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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Title: Forest structure, function and dynamics in Western Amazonia / edited by Randall W. Myster.
Description: Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016042844| ISBN 9781119090663 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119090694 (epub).
Subjects: LCSH: Rain forests – Amazon River Region. | Rain forest ecology – Amazon River Region. Biodiversity – Amazon River Region. Geography – Amazon River Region. | Plants – Amazon River Region. | Amazon River Region.
Classification: LCC SD160. F67 2017 | DDC 577.340985/44 – dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042844.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Dedicated to the memory of my beloved cat, Shaman.
“Das Schöne ist eine Manifestation geheimer Naturgesetze, die uns ohne dessen Erscheinung ewig wären verborgen geblieben.” (Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever).
J. W. von Goethe
Source: Goethe, Maximen und Reflexionen. Aphorismen und Aufzeichnungen. Nach den Handschriften des Goethe- und Schiller-Archivs hg. von Max Hecker, Verlag der Goethe-Gesellschaft, Weimar 1907. Aus Kunst und Altertum, 4. Bandes 2. Heft, 1823.
List of Contributors
Balslev, H.
Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Bioscience
Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark
Email: henrik.balslev@bios.au.dk
Bernal, R.
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia
Email: rgbernalg@unal.edu.co
Berrio, J. C.
Department of Geography
University of Leicester
Leicester, UK
Email: jcb34@leicester.ac.uk
Ceron, C.
Universidad Central
Escuela de Biología Herbario Alfredo Paredes
Quito, Ecuador
Email: carlosceron57@hotmail.com
Copete, J. C.
Programa de Biología Con Énfasis En Recursos Naturales
Universidad Tecnológica del Chocó
Colombia
Email: juancarloscopete2010@gmail.com
de Vries, T.
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
Quito, Ecuador
Email: tdevries@puce.edu.ec
Duque, A.
Departamento de Ciencias Forestales
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Email: ajduque09@gmail.com
Galean, G.
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia
Email: gagaleanog@unal.edu.co
Guevara, J. E.
Department of Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA. USA
Email: jeguevara@berkeley.edu
Hawes, J. E.
Animal & Environmental Research Group
Department of Life Sciences
Anglia Ruskin University
Cambridge, UK
Email: joseph.hawes@anglia.ac.uk
Householder, E.
Department of Wetland Ecology
Institute for Geography and Geoecology
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Josefstr. 1, Rastatt, Germany
Email: jehouseholder@gmail.com
Iglesias-Balarezo, A.
Rither
Bolivia, Quito
Email: aiglesias9@yahoo.com
Janovec, J.
Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales
Universidad Cientifica del Sur
Lima, Peru
Email: John.Janovec@gmail.com
Kalliola, R.
Department of Geography and Geology
University of Turku
Turku, Finland
Email: risto.kalliola@utu.fi
Mäki, S.
Department of Geography and Geology
University of Turku
Turku, Finland
Email: sanna.maki@utu.fi
Mogollon, H.
Endangered Species Coalition
Silver Springs, CO, USA
Email: hmogollon@stopextinction.org
Myster, R. W.
Biology Department
Oklahoma State University
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Email: myster@okstate.edu
Neill, D. A.
Universidad Técnica del Norte
Herbario Nacional del Ecuador
Quito, Ecuador
Email: davidneill53@gmail.com
Palacios, W. A.
Universidad Estatal Amazónica
Puyo, Ecuador
Email: walterpalacios326@yahoo.com
Pedersen, D.
Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Bioscience
Aarhus, Denmark
Email: dennis.pedersen@bios.au.dk
Peres, C. A.
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich, UK
Email: c.peres@uea.a.cuk
Pitman, N. C. A.
Keller Science Action Center
The Field Museum
Chicago, IL, USA
Email: npitman@fieldmuseum.org
Sanchéz, M.
Departamento de Ciencias Forestales
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Email: ajduque09@gmail.com
Swamy, V.
San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research
Escondido, California, USA
Email: varunswamy@gmail.com
Tobler, M. W.
San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research
Escondido, California USA
Email: mtobler@sandiegozoo.org
Toscano-Montero, G.
Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas
Faculta de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
Quito, Ecuador
Wittmann, F.
Department of Wetland Ecology
Institute of Geography and Geoecology
Karlsruhe Institute for Technology
Josefstr. 1, Rastatt, Germany
Email: florian.wittmann@kit.edu
f-wittmann@web.de
Prologue
My first experience in the Amazon occurred in 1995 when I went on a “canned” ecotourism trip to the Rio Napo in eastern Ecuador. Although we saw Anaconda, various monkey species, and a troop of Coatimundi, it was what happened during our return that has stayed with me the longest. Because our plane was departing quite early, we had to leave at four in the morning. We piled into the boat and all was well until we got stuck on a sandbar. At that point, all the men were ordered to disrobe and get into the dark water to push. As I was jumping in, I remembered all the movies and documentaries I had ever seen about the Amazon. I wondered: Would I be attacked from below by a mysterious species unknown to Science, Would the bottom be littered with the corpses of “Indians” murdered by the Conquistadors? or, Would I be swept away, my body melting into a mystical union with the Amazon for all eternity?
I survived to tell the tale and as I worked in the Amazon over the next two decades she dazzled in her beauty, complexity and raw wildness, but not always in the most pleasant way. Perhaps my worst experience was an infected insect bite that landed me in the hospital for two weeks on an IV. During my stay I was told that my leg might have to come off! – but luckily the infection had not reached the bone. Alternatively, I can relate the sense of wonder I felt when, on a clear night, I gazed into the southern sky and saw those stars for the first time, or when I looked into the Yoda-like face of a Uakari monkey from only a few feet away, and waited for it to speak.
And so, the Amazon has been both cruel and deeply satisfying. I have learned to give myself over to her, like riding a horse high in the mountains; trusting her, to take me where I want to go.