approaches for implementing sustainable management techniques.

Presenting an overview of all aspects of ecology, this text includes information on evolution, ecosystems theory, plants, animals, biogeochemical cycles, and global change. The student package includes a free Evolution Lab from the BiologyLabs Online series and a CD-ROM.

Globally, tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems and play a critical role in sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, accounting for up to half of the terrestrial biosphere's carbon sink. For reasons not yet fully reconciled, there are indications that the carbon sink strength of these forests is slowly declining, thereby decreasing the buffering capacity that these forests offer in mitigating global climate change. It is recognized that ecosystem nutrient limitations play an important regulatory role in plant growth, therein affecting ecosystem carbon...