A tropical mountain dry forest: Can it really match the requirements for a biodiversity hotspot? On a cursory view rather not, at least not during the seven dry months of the year. However, the more so during the rainy season when the forest springs into life. From an ecosystem viewpoint, this two-faced habitat hides more questions than its corresponding evergreen mountain rain forest in Ecuador, to which a previous book was dedicated (Bogner, Bendix, Beck, 2016). This book starts with a broad-brush introductory review of the literature, and then opens the curtain to current research projects on climate, soils, vegetation, tree growth, on seeds and their dispersal, and on plant-insect, as well as insect-insect interactions. Moreover, it dedicates a special chapter to the character tree of the area: “El Ceibo”. The lushly illustrated book provides a vivid impression of the transboundary ecosystem “Tumbesian dry forest” in South Ecuador and North Peru.weiterlesen