In this session, we will develop several areas of tropical ecology where research in tropical agroforests has provided fundamental insights into some principles that might govern natural systems. These areas include: 1) the spatial ecology of multispecies interactions, 2) the role of epiphytic assemblages in habitat selection, 3) the role of predators in top-down control of herbivores, 4) the effect of local plant diversity and landscape features on pollinator-plant relationships, 5) the relative roles of local habitat features and landscape configurations in determining diversity in different taxa and functional diversity, and 6) interactions of herbivores and pathogens with endophytes in tropical plants. The overarching theme of the session is the use of agroforestry systems as model systems for the study of fundamental ecological processes.