Welcome to the Course

Welcome to this course on the structure and composition of tropical forest ecosystems! We are delighted that you have decided to take this course, in which we hope that you will not only learn about the ecology of tropical rainforests and tropical seasonal forests, but in which you will also acquire a number of soft skills, especially in relation to problem-solving and communication.

Tropical forests are one of the wonders of the world. They are the most complex ecosystems on the planet and it would be impossible to cover all aspects in this course. However, we hope to introduce to these unique ecosystems in such a way that you will have a much deeper understanding of them by the time that you complete this and the accompanying course on the ecological processes in tropical forests.

How to take the course?

While the whole course has been divided up into bite-sized chunks, enabling you to go specific topics with ease, we strongly recommend that you work through the course progressively from start to end. This is particularly important if you are taking the course for credit, as you will be assessed on your progress throughout the course.

The course is divided into five modules, primarily for convenience. Within each module, there are a number of topics, and each topic is further divided into a number of subject areas. At the end of each topic, there will be a self-test as well as reflective questions. In addition, there are two assignments associated with the each module. You will not only be completing these assignments yourself, but you will also be assessing the quality of other people’s assignments. You will be graded on both your work and how you assess the work of others (i.e. on your critical skills). We'll explain more about these later.

The main sources of information are:

• Presentations. These provide details about a subject area. They are not narrated, so you can spend as long as you wish on each slide. The presentations have been developed using Powerpoint, and it is important that you use the view that enables you to see any notes associated with a slide. In many cases, these notes will you refer to an online source of further information about a particular subject. They also provide references for further reading on particular topics.
• Videos. Working in tropical forests presents many challenges. It is very difficult to see or photograph the ‘ecology’, or even the constituent parts of the ecosystems. For example many inhabitants are nocturnal. Others are restricted to the upper layers of the canopy. Consequently, gaining information about them is extremely difficult and requires specialist techniques, and a great of deal (as well as luck). Wildlife videographers have been able to capture many organisms and their behavior on film, and we make use of that material here. Unfortunately, we have not been able to utilize the full range of video material as much of it is subject to copyright restrictions.
• Readings. We have tried to utilize as much online material as possible, but there are some items that you will have to use paper copies. The most important is the key textbook: “Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation” by Jaboury Ghazoul and Douglas Sheil. This only covers half of the material and omits tropical seasonal forests. There is no textbook dealing with seasonal forests, and remarkably few more specialized books. We refer you instead to specific readings.

Eventually, when this course forms part of a formal Master’s programme, there will be a field course associated with the programme, and a significant component of this will be on the ecology of tropical forests. However, this will be an independent course, and you will not need to undertake it in order to gain the credits for this course on the structure and function of tropical forest ecosystems.

How to advance in the course?

As recommended above, you should take this course sequentially. If you are taking the supervised version of this course (as opposed to following the course independently), you will have a number of assignments. These increase in difficulty through the course, reflecting your growing understanding of the topic. Your progress will also be assessed as you move through the topics and modules: this will give you an idea of whether you are on track or not.

What’s my advice?

Tropical forests can be overwhelming. Entering a tropical forest, you may be assaulted by a variety of novel sounds, smells and sights. You may also be literally assaulted – by a range of animals such as leeches, ticks and biting flies. Even the plants may assault you: some plants such as the stinging brush (Dendrocnide moroides) may give you a painful sting, and many palms and rattans, as well as a number of other plants, are covered in vicious spines.

Taking a course in tropical forest ecology may be similarly overwhelming. They are so complex that it is difficult to know where to start. You are not going to be able to learn everything there is to know about tropical forest ecosystems, so our recommendation is that you try and learn a little about a lot of aspects of the forests. In particular, we recommend that you concentrate on the connections between the different components of the forest, since these are critical to understanding how interventions by humans affect the ecosystems.