Biodiversity and Ecosystem Processes in Tropical Ecosystems Gordon H. Orians 1 Received 19-I-2000. Accepted 24-I-2000. Living organisms on Earth are being subjected to major disruptions in the form of massive exchanges of species -pathogens, predators, and competitors- among biogeographic regions, overharvesting, habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change. Rates of habitat conversions, especially of forests, are higher in tropical regions than elsewhere on Earth (FAO 1993, Skole and Tucker 1993, Whitmore 1997). Until recently, biologists have directed most of their efforts toward estimating the extent and causes of species loss and developing ways to reduce the rate of extinctions. However, during the past decade much attention been paid to the consequences of the loss of species for the functioning of ecological processes (Chapin et al. 1998, Loreau 1998, Naeem 1996, 1997, Schulze and Mooney 1993, Tilman, 1997, Tilman and Downing 1994, Yachi & Loreau 1999...