ABSTRACT
The ecology of tropical rainforest ecosystems has been the subject of extensive descriptions by naturalist explorers for nearly four centuries. The first accounts intended to relay information on the Amazon region were written in 1554, by the traveller and chronicler Carvajal. The lush appearance of the forest and diversity of life it supports had encouraged the assumption for many years that the soils of the tropical rainforest were extremely fertile. During his explorations in the 1800s, Henry Walter Bates wrote of the Amazon as “a region almost as large as Europe, every inch of whose soil is of the most exuberant fertility” (Stone 1985). Even after evidence began to show to the contrary (Wagley 1953), Theodore Roosevelt wrote of the region:
When I consider the excessively small amount of labor required in this country, to convert the virgin forest into green meadows and fertile plantations, I almost long to come over with half a dozen friends, disposed to work, and enjoy the country; and show the inhabitants how soon an earthly paradise might be created.
(Roosevelt 1919)