Dear all I am a Graduate Teaching assistant of Clemson University and I am teaching herpetology for the undergraduates. With respect to teaching I wish to address the following question:
What causes the high diversity of amphibians in tropical rainforests? I have came across following hypothesis 1. Habitat/ niche specialization 2. Habitat heterogeneity in tropical rainforests 3. High resource availability 4. Favorable climatic conditions and climatic stability 5. Presence of rainforest refugia during the last ice age 6. interspecific competition I am searching for literature to use in my teaching now. Please direct me to suitable publications done on this topic. I am also interested in knowing how did the above facts affected the high amphibian diversity in Sri Lanka, which is one of the world richest herpetofaunal hotspot. Your insights on these questions are highly appreciated. -- Thilina Dilan Surasinghe (BS in Zoology Colombo, Sri Lanka) Graduate Teaching Assistant Dept of Biological Sciences 132 Long Hall Clemson University Clemson, SC 29634-0314, USA
