Functional Ecology Of Woodlands And Forests

Functional Ecology of Woodlands is firmly based on the factors which govern the composition of woodland communities, but goes on to explore the dynamics of interactions between various ecosystem components. This is an authoritative text on the functioning of forest ecosystems, which will also assist readers to reach informed decisions about issues such as the greenhouse effect, acid precipitation, the greening of cities and agroforestry.

A concise, non-technical account of the structure and evolution of woodlands and forests, first published in 2007.

Forest Ecology Forest Ecology An Evidence-Based Approach Forest ecology is the science that deals with everything in forests, including plants and animals (and their interactions), the features of the environment that affect plants and animals, and the interactions of humans and forests. All of these components of forests interact across scales of space and time. Some interactions are constrained, deterministic, and predictable; but most are indeterminant, contingent, and only broadly predictable. Forest Ecology: An Evidence-Based Approach examines the features common to all forests, and those unique cases that illustrate the importance of site-specific factors in determining the structure, function, and future of a forest. The author emphasizes the role of evidence in forest ecology, because appealing, simple stories often lead to misunderstandings about how forests work. A reliance on evidence is central to distinguishing between appealing stories and stories that actually fit real forests. The evidence-based approach emphasizes the importance of real-world, observable science in forests. Classical approaches to ecology in the twentieth century often over-emphasized appealing concepts that were not sufficiently based on real forests. The vast amount of information now available on forests allows a more complete coverage of forest ecology that relies on a strong, empirical foundation. Forest Ecology: An Evidence-Based Approach is the ideal companion text for the teaching of upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in forest ecology.

"Forest Ecology" uses an ecosystem approach to understanding the ecology of forests. It examines the form and function of forest ecosystems and how they change over time in response to natural and human-caused disturbances. A complete treatment of the ecosystem including all the major structural components and functional processes of the forest ecosystem. This book examines forest ecology in the context of sustainable development and population growth. Gives equal emphasis to ecosystem function, the physical environment, the biotic processes (population and community ecology) and ecosystem change overtime.

This comprehensive handbook provides a unique resource covering all aspects of forest ecology from a global perspective. It covers both natural and managed forests, from boreal, temperate, sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world. The book is divided into seven parts, addressing the following themes: forest types forest dynamics forest flora and fauna energy and nutrients forest conservation and management forests and climate change human impacts on forest ecology. While each chapter can stand alone as a suitable resource for a lecture or seminar, the complete book provides an essential reference text for a wide range of students of ecology, environmental science, forestry, geography and natural resource management. Contributors include leading authorities from all parts of the world.

Ecophysiological mechanisms underlie plant responses to environmental conditions and the influence these responses have on ecological patterns and processes. In this Special Issue, with a particular interest in the interactions between climate change, environmental disturbance, and functional ecology, experimental observations are described at a range of spatial scales. A modeling framework is used in an effort to relate mechanistic responses to ecosystem functions and services, and link forest ecophysiology and environmental indicators. This Special Issue collects important advances in studying and monitoring plant–environment interactions, covering biogeographic gradients from Mediterranean woodlands to boreal forests and from Alpine mountains to tropical environments.

Model-driven individual-based forest ecology and individual-based methods in forest management are of increasing importance in many parts of the world. For the first time this book integrates three main fields of forest ecology and management, i.e. tree/plant interactions, biometry of plant growth and human behaviour in forests. Individual-based forest ecology and management is an interdisciplinary research field with a focus on how the individual behaviour of plants contributes to the formation of spatial patterns that evolve through time. Key to this research is a strict bottom-up approach where the shaping and characteristics of plant communities are mostly the result of interactions between plants and between plants and humans. This book unites important methods of individual-based forest ecology and management from point process statistics, individual-based modelling, plant growth science and behavioural statistics. For ease of access, better understanding and transparency the methods are accompanied by R code and worked examples.

Taking a functional rather than an ecosystem or a utilitarian approach, Thomas and Packham provide a concise account of the structure of woodlands and forests. Using examples from around the world - from polar treelines to savannahs to tropical rain forests - the authors explain the structure of the soil and the hidden world of the roots; how the main groups of organisms which live within them interact both positively and negatively. There is particular emphasis on woodland and forest processes, especially those involving the flow and cycling of nutrients, as well as the dynamics of wooded areas, considering how and why they have changed through geological time and continue to do so. This clear, non-technical, text will be of interest to undergraduates, foresters, ecologists and land managers.