The New Neotropical Companion
Plate 6- 1. Leaves showing damage from insect herbivory. Still, the scene is pretty green with plant biomass. Photo by John Kric ...
Primary productivity brings solar energy into ecosystems, some of which is converted to potential energy incorporated into organ ...
fauna of the decomposer community. Those that exist demonstrate the high complexity of the microbial components of the decompose ...
more obvious than along the wider stretches of the Amazon River. At midday, skies immediately above the great river tend to be c ...
One major difference between tropical and temperate forests is that in tropical forests the vast bulk of the rapidly cycling min ...
litter layer (plate 6- 7). Unlike the northern coniferous forests, for example, which typically have a thick spongy carpet of so ...
tropics and are closer to a neutral pH (though still acidic), with less overall leaching than typical oxisols. It is estimated t ...
Tropical Soils and Agriculture Laterization is an extreme, but even attempts to farm the tropics by applying intensive agricultu ...
Other Nutrient- Retention Adaptations Some tropical plants have root systems that grow vertically upward, from the soil onto the ...
to be a primary limiting factor in forest net primary productivity, wet forests that experience high rates of leaching could con ...
In contrast, soils in various places— Puerto Rico, many parts of Central America, including much of Costa Rica, and throughout m ...
well over 100 at any given time in some places, are exposed to predation as they cling to an embankment, but their repeated pres ...
in vast subterranean colonies that are not in any way obvious from aboveground. Termites are generally well protected within the ...
Another way to see termites is to break open their tunnels. Workers are blind and follow chemical trails laid down by other work ...
Plate 7- 1. Cleared forest represents a major disturbance patch. The photo shows a pasture at a forest edge. If left alone, fore ...
How (and Why) to Notice Disturbance When you first experience being in rain forest you are sure to be impressed by the density o ...
for the most part, gradually replaced by slower- growing more shade- tolerant species as the once open gap regains a closed cano ...
outset as seedlings or saplings, but their growth did not accelerate until the gap formed and light was available. Within a cent ...
frequency of disturbance may be at least partly responsible for why there are so many coexisting species of trees in tropical fo ...
plants persist for very long periods in the darkened understory. Taken together, they represent over 95% of all trees greater th ...
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