The Ecology of Tropical East Asia [Paperback]

Richard T. Corlett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 019953246X | ISBN-13: 978-0199532469

Tropical East Asia is home to one billion people and faces massive human impact from its rising population and rapid economic growth. It has already lost more than two-thirds of its forest cover and has the highest rates of deforestation and logging in the tropics. The relentless trade in wildlife products threatens all its large and many smaller vertebrates. Despite these problems, the region still supports an estimated 15-25% of global terrestrial biodiversity and is therefore a key area for conservation. Effective and efficient conservation action at the local and regional levels depends on an understanding of the ecological patterns and processes in the region, but information is currently scattered among a large number of elusive publications in several different languages.

The Ecology of Tropical East Asia is the first book to describe the terrestrial ecology of the entire East Asian tropics and subtropics, from southern China to western Indonesia. It deals with plants, animals, and the ecosystems they inhabit, as well as the diverse threats to their survival and the options for conservation. This book provides the background knowledge of the region's ecology needed by both specialists and non-specialists to put their own work into a broader context.

The accessible style, comprehensive coverage, and engaging illustrations make this advanced textbook an essential read for senior undergraduate and graduate level students studying the terrestrial ecology of the East Asian tropics, as well as an authoritative reference for professional ecologists, conservationists, and interested amateurs worldwide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For a quarter of a century, the best treatment of the ecology and management of the East Asian tropics has been T. C. Whitmore's Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East (1984 Oxford). Corlett's volume offers an excellent update on Whitmore's classic that is shorter but more balanced and should become a standard textbook for undergraduate or graduate ecology courses."--Quarterly Review of Biology

About the Author

Richard Corlett was born and brought up in the UK, but has spent all his adult life in tropical East Asia. After obtaining a first degree from the University of Cambridge, he did his PhD at the Australian National University, with fieldwork in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Since then he has taught ecology and conservation biology at Chiang Mai University, in Thailand, and the University of Hong Kong, in southern China. He is now a Professor at the National University of Singapore. His diverse research interests include forest ecology, seed dispersal by birds and mammals, invasive species, and conservation in human-dominated landscapes. He is co-author of four books, including Tropical Rainforests: An Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison, with Richard Primack, and The Ecology and Biodiversity of Hong Kong, with David Dudgeon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019953246X
• ISBN-13: 978-0199532469
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,278,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am currently employed as a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore. After my first degree at the University of Cambridge, I did my PhD at the Australian National University, with fieldwork in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. I have subsequently held teaching posts at the University of Chiang Mai, Thailand (1980-82), National University of Singapore (1982-87), and the University of Hong Kong, China (1988-2008), before rejoining the National University of Singapore in 2008. Major teaching and research interests include terrestrial ecology and biodiversity conservation in tropical East Asia, rainforest biogeography, plant-animal interactions, urban ecology, invasive species, and the impacts of climate change. In addition to over 150 scientific papers, I am author or co-author of several books, including The Ecology of Tropical East Asia, published in 2009 by Oxford University Press, and Tropical Rain Forests: an Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison, co-authored with Richard Primack, first published in 2005 by Blackwell, with a completely new edition published by Wiley in 2011.