A COMPARISON OF MONTANE AND LOWLAND FOREST IN ECUADOR.

The article presents a study on the light reaching the ground vegetation in the high forest phase and its relation on the differences in forest structure of two selected sites, where one is on the slopes of Mount Andes and the other is at the extreme western edge of the Amazon basin. The authors state that their observations and analysis have enabled them to associated some of the differences between the two forests with differences in light climate. They mention that the interactions between light and other factors, specially root competition, may be very important. They believe that future studies on light as an ecological factor in tropical forests will most productively be aimed to the reaction of individual species to light at various stages of growth.