User:Rosa Ashton/Tropical ecology

Tropical regions are hotspots for biodiversity, so conservation efforts are important to focus on in these places. Many species can be observed and conserved in the tropics. The tropics receive a lot of attention when it comes to conservation and management due to increased public awareness of the significance of tropical ecosystems and the delicacy with which they must be treated. For instance, in tropical grassy biomes it was determined that the fauna of certain areas or regions have been observed to have multiple endemic species which provide some insight into the age and origin of particularly tropical grassy systems. Conservation efforts in the tropics can be difficult to start, as many communities have developed a culture around the ecology in many locations, and in many cases, people make their livelihood off some aspect of the ecology.

According to his biographer Carol Grant Gould, "The effects William Beebe had on science... are enormous and lasting. He made an effective transition between the Victorian natural historian, content to collect and classify the natural world, and the modern experimental biologist." The work of these early pioneers not only lead to an increased interest in the burgeoning field of tropical ecology, but also had far reaching implications for scientific study on the whole. In recent years, notable changes have arose with tropical savannah ecosystems being one of these them since it has become a significant global biome but at the price of tropical forest ecosystems.

The tropics receive a lot of attention when it comes to conservation and management due to increased public awareness of the significance of tropical ecosystems and the delicacy with which they must be treated. For instance, in tropical grassy biomes it was determined that the fauna of certain areas or regions have been observed to have multiple endemic species which provide some insight into the age and origin of particularly tropical grassy systems. Conservation efforts in the tropics can be difficult to start, as many communities have developed a culture around the ecology in many locations, and in many cases, people make their livelihood off some aspect of the ecology.

There are health, economic, and environmental benefits to conserving tropical ecosystems, and conserving these benefits requires communication between local people, governments, and stakeholders. Communication between these groups facilitates the most benefit from conserving tropical ecosystems. Therefore, losing tropics would result in multiple biodiversity species being lost and local communities, natural processes and even specific organisms that rely on them would face repercussions.

The rainforests are subjects of heightened attention due to the excessive deforestation and logging that occurs in those ecosystems. As well as anthropogenic disturbances such as fires, hunting and trapping of organisms that play key roles in tropical biodiversity and natural processes. Deforestation contributes to emissions, which is a cause of climate change. Specifically, because the microclimate is altered as a consequence to persisting carbon emissions after deforestation. Much of the deforestation in the tropics is the result of agricultural land use. This indicates that tropical forest protected areas are becoming some of the last safe heavens for threatened species. In the 1980s, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization conducted a study that concluded that 15.4 million hectares (100 acres) of tropical forest was lost per year. In addition, 5.6 million hectares were logged each year.

In the early 1990s, the heads of INBio signed a deal with the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck that called for cooperation between the two entities in discovering and exploring new natural treatments in the Costa Rican rainforests. However, humans should tread carefully as to not cause species loss as a result of overexploitation, since human impacts have been a leading contributor to disturbances and modified land. Ecologists, government officials, and corporations alike praised this decision as decisive progress in an ongoing struggle to work cooperatively in utilizing tropical biodiversity while ensuring the stability of tropical ecosystems.

With the large amount of biodiversity present in the tropics, it is a good access point for research. Most research in the tropics has been done on species richness, however more research needs to be done on other aspects of the tropics. For example, studying tropical plant communities could be used to examine their impacts or responses to elevated carbon dioxide. Secondly, the temperature in the tropics rarely hinders plant growth and activity; flora can be studied nearly year round, as cold weather never stunts plant activity.

Secondly, the temperature in the tropics rarely hinders plant growth and activity; flora can be studied nearly year round, as cold weather never stunts plant activity. Which has proven to be useful in observing things such as flowering rhythmicity and leaf change. In addition to climatic reasons, the traditionally sparse population of the tropics has greatly aided research in the area, as the landscape is largely untainted by mankind and machinery. While this may not be the case so much as of late, the vast amounts of untapped land in the tropics still make for prime research territory.

In addition to climatic reasons, the traditionally sparse population of the tropics has greatly aided research in the area, as the landscape is largely untainted by mankind and machinery. While this may not be the case so much as of late, the vast amounts of untapped land in the tropics still make for prime research territory. Another example would be how studying lowland tropical rainforest can provide researchers with some insight into how hydrological and geomorphological processes have significant impacts on the ecosystem.