Palms in forest ecosystems of amazonia

This book draws a picture of the palm communities in the main forest ecosystems of Amazonia, taking into account their geographical variability. In particular, the major trends of adaptive radiation of palms as well as their role in forest functioning are analysed and answers to the following questions are given: - How many palm species are there in Amazonian forest ecosystems? - Is palm species richness equal throughout the basin? - Which are the palm-richest ecosystems? - What about density and life forms, structure of the com munities, palm productivity, relationship with animals, and with humans? - What is the palms' economic potential? - How to use the natural populations of palms for forest management? A supplement to the text offers a practical key for the identification of palms with an elementary description of each genus based on the characteristics of Amazonian species, and the most vernacular names.