Regeneration of canopy trees in tropical wet forests.

The most diverse tree communities on earth, the tropical wet forests, to a large degree remain ecological enigmas. What accounts for the coexistence of 100 or more tree species per hectare, compared to the 15 or fewer found in most temperate forests? What are the lifespans of tropical forest trees? What factors control their populations through time and space? Do the different species have highly individual regeneration patterns, or are many in fact ecological equivalents? Although we are far from having satisfactory answers to these questions, recent studies of regeneration processes are leading toward new interpretations of these complex communities.