The mystique of the rainforest has captured the imaginations of
generations of young people, explorers, authors, and biologists. It is a
delicate ecosystem whose myriad sounds and smells, whose vibrancy of
life, is balanced by constant cycles of death and decay. It is a place
of fierce competition where unusual partnerships are forged and creative
survival strategies are the norm. In this book, you will meet the
scientific pioneers who first attempted to quantify and understand the
vast diversity of these tropical forests, as well as their successors,
who utilize modern tools and technologies to dissect the chemical nature
of rainforest interactions.
This book provides a general background on biodiversity and the study of
chemical ecology before moving into specific chemical examples of insect
defenses and microbial communication. It finishes with first-hand
accounts of the trials and tribulations of a canopy biology pioneer and
a rainforest research novice, while assessing the state of modern
tropical research, its importance to humanity, and the ecological,
political, and ethical issues that need to be tackled in order to move
the field forward.