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Over one third of the earth's terrestrial surface is situated in the tropics, with environments ranging from hot deserts to tropical rain forests. This introductory textbook, aimed at students studying tropical ecology, provides a comprehensive guide to the major tropical biomes and is unique in its balanced coverage of both aquatic and terrestrial systems, and its international scope. The volume also considers the human ecological dimension, with coverage of issues such as population growth, urbanisation, agriculture and fisheries, natural resource use and pollution, plus global issues such as the conservation of biodiversity, climate change and the concept of ecological sustainability. The text is supported throughout by boxes containing supplementary material on a range of topics and organisms, plus mathematical concepts and calculations, and is enlivened with clear line diagrams, maps and photographs. A cross-referenced glossary, an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index are included as further aids to study.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 The tropical environment
• 2 Hot deserts and environmental factors
• 3 Grasslands and primary production
• 4 Savanna and population dynamics
• 5 Lakes, energy flow and biogeochemical cycling
• 6 Rivers, floodplains and estuaries: the flood-pulse and river continuum concepts
• 7 Wetlands and succession
• 8 Tropical rain forest and biodiversity
• 9 Mountains, zonation and community gradients
• 10 Mangroves, seagrasses and decomposition
• 11 Coral reefs and community ecology
• 12 Isolated habitats and biogeography: islands in the sea, air and land
• 13 Cities and human ecology
• 14 Global ecology: biodiversity, conservation, climate change and sustainable development
• Glossary
• References
• Index

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CHOICE Review

Osborne (Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis) has revised his earlier work (CH, May'01, 38-5021) to provide information on recent advances in tropical ecology. To illustrate ecological principles, the author starts with a tropical ecosystem (Serengeti, Amazon, Namib Desert, etc.) and then illustrates a set of ecological principles (population growth, community assembly rules, the niche concept, etc.) using the organisms from the chosen ecosystem. For the most part, this works. At times, the pages rush by with glossary terms dangling. At other times, the story of the ecosystem flows nicely into sidebars and data-rich examples. It is hard to fault a textbook for sparse citations of the original literature because readability is a priority; however, many of the aforementioned "glossary terms" lack context, and the subtleties of their application are lost. Thankfully the glossary is well stocked with over 700 entries, despite the modest, idiosyncratic reference section. Where the author pauses to explain topics in detail, the writing is excellent and the charts/graphs are illustrative. The black-and-white photographs tend to be utilitarian rather than inspirational. Clearly, Osborne is a good teacher who has thought carefully about how to best explain tropical ecology using the entire world as his classroom. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general readers. G. C. Stevens formerly, University of New Mexico