We outlined in chapter 2 the main forest types and where they occur around the world. The main factor underlying the distribution of those forest types, and the differences between them, is climate. Our job, as forest ecologists, is to establish what it is about different climates that determines the differences in forests. Also, what is it about different tree species that enables some to grow well in the tropics but not in cooler regions, while species that can survive and grow in the cold, harsh, boreal regions do not do well—or grow at all—in what seem to be the much more favorable tropical and subtropical regions? The answers lie in the interactions between the physical and physiological characteristics of trees, largely determined by their genetics, and the climatic factors that act on those characteristics and so affect the way trees grow. There’s also the matter of competition among and between trees and other vegetation types.
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