Terrestrial Ecosystems in Changing Environments

A unique review of the problem of predicting the response of ecosystems to changed conditions.

Herman H. Shugart (Author)

9780521565233, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 March 1998

552 pages, 161 b/w illus. 6 colour illus. 38 tables
22.9 x 15.3 x 3.5 cm, 0.89 kg

' … an ideal introduction to this topic for postgraduate students while there is also much to interest all environmental scientists.' A. H. Kirkpatrick, Progress in Environmental Sciences

Predicting how terrestrial ecosystems might respond in the future to large-scale human-generated changes is a major challenge for ecologists. In Terrestrial Ecosystems in Changing Environments, Herman H. Shugart describes the fundamental ecological concepts, theoretical developments, and quantitative analyses involved in understanding the responses of natural systems to change. The key ecological concepts described include the ecosystem paradigm, niche theory, vegetation/climate relationships, landscape ecology and ecological modelling. A variety of ecological models are presented, and their applications in predicting responses to change are considered. The challenge of producing ecological models capable of predicting long-term and large-area ecosystem dynamics is reviewed and several examples are provided. Finally, some of the exciting findings regarding terrestrial landscapes and their feedback with their climatic setting are discussed in the context of human land-use and global change.

Preface
1. The importance of understanding ecosystem change
2. The omnipresence of change
3. Temporal scale, spatial scale and the ecosystem
4. An introduction to ecological modelling
5. Niche theory
6. Vegetation and environment relations
7. The mosaic theory of natural landscapes
8. Individual-based models
9. Consequences of gap models
10. Landscape models
11. Mosaic landscape models
12. Spatially interactive landscapes
13. Homogeneous landscape models
14. Global change
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Environmental science, engineering & technology [TQ], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF]