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Zonal Vegetation of the Tropical Zone with Year-Round Rain

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Abstract

The zonal vegetation of the tropics with year-round rain (‘wet tropics’) consists of tropical lowland rainforests. They are discussed together with the tropical heath forests on the very nutrient-poor, permeable soils of the Amazon Basin. Floristic and structural diversity is particularly high in these vegetation types in comparison to all other forest ecosystems, and varies from continent to continent: in accordance with the floristic history, the greatest species diversity is found in neotropical rainforests, and the lowest in African rainforests. Functional traits such as the close symbiotic relationship between plants and animals, forest dynamics of primeval tropical forests, carbon balance, and the ecological role of lianas and epiphytes are described. At the end of the chapter, forms of land use that benefit biodiversity and soil conservation are discussed.

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  1. TUM School of Life Sciences, The Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany

    Jörg S. Pfadenhauer

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Frank A. Klötzli

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Pfadenhauer, J.S., Klötzli, F.A. (2020). Zonal Vegetation of the Tropical Zone with Year-Round Rain. In: Global Vegetation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49860-3_2

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