Biotic Interactions in the Tropics: Their Role in the Maintenance of Species Diversity

David Burslem · Michelle Pinard · Sue Hartley

sept 2005 · Cambridge University Press

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Tropical ecosystems house a significant proportion of global biodiversity. To understand how these ecosystems function we need to appreciate not only what plants, animals and microbes they contain, but also how they interact with each other. This volume, first published in 2005, synthesises the state of knowledge in this area, with chapters providing reviews or case studies drawn from research conducted in both Old and New World tropics and including biotic interactions among taxa at all trophic levels. In most chapters plants (typically trees) are the starting point, but, taken together, the chapters consider interactions of plants with other plants, with micro-organisms and with animals, and the inter-relationships of human-induced disturbance with interactions among species. An underlying theme of the volume is the attempt to understand the maintenance of high diversity in tropical regions, which remains one of the most significant unexplained observations in ecological studies.

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David Burslem is Senior Lecturer in Tropical Plant Science at the University of Aberdeen. His current research focuses on tropical forest sites in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Ecuador.

Michelle Pinard is Lecturer in Tropical Forestry at the University of Aberdeen. Her research focuses on sites in Ghana, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Bolivia.

Sue Hartley is Reader in Ecology at the University of Sussex, specialising in the study of plant-animal interactions.