@article {700, title = {The tropical rain forest}, journal = {Scientific American}, volume = {229}, year = {1973}, month = {December 1973}, pages = {58-67}, abstract = {

This paper addresses the scarcity of nutrients. This effects the food crops, rainforest, and the rest if the ecosystem. The recycling of the minerals is very rapid. Fungi and the decomposition of rocks help in adding nutrients to the ground. The primary rainforest is surviving, but barely.

The idea of a substitute or secondary forest is what is to replace the primary forest. These are phases to the growth of the secondary forest. These are grasses, including herbaceous dicotyledons, vines, shrubs, etc. Next is trees, soft-wooded, fast-growing, and short lived. After that is a cycle, the primary forest begins to form. In order for the primary forest to take shape, the secondary forest must be undistributed.

}, keywords = {Amazon, Borneo, homeostatic mechanisms, mineral-transport system, rainforests, swiddens, tropical forests}, doi = {10.1038/scientificamerican1273-58}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1273-58}, author = {Paul W. Richards} }