An Integrative Approach to Successional Dynamics
Tempo and Mode of Vegetation Change

This book synthesises fifty years of vegetation dynamics using innovative analyses and an organized framework to integrate perspectives on succession.

Scott J. Meiners (Author), Steward T. A. Pickett (Author), Mary L. Cadenasso (Author)

9780521116428, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 March 2015

312 pages, 94 b/w illus. 5 tables
26.3 x 18.5 x 2.2 cm, 0.74 kg

'… the book should be accessible to ecologically minded undergraduates who want to learn more about succession than the two or three pages found in a general ecology text.' W. E. Williams, Choice

Much of what is considered conventional wisdom about succession is not as clear cut as it is generally believed. Yet, the importance of succession in ecology is undisputed since it offers a real insight into the dynamics and structure of all plant communities. Part monograph and part conceptual treatise, An Integrative Approach to Successional Dynamics presents a unifying conceptual framework for dynamic plant communities and uses a unique long-term data set to explore the utility of that framework. The fourteen chapters, each written in a nontechnical style and accompanied by numerous illustrations and examples, cover diverse aspects of succession, including community, population and disturbance dynamics, diversity, community assembly, heterogeneity, functional ecology and biological invasion. This unique text will be a great source of reference for researchers and graduate students in ecology and plant biology, as well as others with an interest in the subject.

Acknowledgements
1. Goals, concepts and definitions
Part I. The Conceptual Background and Development of Succession: 2. History and context of the Buell–Small Succession study
3. Succession theory
4. Conceptual frameworks and integration: drivers and theory
Part II. Successional Patterns in the BSS Data: 5. Community patterns and dynamics
6. Dynamics of populations through succession
7. Impacts of drought and other disturbances on succession
8. Dynamics of diversity
Part III. Integrative Themes: 9. Convergence and community assembly
10. Successional equivalence of native and non-native species
11. Heterogeneity in dynamic systems
12. Functional ecology of community dynamics
Part IV. Synthesis: 13. Succession, habitat management and restoration
14. Where we stand: lessons and opportunities
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Literature cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK], Animal ecology [PSVS], Plant ecology [PSTS], Botany & plant sciences [PST], Biology, life sciences [PS]