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This chapter investigates the potential of an interdisciplinary research program primarily devoted to basic research for knowledge transfer from basic research to application, related to several ecosystem service levels. It can be shown that the highest engagement of the Research Unit is found for regulating and supporting services which is consistent with the needs emphasized by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report. For academia it could be shown that high efforts in capacity building seem to preclude the scientific success of individual projects measured by citations in peer-reviewed journals. As it can be shown, knowledge transfer requires a transdisciplinary perspective among all stakeholders. In a developing country where most stakeholders complain on lacking financial and human resources and problems with institutional stability, they stress the importance of project planning and implementation with the society, the necessity of process-based management, and transfer projects. Two examples of knowledge transfer projects are presented. The rain radar network development is targeting at researchers, planning authorities, and private companies regarding regulating and supporting water services. The second transfer project is devoted to reforestation with native trees, clearly addressing provisional services in a fully participatory framework involving all societal sectors.

The following chapter shows, for the example of Ecuador, how a combination of conservation payments to protect the existing natural forest, subsidies to re-establish pastures on abandoned lands and forestry measures (reforestation of abandoned lands and sustainable low-impact management of parts of the natural forest) can lead to the sustainable use and conservation of tropical forests. The means toward this goal are provided by an integrative and risk-sensitive land-use model on the landscape scale, in which all available land-use options are considered simultaneously to make use of synergies. Subsidies to encourage the re-establishment of pastures on abandoned lands mitigate land scarcity, as a consequence of which agricultural prices go down and the pressure on natural forests is relieved. The landscape approach described here demonstrates the feasibility of halting the deterioration of tropical mountain rain forests and its ecosystem services. It is, however, based on a somewhat still theoretical and general model, which needs further refinement to be applicable on a more local scale.

Driven by an ever-increasing demand for agricultural provisioning services, large areas of tropical forest have been lost worldwide during recent decades. The conversion of forests into agricultural land results in rarely quantified losses of social and ecological services and triggers soil erosion, sedimentation, and climate change. Conceptual considerations identify a strong need for improved and sustainable agriculture to solve this problem. A combination of intensified agriculture, conservation payments to avoid forest loss, and land-use diversification may provide a solution to land-use conflicts. Improved concepts must lead to the production of enough food to keep food prices at a reasonable level. Future research must thus focus on concepts to intensify agricultural production while ensuring sustainability by avoiding the detrimental consequences of the intensification such as the loss of biodiversity, erosion, subsequent land degradation, and the pollution of water reservoirs.

An interdisciplinary research unit consisting of 30 teams in the natural, economic and social sciences analyzed biodiversity and ecosystem services of a mountain rainforest ecosystem in the hotspot of the tropical Andes, with special reference to past, current and future environmental changes. The group assessed ecosystem services using data from ecological field and scenario-driven model experiments, and with the help of comparative field surveys of the natural forest and its anthropogenic replacement system for agriculture. The book offers insights into the impacts of environmental change on various service categories mentioned in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005): cultural, regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services. Examples focus on biodiversity of plants and animals including trophic networks, and abiotic/biotic parameters such as soils, regional climate, water, nutrient and sediment cycles. The types of threats considered include land use and climate changes, as well as atmospheric fertilization. In terms of regulating and provisioning services, the emphasis is primarily on water regulation and supply as well as climate regulation and carbon sequestration. With regard to provisioning services, the synthesis of the book provides science-based recommendations for a sustainable land use portfolio including several options such as forestry, pasture management and the practices of indigenous peoples. In closing, the authors show how they integrated the local society by pursuing capacity building in compliance with the CBD-ABS (Convention on Biological Diversity - Access and Benefit Sharing), in the form of education and knowledge transfer for application.

Many natural forests in the highlands of Ethiopia are heavily degraded due to unsustainable forest management. Therefore, a study was conducted in the Munessa-Shashemene forest to design sustainable forest management strategies. The present study investigates the survival, growth, and photosynthetic performance of enrichment planting of four species (Cordia africana, Juniperus procera, Prunus africana, and Podocarpus falcatus ). Planting was undertaken in gaps in the degraded natural forest. Results indicated that survival was different among species. Two years after planting, only 23% of the C. africana and P. africana seedlings had survived, while J. procera and P. falcatus showed higher survival rates of 76 and 47%, respectively. The development of the height over the first 2-year observation period was reasonable for J. procera and P. falcatus. Inadequate height development was registered for P. africana, which was strongly affected by browsing and for C. Africana, which suffered from drought. P. falcatus exhibited the lowest photosynthesis and transpiration rates, which were associated with the highest water use efficiency of all the four species. Enrichment planting especially with J. procera and P. falcatus can be recommended to restore the degraded natural forests in Ethiopian highlands.

Ecological, technological, and socioeconomic aspects are the main pillars for sustainable forest management (SFM). Based on the suggestions of the authors of this book, and in accordance with these pillars and the main thematic elements of SFM, we identified five fields of actions to improve silviculture in the tropics. There is an increasing demand on timber and other forest products. As forest expansion is in strong competition with other aims of land use, intensification (1) aiming at higher output per area is a promising approach for overcoming this major problem, for example, by short-term rotation forestry, domestication, site improvement, and other measures. Diversification (2) as complementary strategy aims at providing additional products and services, reducing risks and contributing to sustainable management at the landscape level. Therefore, temporal and spatial scales for management (3) have to be adapted to both, needs of individual land owner (usually timber) and to collective needs of societies (protection, water, biodiversity, etc.). Better matching of operational units and ecological spatial scales (e.g., plant–site matching) is an important prerequisite for improving efficiency of silvicultural measures. SFM depends strongly on acceptance of all stakeholders involved. It is a common agreement in science and practice that participatory approaches (4) can contribute significantly to sustainability in this context. However, on the global scale participatory approaches are still in the stage of development. Finally, we illustrate how integration of silviculture and forest management (5) including all mentioned aspects can overcome frequently applied timber mining methods, and leads to a modern approach of silviculture in terms of adaptive ecosystem management.

Planting trees for protective purposes is an increasingly important aspect in tropical forestry. Protective forest plantations are not only key elements in the protection of water resources, of soils from erosion, etc., but also they are elements in the mitigation of carbon emissions and minimizing loss of forest biodiversity. The area of tropical forest plantations for protection is 30.1 million ha (2005), with about two-thirds of the area in Asia. This chapter reviews various aspects of protective forest plantations in the tropics, including rehabilitation and restoration.

Part I Introduction 1 The Ecosystem (Reserva Biologica San Francisco) E. Beck, F. Makeschin, F. Haubrich, M. Richter, J. Bendix, C. Valerezo 2 Mountain rain forests in southern Ecuador as a hotspot of biodiversity - Limited knowledge and diverging patterns G. Brehm, J. Homeier, K. Fiedler, I. Kottke, J. Illig, N.M. Noske, F. Werner, S-W. Breckle 3 The people settled around Podocarpus National Park P. Pohle 4 Ecuador suffers the highest deforestation rate in South America R. Mosandl, S. Gunter, B. Stimm, M. Weber 5 Methodological challenges of a megadiverse ecosystem G. Brehm, K. Fiedler, Ch. Hauser, H. Dalitz Part II Gradients in ecosystem analysis 6 Why investigating gradients in ecosystem analysis K. Fiedler, E. Beck 7 The investigated gradients E. Beck, R. Mosandl, M. Richter, I. Kottke Part III The altitudinal gradient Part III.1 Gradual changes along the altitudinal gradient 8 Climate J. Bendix, R. Rollenbeck, M. Richter, P. Fabian, P. Emck 9 Soils along the altitudinal transect and in catchments W. Wilcke, S. Yasin, A Schmitt, C. Valarezo, W. Zech 10 Flora: Composition and function 10.1 Potential vegetation and floristic composition of Andean forests in South Ecuador, with a focus on the RBSF J. Homeier, F. A. Werner, S. R. Gradstein, S -W. Breckle, M. Richter 10.2 Past vegetation and fire dynamics H. Niemann & H. Behling 10.3 Forest structure along an altitudinal gradient in southern Ecuador A. Paulsch, D. Piechowski, K. Muller-Hohenstein 10.4 Vegetation structures and ecological features of the upper timberline ecotone M. Richter, K.-H. Diertl, Th. Peters, R. W. Bussman 10.5 Mycorrhizal state and new and special features of mycorrhizae of trees, ericads, orchids, ferns andliverworts I. Kottke, A. Beck, I. Haug, S. Setaro, V. Jeske, J.P. Suarez, L. Paxmino, M. Preussing, M, Nebel, F. Oberwinkler 11 Fauna: Composition and function 11.1 Bird species distribution along an altitudinal gradient in southern Ecuador and its functional relationships with vegetation structure D. Paulsch and K. Muller-Hohenstein 11.2 Seed dispersal by birds, bats and wind F. Matt, K. Almeida, A. Arguero, C. Reudenbach 11.3 Variation of diversity patterns across moth families along a tropical elevational gradient K. Fiedler, G. Brehm, N. Hilt, D. Sussenbach, and C.L. Hauser 11.4 Soil fauna M. Maraun, J. Illig , D. Sandman,V. Krashevskaya, R.A. Norton, S. Scheu Part III.2 Processes along and within the gradient 12 Water relations W. Wilcke, S. Yasin, K. Fleischbein, R. Goller, J. Boy, J. Knuth, C. Valarezo, W. Zech 13 Nutrient status and fluxes at the field and catchment scale W. Wilcke, S.Yasin, K. Fleischbein, R. Goller, J. Boy, J. Knuth, C. Valarezo, W. Zech 14 Biotic soil activities S. Iost, F. Makeschin, M. Abiy, F. Haubrich 15 Elevational changes in stand structure and biomass allocation of tropical mountain forests in relation to microclimate and soil chemistry G. Moser, M. Roderstein, N. Soethe, D. Hertel, C. Leuschner 16 Stand structure, transpiration responses in trees and vines and stand transpiration of different forest types within the mountain rainforest M. Kuppers, T. Motzer,D. Schmitt., C. Ohlemacher, R. Zimmermann, V. Horna, B.I.L. Kuppers, T. Mette 17 Plant growth along the altitudinal gradient-role of plant nutritional status, fine root activity, and soil properties N. Soethe, W. Wilcke, J. Homeier, J. Lehmann, C. Engels Part III.3 Gradient heterogeneities Part III.3.A Spatial heterogeneities 18 Spatial

In tropical forests, the first step in the destruction cycle is usually the over-exploitation of high value timber, leading not only to extinction of the extracted species (Silva Matos and Bovi 2002) but also to the conversion of the forests into pastures in many cases (Wunder 1996b). In many highlands of Ecuador the productivity of the pastures is depleted due to the invasion of bracken fern (see Chapter 28 in this volume), which finally leads again to the conversion of primary forests by local farmers (Paulsch et al. 2001; Hartig and Beck 2003). This process usually is accompanied by loss of biodiversity (Brooks et al. 200 I), increased erosion, changes of hydrology (Bruijnzel 2004), and further environmental disturbances. More information on deforestation in Ecuador is given by Mosandl et al. (Chapter 4 in this volume).

The climate of the research area is mainly influenced by the easterlies of the trade wind regime (see Chapter 8 in this volume) and thus by the Atlantic circulation patterns. The Pacific circulation patterns play a minor role but associated westerlies modify the regional weather in the study area, especially in the austral summer. Due to the dominance of the Atlantic circulation, the Pacific ENSO phenomenon does not cause extraordinary anomalies, whereas La Nina situations induce somewhat stronger effects (see Chapter 20). Weather extremes in the study area are initiated by aperiodic but regularly occurring circulation patterns. Cold air surges (friajes) from the south can cause severe plunges in air temperature, which in turn can affect plant life. One unexpected finding is the marked impact of nocturnal mesoscale circulation processes in the near Amazon on cloudiness and rainfall in the Rio San Francisco valley. Also remarkable is the strong spatial gradient of humidity between Loja and the RBSF, over a beeline distance of less than 20 km where the crest of the eastern Cordillera is a clear weather divide. While rainfall at RBSF peaks in austral winter, the basins west of the main Cordillera are characterized by two rainy seasons peaking in March and October, respectively. The rainfields that generate the perhumid climate of the RBSF cannot reach the basin of Loja because they are released from relatively shallow orographic cap clouds in the upper part of the RBSF area, which are not able to pass the main ridge of the eastern Cordillera. The summer rains in the austral summer, especially in the basins of Loja and Vilcabamba, are related to a westerly stream flow initiated by the Pacific circulation. Ionic concentrations of rain and fog precipitation water in the RBSF area are generally low. But global and to a lesser extent regional circulation processes are also responsible for substantial atmospheric matter intake , mostly via wet deposition along the atmospheric pathway (see Chapter 22). Biomass burning in the Amazon is the major source of atmospheric matter intake via the easterlies. This remote source especially provides significantly enhanced