Investigations of tropical and temperate forest ecology typically have had different objectives due to extreme differences in tree diversity. Tropical studies have emphasized diversity and rarity, whereas temperate work often has focused on growth, succession, and prescribed management. In order to unify forest ecology from disparate forest types, we have created a network of large-scale intensive monitoring plots across both tropical and temperate regions, allowing us to answer similar questions with strictly comparable data. Beginning with groundbreaking studies of a 50 ha forest dynamics plot at Barro Colorado Island in Panama, ecologists across the tropics have established a network of large, intensive plots for studying forest demography and ecological processes. More recently, a complementary network of forest dynamics plots has been developed in temperate regions, providing unprecedented opportunities for comparisons between tropical and temperate forest systems. For example, core data from these plots enables direct comparisons of relative species abundances, forest size structure, spatial patterns of juveniles, microhabitat specificity of common vs. rare species, and other fundamental attributes of forest communities. These results provide a framework for more detailed investigations of plant-pathogen interactions, effects of herbivory, patterns of seed dispersal, tree recruitment strategies, causes of rarity, and many other important issues in forest ecology. This symposium will present new findings from the global network of forest dynamics plots, with some of the first comparisons between the tropical and temperate study areas. An underlying objective of these papers will be to illustrate how an understanding of forest dynamics can contribute to long-term strategies of sustainable forest management in a changing global environment. Invited presenters will describe findings from forest research sites in Central America, Brazil, Africa, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, China, Europe, and North America.