Lowland Tropical Rain Forests of Asia and America: Parallels, Convergence, and Divergence

Abstract

This chapter primarily compares the forest at Lambir Hills National Park, Sa- rawak, with other lowland tropical forests in Asia and America. No two tropical forests are exactly alike. But do differences result from histories, often over- shadowed by adaptive convergence toward uniform forest ecology? Or do the actual differences reflect fundamental differences in ecological function?