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This simple discovery aided the theorization of the life zone concept, which would eventually give way to the popularization of the concept of ecosystems. [5] Another voyager, William Beebe, researched many species of birds in tropical locations and published a large gamut of academic works on his findings that greatly shaped the field of ...
The term "ecosystem" was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley. The term was coined by Arthur Roy Clapham, who came up with the word at Tansley's request. [6] Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment.
However, tropical forests are extensive, making up just under half the world's forests. [3] The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world's forests (45 percent), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains. [4] More than 3.6 million hectares of virgin tropical forest was lost in 2018. [5] [6]
The word "tropical" can specifically refer to certain kinds of weather, rather than to the geographic region; these usages ought not be confused. The Earth's axial tilt is currently around 23.4° , and therefore so are the latitudes of the tropical circles , marking the boundary of the tropics: specifically, ±23°26′09.8″ (or 23.43605°).
Tropical ecosystems ecology (Odum and Pidgeon 1970) General systems theory; Odum's contributions to these and other areas are summarized below. Odum also wrote on radiation ecology, systems ecology, unified science, and the microcosm. He was one of the first to discuss the use of ecosystems for life-support function in space travel. [10]
Bailey's ecoregion concept prioritizes ecological criteria and climate, while the WWF concept prioritizes biogeography, that is, the distribution of distinct species assemblages. [ 4 ] In 2017, an updated terrestrial ecoregions dataset was released in the paper "An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm" led by E ...
Tropical rainforest ecosystems include significant areas of biodiversity, often coupled with high species endemism. [4] Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet and roughly two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests.
Tropical rainforests are among the most threatened ecosystems globally due to large-scale fragmentation as a result of human activity. Habitat fragmentation caused by geological processes such as volcanism and climate change occurred in the past, and have been identified as important drivers of speciation. [ 10 ]