Tropical Rain Forest : Disturbance and Recovery

Tropical rain forests are the richest ecosystems that the world has ever known.

The great number of species that form them is the reason for their fascination to people, their value to the biosphere, and the complexity of their proper management.

The land that they occupy, and the value of just one of their many useful products, timber, are the reasons why they are rapidly disappearing.

This volume reports some of the results to date of a major interdisciplinary programme of rain forest research and training by British and south-east Asian scientists on "The recovery of tropical forests following disturbance: patterns and processes".

The objective is to gain an understanding of the influence of the creation of gaps of various sizes and kinds, both natural and man-made, upon the flora and fauna of closed-canopy forest, and of the processes whereby these gaps will eventually be filled.

Data obntained will allow better utilization of forest resources and better management of conservation areas. Major studies in the first six years have examined spatial dynamics of trees, regeneration dynamics, the role of colonizing species and of mycorrhiza, forest hydrology and geomorphic processes, arthropods as decomposers and predators, and the effects of selective logging upon animal populations.

These studies are essentially long-term and prescriptive conclusions cannot yet be reached, but the papers provide an bench-mark for the continuing work, a summary of what is known to date, and suggestions for future studies.