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Tropical Forests in Transition. Ecology of Natural and Anthropogenic Disturbance Processes — An Introduction

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Tropical Forests in Transition

Part of the book series: Advances in Life Sciences ((ALS))

Abstract

Recent paleoecological, biogeographical, atmospheric and climatological findings have revealed that general conceptions of the assumed ageless stability of today’s tropical forest ecosystems can no longer be supported. Pleistocene climatic changes and Holocene climate oscillations have caused significant fluctuations in tropical forest biomes, which leads to the conclusion that patterns of distribution and species composition of today’s tropical forest formations are closely related to the relatively short period of modern climate conditions.

In addition to the impact of climate change, other forces such as anthropogenic forest disturbance, the ecological feedback mechanisms of deforestation and other humaninduced environmental changes, determine the present and the possible future development of the tropical forest biota. A predictive assessment of tropical forest development requires detailed knowledge of interacting ecological processes, that is, the coupling of small-scale impacts (e.g. timber extraction, shifting cultivation, grazing, fire) with large-scale feedback mechanisms (e.g. atmospheric changes, meso- and macro-climate change).

A thorough understanding of paleoclimate and forest changes and the coupling of terrestrial ecology with atmospheric sciences will be imperative to predict the possible development of tropical forests in transition to a new climate-supported equilibrium. The introductory paper to this volume gives some selected examples of past and present natural disturbance processes in the tropical forest biota. The possible impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on present and future ecosystem processes are highlighted.

Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Group of the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry, Biogeochemistry Department (Mainz, Germany), at the Department of Forestry, University of Freiburg, Bertoldstr. 17, D-7800 Freiburg, Germany

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Authors
  1. Johann Georg Goldammer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute of Chemistry, Biogeochemistry Department (Mainz), Fire Ecology and Biomass Burning Research Group, c/o University of Freiburg, Bertoldstr. 17, D-7800, Freiburg, Germany

    Johann Georg Goldammer

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© 1992 Birkhäuser Verlag Basel/Switzerland

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Goldammer, J.G. (1992). Tropical Forests in Transition. Ecology of Natural and Anthropogenic Disturbance Processes — An Introduction. In: Goldammer, J.G. (eds) Tropical Forests in Transition. Advances in Life Sciences. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7256-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7256-0_1

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-7258-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-7256-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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