John Kricher

Source
la obra maestra de John Kricher: Un Compañero Neotropical.

Solo haga click en el libro y se descargará automáticamente una versión en formato pdf.

Esta versión en español fue producto de un arduo esfuerzo de la American Birding Association y de un equipo internacional de traductores. Pocos libros muestran con tanta claridad y amenidad lo que sucede en el interior de los bosques tropicales de América Latina. ¡Que lo disfruten mucho!


Why did you write this book? 

Fall 2011 by Hannah Benoit

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Professor of Biology John Kricher, an expert in ornithology, has been studying and teaching about the tropics for more than three decades. His newest book is Tropical Ecology (Princeton University Press, 2011). The 632-page color-illustrated textbook offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the subject for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Senior writer Hannah Benoit talked with him about the book.

My earlier book, A Neotropical Companion, focused mainly on the Middle American tropics. Many college courses in tropical ecology adopted it, but there was still a clear need for a college-level comprehensive textbook on tropical ecology, and my editor asked me to take it on. Tropical regions offer outstanding opportunities to research and to learn how complex interactions occur among species that have profound effects in structuring ecosystems and in how our very planet functions.
What can tropical ecology teach us about life on Earth?
The key to tropical ecology is in the complexity of relationships among the myriad of species present. No other ecosystems, natural or otherwise, rival the tropics in the number of species of plants, birds, mammals, insects, microbes, etc., that you find in just a hectare of forest. Well over 50 percent of the world’s species are found only in the tropics, even though the total area of the tropics is proportionally far less than that. There are 20 to 30 species of trees and shrubs in Wheaton Woods. But if we moved Wheaton to, say, Amazonia, we’d have 200 to 300 or more species of trees and shrubs in the same amount of area. We’d be able to discover new species of insects and various other forms of life.
Why is biodiversity important?