Nutrient Cycling in Tropical Forest Ecosystems: Principles and Their Application in Management and Conservation

Interest in tropical ecology has increased in recent years, due partly to the worldwide publicity given to increasing rates of tropical deforestation. There is much current concern about the effect of deforestation on productive potential and resiliance of tropical forest ecosystems, because of increasing evidence that most tropical soils are much less fertile, and more easily leached and eroded than temperate zone soils. This book addresses these concerns by bringing together much of the recent literature on nutrient cycling in tropical forests, and changes in the cycles following conversion to croplands, pastures, and plantation forests. It explains why nutrients are often very critical in tropical humid ecosystems, and discusses principles that can guide land managers to conserve nutrients and sustain productivity.