more susceptable to loss of biological diversity than temperate communuities, because tropical species typically are found in lower densities, are less widely distributed, and often have weaker dispersal capabilities. Many tropical species have evolved in that they have changed their roles that they play in the rainforest. An example of this occurance is the cassowary, an Austrailan rainforest frugivore, (or an animal that primarily feeds on fruit) is extremely susceptable to local extinction by habitat fragmentation because its habitat requirement of large coniguous rainforest areas is compounded by its unique plant-seed despersal evolvment. This large, flightless bird wanders nomadically in search of very large seeds, many of which need to be digested before they will germanate. You’lll rember that earlier another example of this situation in which the dodo bird became extinct. The dodo bird digested seeds of the calvaria tree. But when the dodo bird became extinct due to overhunting by humans, the calvaria tree, which made the seeds to be digested by the dodo bird to sprout it’s plants started not to sprout seeds. In the Rainforests, their are many such instances like this. But unfortunately, many of them go unnoticed and thus, each day many of the rainforest plants and animals go extinct. Besides being home to extinction-prone species, tropical communities are prone to destruction and fragmentation because of their physical location, overlapping with the geographical birders of the third world nations. In these nations, citizens often rely on the revenues raised from rainforest timber or cattle raised on cleared land for survival. This constant pressure on rainforest communities leads to excessive habitat fragmentation. Small isolated fragments result, leading to an altered ecosystem balance. On the tropical island of Java, where almost all of the original habitat remaining exists in reserves, a group of...
