Tropical

Published in association with the International Herbage Seed Production Research Group, this volume and its companion provide the definitive resource for anyone involved in the breeding and commercial production of grass and legume seeds, whether for grazing systems, horticulture or recreation.

How do tropical forests stay green with their abundance of herbivores? Why do tropical forests have such a diversity of plants and animals? And what role does mutualism play in the ecology of tropical forests?

An updated edition of the only book dedicated to the terrestrial ecology of the East Asian tropics, authored by a world-renowned tropical ecologist

In this book I have tried to bring together the major developments in the study of insect populations in tropical environments. In some ways, this task has been a difficult one because conceptually it is virtually impossible to limit a discussion of insect ecology to the tropics, since the same concepts, theories, and hypoth eses concerning the mechanisms by which habitats support insect populations often apply both to temperate and to tropical regions. Thus one might argue effectively that a book such as Peter Price's Insect Ecology represents a more comprehensive treatment of insect ecology, including the tropical aspects. Yet because there has been a tremendous amount of new study on insects in the tropics in recent years, and because there has also been a strong historical interest in tropical insects, judging from early museum expeditions and medically and agriculturally oriented studies of insects in the New and Old World tropics, I believe there is a place for a book dealing almost exclusively with tropical insects. But logically so, such a book by necessity incorporates data and informa tion from Temperate Zone studies, if for no other reason than because insights into the properties of tropical environments often emerge from compariso'ns of species, communities, or faunas between temperate and tropical regions. An understanding of insect populations in the tropics cannot be divorced from a consideration of Temperate Zone populations.

This book investigates the fundamental role that tropical bioproductivity - or more specifically net primary productivity - has played in shaping the global geographies of food, finance, governance and people. The book examines the basic astronomical and thermal properties of our planet to illustrate the dynamic nature of the tropics and how the region resides at the very heart of global energetics, driving the environmental flows that shape planetary climate and bioproductivity. The author explores how the region’s relatively small, but hyper-productive, land area provided the groundswell for the economic, social, political and demographic changes that fuelled empires, European colonialism and nation-building. Also covered are discussions on how the critical intake of capital needed to fuel the industrial and technological revolutions driving modern globalization was first expropriated from the tropics by harnessing the region’s natural productivity and biological crop diversity and then transforming it into tradeable commodities using the inhabitants' labour and knowledge. With modern tropical nations accounting for the bulk of people living in poverty and registering some of the highest income disparities, the author presents cross-cutting evidence showing that their histories and the persistence of expropriating institutions have fostered anocratic tendencies, poor governance, unorthodox financial flows and mass migration. Tropical Bioproductivity cuts across vast geographies, topics and histories to deliver a readable narrative that links people, places and events with the environmental mechanics of our planet. It will be of interest to students and researchers in the areas of environmental studies, economics, history, agriculture, anthropology and geography.

The destruction of the tropical forest is one of the major problems of our time. Vast areas are rapidly becoming wastelands which support only a few tough weeds, perhaps some cattle, and the farms allowed to the poor. This book provides a vision of hope: in Latin America. Africa. And South East Asia, growing numbers of people are developing techniques specifically designed to promote the wise use and preservation of remaining forest lands. However, these grassroots strategies are often ignored in favour of grandiose schemes which inevitably fail. This pattern must be broken now or the tropical forests will be lost forever. Published in association with the Smithsonian Institution. Preface by Michael Robinson, Director, National Zoological Park. Smithsonian Institution Originally published in 1988

Review of tropical dry forest biogeography, palaeontology, ecology and ecosystem functions.