Overview

Until relatively recently the valuable tropical montane cloud forests (hereaf­ ter usually referred to as TMCFs) of the world had scarcely come under the assaults experienced by the downslope montane and lowland forests. TMCFs are not hospitable environments for human occupation, and their remoteness (except in places near Andean high mountain settlements and in the Ethiopian Highlands) and difficult terrain have given them de facto protection. The ad­ jacent upper montane rain forests have indeed been under assault for timber, fuelwood, and for conversion to grazing and agriculture for many decades, even centuries in the Andes, but true cloud forest has only come under ex­ ploitation as these lower elevational resources have disappeared. They have also been ""nibbled"" at from above where there have been alpine grasslands under grazing pressure. Increasingly now, however, these cloud forest eco­ systems are being fragmented, reduced, and disturbed at an alarming rate. It is now becoming recognized that steps must be taken rapidly to increase our understanding of TMCF and to achieve their conservation, because: their water-capture function is extremely important to society; • their species endemism is high; they serve as refugia for endangered species being marginalized in these environments by increasingly transformed lower elevation ecosystems; they are relatively little studied; yet, their value to science is extremely high; they have low resilience to disturbance; vii viii Preface and many other reasons, which will be discussed subsequently in this publi­ cation.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lawrence S. Hamilton ,  James O. Juvik ,  F.N. Scatena
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1995
Volume:   110
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.651kg
ISBN:  

9781461275640

ISBN 10:   1461275644
Pages:   407
Publication Date:   22 October 2011
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface.- Contributors.- 1 The Puerto Rico Tropical Cloud Forest Symposium: Introduction and Workshop Synthesis.- 2 Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Conservation Status and Management Issues.- 3 Hydrology and Biogeochemistry of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: What Do We Really Know?.- 4 The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests for Endemic and Threatened Birds.- 5 Ecology and Conservation of the Argentine Montane Forest.- 6 The Role of GIS in Evaluating Contour-Based Limits of Cloud Forest Reserves in Honduras.- 7 Reforestation with the Native Tree Alnus acuminata: Effects on Phytodiversity and Species Richness in an Upper Montane Rain Forest Area of Colombia.- 8 The Montane Cloud Forest in Southern Brazil.- 9 Cloud Forest, the Massenerhebung Effect, and Ultraviolet Insolation.- 10 Some Low Elevation Fog Forests of Dry Environments: Applications to African Paleoenvironments.- 11 Relationships Between Rainfall, Cloud-Water Interception, and Canopy Throughfall in a Hawaiian Montane Forest.- 12 Biophysical Conditions of the Montane Cloud Forests of Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.- 13 The Importance of Tropical Montane Cloud Forest for Preserving Vertebrate Endemism in Peru: The Río Abiseo National Park as a Case Study.- 14 Cloud Forests of the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda: Research and Management Possibilities.- 15 Conservation of Cloud Forests in Maui County (Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lana‘i), Hawaiian Islands.- 16 Montane Cloud Forest in the Tropical Pacific: Some Aspects of Their Floristics, Biogeography, Ecology, and Conservation.- 17 The Montane Cloud Forest and Its Gradational Changes in Southeast Asia.- 18 Biological and Hydrological Values of the Mossy Forests in the Central Cordillera Mountains, Philippines.- 19 Montane Cloud Forests in Micronesia: Status andFuture Management.- 20 Human Impacts on the Cloud Forests of the Upper Guayllabamba River Basin, Ecuador, and Suggested Management Responses.- 21 The Management of Luquillo Elfin Cloud Forest Ecosystems: Irreversible Decisions in a Nonsubstitutable Ecosystem.- 22 Lichens as Indicators of Cloud Forest in Hawai‘i.- 23 Cloud Forest Archipelagos: Preservation of Fragmented Montane Ecosystems in Tropical America.- 24 Endangered Species in Low Elevation Cloud Forest on Gau Island, Fiji.- 25 Biogeography and Ecology of the Upper Montane Rain Forest of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).- 26 The Cloud Forest of Samoa.- 27 Distribution and Conservation of Peru’s Montane Forests: Interactions Between the Biota and Human Society.

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