More about the Programme
This Scientific Programme was launched in January 1994 for a period of five years. Funding has been provided by ESF Member Organisations from Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Over the last few years there has been a rapidly growing awareness of our lack of understanding of the interactions and interdependence of living organisms on Earth and on human impact on this complex web. Habitat destruction, depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, climate change with consequent massive species loss (the 'biodiversity crisis') led to the UNCED meeting in Rio de Janeiro and the signing of the Biodiversity Convention by more than 160 nations. Biodiversity is a relatively new term comprising all aspects of diversity of life on Earth at all levels of biological organisation - from molecules to ecosystems. Tropical forests represent the most complicated and least understood biological systems known. They represent our most valuable genetic heritage. They play a vital role in maintaining those properties of the biosphere that make it hospitable for humans and for millions of other species. They stabilise the local as well as the global climate. They conserve soil fertility, protect soils against erosion and regulate water flow and evaporation. What is far from clear is the role of biodiversity in these essential properties and how these ecosystems will be affected by loss of biodiversity.
In this Programme are studied the patterns and processes that lead to and maintain the immense diversity of life in the tropics. This is done by focusing research on the suspected pinnacles of organism diversity and complexity, on canopies of tropical forests. One aim of the Programme is to determine the extent of this richness in a well-defined 'open-air laboratory', the tropical forest canopy. In studying the complex interactions between canopy organisms and their biotic and abiotic environment, special attention is paid to the roles of 'chance' versus 'determinism' in the structuring of communities. By investigating natural and man-made gradients, knowledge is being obtained on the causes and consequences of species loss. A further aim is to determine how abiotic and biotic factors interact to produce the complex and variable architecture of tree canopies and how this then influences the biota which tropical forest canopies house.
This Programme should provide a greater understanding of tropical forest ecosystem functioning and the significance of biodiversity in its structural and functional maintenance and regeneration. Results from this part of the Programme will be of use for those concerned with conservation as well as with sustainable resource management. Members of the Programme have developed different methods of accessing and studying canopies and the communities they harbour. The Programme aims to further advance and standardise these and other suitable techniques, of developing and implementing common protocols for data collection and joint management of data. The participating countries in the Programme represent many sites and field stations in the tropics which will be connected in a collaborative network. Finally, the Programme aims to develop further joint research activities to complement and increase the coherence of ongoing research.
Programme management
Steering Committee chaired by Professor E. Linsenmair (University of Würzburg, Germany).
Five contributing organisations.
