Summary: Tropical Forest Ecosystems

Tropical forests are considered the richest forest on earth because of high number of biological communities that home of a large number of biodiversity (Baraloto et al, 2003). These forests provide ecosystem services such as species conservation, soil erosion prevention and habitat preservation of plants and animals (Armenteras et al 2009). Over-exploitation of these forest has resulted the rapid loss of forests cover which recognized as one of the environmental and economic problems around world (Mani and Parthasarathy 2006). Tropical forests are declining at alarming rates globally, reducing annually by 1-4% of their current area (Laurance 1999). The relative increased of anthropogenic pressures had led to agricultural expansion and over grazing of livestock (Anitha et al 2010). Tree species are the important component of vegetation therefore it must be constantly managed and monitored in order to direct regeneration processes towards maintaining species and habitat diversity (Attua and Pabi 2013).

The climatic condition, stand structure, species composition and geomorphology of an area influences tree species diversity. Forest stand structure is key element in understanding forest ecosystems and also an important element of stand biodiversity (Ozcelik 2009). Lack of this data will lead to the result of forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss (Timberlake et al, 1993). Species richness and diversity are important in the assessment of the health of forest or ecosystem. These will determine if a certain forest can still support diverse ecosystem of species of flora and fauna in the forest. It is important for managing resources for the sustainable development and conservation (Chenje et al,