Forest, chemical ecology

Steinberg PD, de Nys R, Kjelleberg S (2001) Chemical mediation of surface colonization. In McClintock JB, Baker BJ (eds) Marine chemical ecology. CRC, Boca Raton, FL, pp 355-387 Steinberg PD, Estes JA, Winter FC (1995) Evolutionary consequences of food chain length in kelp forest communities. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 92 8145-8148... 

Elkinton, J. S., Card6, R. T., and Mason, C. J. (1984). Evaluation of time-average dispersion models for estimating pheromone concentrations in a deciduous forest. Journal of Chemical Ecology 10,1081-1108. 

McKey, D. and Beckerman, S. (1993). Chemical ecology, plant evolution and traditional manioc cultivation systems. In Man and theBiosphereSeries, vol. 13 Tropical Forests People andPood, ed. C. M. Hadlik, A. Hadlik, O. F. Linares, etflZ. pp. 321-338. Paris UNESCO-MAB/Parthenon Publishing. 

Seybold, Steven J., Chemical Ecology of Forest Insects, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 720 Olive Drive, Suite D, Davis, CA 95616, USA... 

Chapter 11 Search for Chemical Ecology Stories in the Forest or Other Ecosystem... 

Needless to say, any ecosystem offers a rich variety of chemical ecology stories to discover. For example, on an excursion in the Amazon forest one can be sure to encounter many fascinating chemical relationships between organisms. Here I start with three examples concerning birds. 

Bedard, W. D., D. L. Wood, and P. E. Tilden Use of behavior modifying chemicals to lower western pine beetle-caused tree mortality and to protect trees. In W. E. Waters, Ed., Forest Insect Ecology and Management. U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. In press. 

Alkaloids from many plants are considered to be used as biological fertilizers in ecological cultivation. This is very important especially in cases when more attention is given to these plants, which play not only a role in production but also in the cyclical maintenance of a field, garden or forest ecosystems . Plants containing alkaloids, for example lupines, have the ability to establish complexes with the soil and with the rhizosphere. The excretion of many chemicals from roots to soil occurs in this complex. Plant mediation with the soil environment is the result. The alkaloids play a major role in this plant-soil interaction system. 

Furch, K., and W. J. Junk. 1997a. Chemical composition, food value and decomposition of herbaceous plants leaves and leaf litter of the floodplain forest." In The Central Amazon Floodplain, ed. W. J. Junk (Ecological Studies, Springer-Verlag, Berlin), pp. 187-203. 

Further significant opportunities exist to use tropical forest ecology to target promising natural sources of chemicals with specific bioactivities. Symbioses between forest ecologists and natural products chemists would hasten this discovery process. Such collaboration would also contribute to our understanding of the chemical mechanisms that underlie many of the fundamental ecological interactions that drive and maintain tropical forests. 

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