The authors developed a model, which stimulates the effects of nutrients and moisture on tree growth in tropical rain forests. It gives a quantitative description of moisture and nutrient cycles in tropical rain forests and in derived ecosystems, like those under shifting cultivation, tree crops, and permanent cultivation of annual crops. The model calculates the growth of vegetation (e.g. primary forest, secondary vegetation, tree crops, and annual crops) as an output of nutrient and moisture cycling. The publication gives a clear description of the model and discusses its merits and demerits. A part of the book is dedicated to a survey of the literature on nutrient relationships especially in the floristic part of the rain forest ecosystem, which forms the basis of the calculation procedures in the model.