Des Menschen Werk auf Erden kann vergehen, Doch Leben stets im Wandel wird bestehen. Heinrich Walter The importance of ecology for the fate of mankind is receiving ever wider recognition. A syncretic-holistic approach to ecology was recently given unexpected support by the well-known atomic physicist and pupil of Heisenberg, Fritjov Capra. In his book The Turning Point, published in 1982 in the U.S.A., Capra comments critically, from the viewpoint of the latest findings of subatomic physics, on the mechanical-analytical ap- proach which still predominates in the biological sciences, and adds...

In Volume 1 of this four-volume series, ecological problems of a general nature were discussed from a global point of view. Familiarity with this is essential for a full understanding of the more specialized treatment in this and subsequent volumes, for no similar approach is to be found in other ecological handbooks for beginners. This present volume deals in detail with the special ecological relation ships of the tropical and subtropical zonobiomes I to III. Most ecologists proceed from the basis of their experience in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere. As a result, many...