Chapter 1

ScopeoftheBookandKey

Contributions

Stefan A. Schnitzer and Walter P. Carson

Tropical forests are vastly complex systems with a
myriad of interactions that ecologists are now just
beginning to understand. Thus, for many years
tropical forest ecology was, by necessity, largely a
descriptive- and demographic-based science. More
recently, however, tropical ecologists have begun
to test more sophisticated ecological theory. Steve
Hubbell has called this a time in tropical ecology
where the theoretical rubber finally meets the
empirical road. Tropical ecologists are now begin-
ning to unite theory and long-term empirical
studies to address a broad array of questions
and theories that are of particular importance
to tropical systems. These questions include the
mechanisms responsible for large-scale patterns
of species abundance and distribution, species
coexistence and the maintenance of the vast
species diversity, trophic interactions, and the
dynamics of secondary forest succession, to name
a few. These issues are not only important for
the advancement of tropical ecology, but are cru-
cial for our overall understanding of basic ecology
in any system.
This volume represents a comprehensive
synthesis of recent and significant advances
in tropical forest community ecology. We have
divided the book into five main sections: (1)
Large-Scale Patterns in Tropical Communities;
(2) Testing Theories of Forest Regeneration and
the Maintenance of Species Diversity; (3) Animal
Community Ecology and Trophic Interactions;
(4) Secondary Forest Succession, Dynamics, and

Invasion; and (5) Tropical Forest Conservation.

These broad categories encompass some of the

most active areas of tropical forest community

ecology. We acknowledge that we have omitted

some active and important areas of tropical forest

research. For example, more chapters in this book

were devoted to plants than to animals and some

traditionally important areas of tropical ecology

(e.g., mutualisms) were not explicitly addressed

(but see Arnold Chapter 15, Theimer and Gehring

Chapter 17). This bias towards plants, large-scale

patterns, and mechanisms for the maintenance

of diversity reflects, to some degree, our own

expertise as plant ecologists, as well as the abun-

dance of these studies and their impact on tropical

forest ecology. The chapters within each of the

five major sections of this book represent some

of the most recent advances in the field. Below

we highlight the importance of each of these

chapters.

LARGE-SCALE PATTERNS IN

TROPICAL COMMUNITIES

In this section, Chave (Chapter 2) re-examines

traditional studies of patterns of vegetation

change and diversity at multiple spatial scales

(beta-diversity) using new advances in both

remote sensing techniques and statistical

approaches. He examines theories that inform

ecologists about the underlying causes for