Ecosystems rainforests

Land use changes in the tropics have resulted in a landscape characterized as a mosaic of logged forests, cleared fields, and successional forests. This results in the transformation from extremely fire resistant rainforest ecosystems to anthropogenic landscapes in which fire is a common event (16, 17), Fires occur in disturbed tropical forests because deforestation has a dramatic effect on microclimate. Deforestation results in lower relative humidities, increased wind speeds, and increased air temperatures. In addition, deforestation results in increased quantities of biomass that are susceptible to fire. This biomass may be in the form of forest slash, leaf litter, grasses, lianas or herbaceous species (16, 18). 

Lorieri D, Elsenbeer H. 1997. Aluminum, iron and manganese in near-surface waters of a tropical rainforest ecosystem. Sci Total Environ 205 13-23. 

Herrera, R. 1977. Correlation with vegetation types. In Soil and terrain conditions in the International Amazon Project at San carlosde Rio Negro, Venezuela, ed. E. F. Briinig (Trans. International MABAUFRO Workshop on Tropical Rainforest Ecosystems Research. Hambuig, West Germany), pp. 182-188. 

Jordan, C. F. 1987. Amazonian rainforests Ecosystem disturbance and recovery. Springer, New York. 

Tropical rainforests are the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems on earth. They cover less than 1% of the land s surface but they are home to more than 50% of all species. For example, they are estimated conservatively to contain more than 125,000 species of higher plants, 5 million species of insects and 1.5 million species of fungi. ... 

Threats to natural ecosystems from human impacts, including loss of habitat and biodiversity, are major current environmental concerns. From tropical rainforests to Arctic tundra, threats to ecosystems from climate change, pollution, and other human activities are well documented (Matson et al., 2002 Jenkins, 2003 Root et al.,... 

Today, effects that kill or threaten a branch of an ecosystem can help the ecosystem as a whole. Take modern rainforests these are diverse hot spots of life because of pathogens. Fungal diseases thrive in the rainforest, and if any one plant species dominates, the pathogens evolve to attack that species. They eventually succeed, creating an ecological void that other species fill. Extinctions created similar voids on a planetary scale that convergent evolution filled with life. 

Niscbk, F. and Riede, K. (2001). Bioacoustics of two cloud forest ecosystems in Ecuador compared to lowland rainforest with special emphasis on singing cricket species. In Epiphytes and canopy fauna, of the Otongan rain forest (Ecuador). Results of the Bonn Quito epiphyte project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, volume 2, J. Nieder and W. Barthlott (eds). Books on Demand GmBH, pp. 217-242. 

Fellman, J.B., Hood, E., Edwards, R.T., and Jones, J.B. (2009c). Uptake of allochthonous DOM from soil and salmon in coastal temperate rainforest streams. Ecosystems, 12, 747-759. 

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