Highly complex ecosystems such as the tropical mountain rain forest in southern Ecuador probably harbor tens of thousands of species that interact with each other. It is impossible to understand an ecosystem without knowing the composition of its community. Such knowledge cannot be achieved without the examination of all major groups of animals, fungi, plants, and bacteria. For example, insects such as leaf beetles, ants, or hymenopteran and dipteran parasitoids have a high impact on forest ecosystems (Moutino et al. 2005; Soler et al. 2005), but have not been studied at the RBSF so far. The question of how many species there are on earth is still unresolved. Estimates range from four to 30 million species (e.g. Novotny et al. 2002). Ultimately, only counting and naming species can answer this question.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brehm, G. et al. (2008). Mountain Rain Forests in Southern Ecuador as a Hotspot of Biodiversity – Limited Knowledge and Diverging Patterns. In: Beck, E., Bendix, J., Kottke, I., Makeschin, F., Mosandl, R. (eds) Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of Ecuador. Ecological Studies, vol 198. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73526-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73526-7_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-73525-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-73526-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)