Robert B. Waide - Böcker

Destruction of tropical rain forests has increased exponentially in recent years, as have efforts to conserve them. However, information essential to these conservation programs - an understanding of the population dynamics of the community at risk - has often been unavailable to the scientists and resource managers who need it most. This volume seeks to fill the gap by presenting a comprehensive description and analysis of the animal community of the tropical rain forest at El Verde, Puerto Rico. Building on more than a decade of field research, the contributors weave the complex strands of information about the energy flow within the forest - who eats whom - into a tool for understanding community dynamics known as a food web.

Destruction of tropical rain forests has increased exponentially in recent years, as have efforts to conserve them. However, information essential to these conservation programs - an understanding of the population dynamics of the community at risk - has often been unavailable to the scientists and resource managers who need it most. This volume seeks to fill the gap by presenting a comprehensive description and analysis of the animal community of the tropical rain forest at El Verde, Puerto Rico. Building on more than a decade of field research, the contributors weave the complex strands of information about the energy flow within the forest - who eats whom - into a tool for understanding community dynamics known as a food web.

This volume explores the challenges of sustaining long-term ecological research through a historical analysis of the Long Term Ecological Research Program created by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 1980.