James A. Ratter - Böcker

More often than not, when people think of a neotropical forest, what comes to mind is a rain forest, rather than a dry forest. Just as typically, when they imagine a savanna, they visualize the African plains, rather than those dry woodlands and grasslands found in the Neotropics. These same preconceptions can be found among scientists, as these neotropical biomes receive nowhere near the attention they should - in terms of both research and conservation -considering the amount of land they encompass and the diversity of vegetation they contain. Neotropical Savannas and Dry Forests: Plant Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation provides an engaging synthesis of information on the plant diversity and geography, as well as the conservation status, of these species-rich areas. This impressive compilation is the result of a plant diversity symposium that took place during an international conference on tropical savannas and seasonally dry forests held in 2003. Fifty leading scientists, representing a variety of disciplines have contributed to the chapters of this book in an effort to address three questions: What are the patterns of diversity, species-richness and endemism of the floras of neotropical seasonally dry forest and savannas? How and why did this endemism and diversity arise? Are these ecosystems adequately protected and, if not, which areas should be elevated into priorities for conservation, and how can this be best achieved?This work is the first extensive compilation of the patterns of plant biodiversity in these neotropical ecosystems. The overview also provides a summary of what is known of their evolutionary history, including an examination of the links to the development of analogous vegetation in Africa. In contrast to previously published titles that emphasize ecology and physiology, this work focuses on plant biodiversity and reviews molecular phylogenetic and molecular population genetic approache

Few tropical ecosystems have been subjected to multi-disciplinary investigations as broad and exhaustive as those carried out on the Ilha de Maraca, a riverine island in the Brazilian Amazon. This diverse and remarkable ecological reserve, in Brazil s northernmost Amazon state of Roraima, includes environments and habitats ranging from rainforests and semi-deciduous forests to natural savannas, lakes, rivers and palm swamps. These have been subjected to an in-depth international scientific study whose primary aim was to undertake one of the most detailed ecological surveys ever conducted in Amazonia. The results of this enormous body of research, involving the collaborative fieldwork of some 200 workers, span the reserve s geology, geomorphology, botany, zoology, phenology, soils, limnology, ecology and historical human occupation. These have been carefully drawn together in this volume in such a manner as to provide not only a coherent and scholarly picture of an unique and fascinating environment, but also an important and enduring source of reference for a broad spectrum of disciplines to the Amazon environment. This book is a timely reminder of the crucial importance of our understanding of rainforest components and their interrelationships, appearing as it does at a period when there is an intense interest in this extremely endangered ecosystem.