Informed by decades of researching tropical Asian forests, a
comprehensive, up-to-date, and beautifully illustrated synthesis of the
natural history of this unique place.
Trees and Forests of Tropical Asia invites readers on an expedition
into the leafy, humid, forested landscapes of tropical Asia--the
so-called tapovan, a Sanskrit word for the forest where knowledge is
attained through tapasya, or inner struggle. Peter Ashton and David
Lee, two of the world's leading scholars on Asian tropical rain forests,
reveal the geology and climate that have produced these unique forests,
the diversity of species that inhabit them, the means by which rain
forest tree species evolve to achieve unique ecological space, and the
role of humans in modifying the landscapes over centuries. Following
Peter Ashton's extensive On the Forests of Tropical Asia, the first
book to describe the forests of the entire tropical Asian region from
India east to New Guinea, this new book provides a more condensed and
updated overview of tropical Asian forests written accessibly for
students as well as tropical forest biologists, ecologists, and
conservation biologists.