edited by D M Newbery (Bern University, Switzerland) , T H Clutton-Brock (Cambridge University, UK) , & G T Prance (Royal Botanic Gardens, UK)

Views on the dynamics of tropical forests are changing rapidly with the recognition that their environment is variable on the decadal to century scale. Fluctuating climatic conditions partly determine tropical forest structure, species composition and dynamics. Tropical communities are also highly contingent in space and time with respect to site and historical factors. Tropical forests have experienced to some degree this disturbance regime in the past, but climatologists are now predicting increasingly frequent extreme events in the new century. The combination of increasing deforestation and land-use conversion by man plus an increasingly variable environment means a situation that could be very difficult to manage.

• Forest Dynamics and Hydrological Perspective:
  • Hydrological Investigations of Forest Disturbance and Land Cover Impacts in South-East Asia: A Review (I Douglas)
  • Dynamics of the Forest Communities at Pasoh and Barro Colorado: Comparing Two 50-ha Plots (R Condit et al.)
  • The Role of Extreme Events in the Impacts of Selective Tropical Forestry on Erosion During Harvesting and Recovery Phases at Danum Valley, Sabah (I Douglas et al.)
  • Primary Forest Dynamics in Lowland Dipterocarp Forest at Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia, and the Role of the Understorey (D M Newbery et al.)
• Disturbance Effects and Communities:
  • The Effects of Selective Logging on the Distribution of Moths in a Bornean Rainforest (S J Willott)
  • Termite Assemblages, Forest Disturbance and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Sabah, East Malaysia (P Eggleton et al.)
  • Mechanisms of Maintenance of Tropical Freshwater Fish Communities in the Face of Disturbance (K M Martin-Smith et al.)
• Mechanisms of Diversity and Change:
  • Studying Insect Diversity in the Tropics (H C J Godfray et al.)
  • Effects of Nitrogen and Phosphorous Fertilization in a Lowland Evergreen Rainforest (E Mirmanto et al.)
  • Parsimonious Modelling of Water and Suspended Sediment Flux from Nested Catchments Affected by Selective Tropical Forestry (N A Chappell et al.)
  • Growth and Survivorship of Dipterocarp Seedlings: Differences in Shade Persistence Create a Special Case of Dispersal Limitation (N Brown et al.)
• Long-Term Dynamics and Change:
  • Interesting Times on Krakatau: Stand Dynamics in the 1990s (R J Whittaker et al.)
  • The Ecoclimatology of Danum, Sabah, in the Context of the World's Rainforest Regions, with Particular Reference to Dry Periods and Their Impact (R P D Walsh & D M Newbery)
  • Interdependence of Peat and Vegetation in a Tropical Peat Swamp Forest (S E Page et al.)