The Earth in Transition
Patterns and Processes of Biotic Impoverishment

A collection of case studies that illustrate the changes being wrought on the biosphere by the human presence.

George M. Woodwell (Edited by)

9780521398183, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 March 2010

548 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.1 cm, 0.8 kg

Review of the hardback: '…this is an exceptionally competent book, the only one of its sort to achieve a systematized, also systemic, insight into the question of how far and how fast we are reducing the biotic diversity of the Earth.' Nature

Life occurs, as far as we know, only as part of the earthly biosphere. Yet the earth's biotic resources are experiencing a spreading crisis that is leading not only to the most rapid loss of species in the last 65 million years, but also causing abrupt changes in the structure and function of natural communities. This disturbance, unfortunately, is the result of human carelessness in the name of advancing civilisation. As our technologies and societies continue to improve and grow, we remove ourselves more and more from our natural habitat; as a consequence, we destroy countless numbers of species of every style and complexity. To identify and begin rectifying this dangerous situation, a group of outstanding environmental scientists has compiled a collection of case studies that illustrate the changes being wrought on the biosphere by the human presence.

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Part I. Global Change and the Patterns of Impoverishment: 1. The earth under stress: a transition to climatic instability raises questions about patterns of impoverishment George M. Woodwell
2. The experimental impoverishment of natural communities: effects of ionizing radiation on plant communities, 1961–1976 George M. Woodwell and Richard A. Houghton
3. Air pollution and temperate forests: creeping degradation F. Herbert Bormann
4. The long-term effects of air pollutants on lichen communities in Europe and North America D. L. Hawksworth
5. Biotic impoverishment in Northern Peatlands Eville Gorham
6. Climatic change and the survival of forest species Margaret Bryan Davis
7. The atmosphere and the future of the biosphere: points of interactive disturbance Michael Oppenheimer
Part II. Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Forests: 8. The restoration of Nonsuch Island as a living museum of Bermuda's precolonial terrestrial biome David B. Wingate
9. Patterns of impoverishment in natural communities: case history studies in forest ecosystems - New Zealand A. F. Mark and G. D. McSweeney
10. Changes in the eucalypt forests of Australia as a result of human disturbance R. L. Specht
11. Impoverishment in Pacific Island forests Dieter Mueller-Dombois
12. Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia Philip M. Fearnside
13. Incentives for sustainable forest management Robert Repetto
Part III. Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Woodlands, Grasslands and Tundra: 14. Changes in the Mediterranean vegetation of Israel in response to human habitation and land use Zev Naveh and Pua Kutiel
15. Bromus tectorum, a biotic cause of ecosystem impoverishment in the Great Basin W. D. Billings
16. Detecting early signs of regional air-pollution injury to coastal sage scrub Walter E. Westman
17. Arctic ecosystems: patterns of change in response to disturbance L. C. Bliss
Part IV. Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Aquatic and Emergent Ecosystems
Section A. Marine Systems: 18. Changes in a Red Sea coral community structure: a long-term case history study Y. Loya
19. Are deep-sea communities resilient? J. Frederick Grassle, Nancy J. Maciolek and James A. Blake
20. Species dominance-diversity patterns in Oceanic communities John A. McGowan
Section B. Freshwater Systems: 21. Natural and anthropogenically imposed limitations to biotic richness in fresh waters David W. Schindler
22. Human impacts on the South Florida Wetlands: the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp William A. Niering
23. The impoverishment of aquatic communities by Smelter activities near Sudbury, Canada N. D. Yan and P. M. Welbourn
24. Biotic impoverishment: effects of anthropogenic stress John Cairns Jr and James R. Pratt
Part V. Conclusion: Steps Toward a World that Runs Itself: 25. Steps toward sustainability J. Gustave Speth
26. A reaction from a multitude Donella H. Meadows
Name index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Climate change [RNPG], Pollution & threats to the environment [RNP], Applied ecology [RNC]