Forest Ecology - 3rd Edition

Hardback  720 pages  ISBN 0130662585      £56.00

Please note: This title is not available from CPL Press in North America or Australasia - please contact a local source

This management-driven, comprehensive textbook on ecosystem ecology is the only one on the market that covers the entire field, linking conventional ecosystem-level forest ecology to forest management. It features ecological site classification, ecosystem modeling, and strong sections on ecological diversity and the physical environment. The text presents a historical perspective, including human population growth, and puts the link between todays forest management and ecology into a philosophical framework.

Contents

I. PEOPLE AND FORESTS: WHY THE SCIENCE OF FOREST ECOLOGY DEVELOPED. 

1. Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems: The Problem of Human Population Growth. 
2. Development of Forestry and Forest Ecology.

II. ECOSYSTEM AS THE BASIC UNIT OF FOREST ECOLOGY.

3. Ecology and the Ecosystem Concept. 
4. Production Ecology: The Transfer and Storage of Energy in Ecosystems. 
5. Biogeochemistry: Cycling of Nutrients in Ecosystems.

III. ECOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND THE ECOLOGICAL STAGE: PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL PLAY.

6. Ecosystem Classification: The Ecological Foundation for Sustainable Forest Management.
7. Ecological Role of Solar Radiation.
8. Temperature as an Ecological Factor. 9. Wind: Ecological Effects of Atmospheric Movements. 10. Water: The Material that Makes Life Possible.
11. Soil: The Least Renewable Physical Component of the Ecosystem.
12. Fire: A Pervasive and Powerful Environmental Factor.
13. Patterns of Biotic Communities along Environmental Gradients.

IV. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: POPULATION, COMMUNITY, AND GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL PLAY.

14. Population Ecology: Study of the Abundance and Dynamics of Species Populations.
15. Community Ecology.
16. Genetic and Evolutionary Aspects of Ecosystems: Adaptation and Evolution.1

V. TEMPORAL DIVERSITY: THE ECOLOGICAL PLAY IN WHICH ALL ASPECTS OF ECOSYSTEMS CHANGE OVER TIME.

17. Ecological Succession: Processes of Change in Ecosystems.1
18. Understanding and Emulating Natural Forest Disturbance: A Template for the Management of Succession and Temporal Diversity?

VI. SPATIAL DIVERSITY: THE LANDSCAPE REVISITED.

19. Ecosystem Management and Landscape Ecology - The Ultimate Focus in Forest Ecology.
20. Environmental Issues in Forestry: The Role of Ecology in the Management of the Ecological Play.

VII. APPLICATION OF ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF FOREST ECOSYSTEMS.

21. Models and Their Role in Ecology and Resource Management.1
22. Sustainability and Renewability of Natural Resources, and Implications for Forest Management.
23. Concluding Statement.

Features

• New chapters - Include chapters on the distribution of communities along environmental gradiants, disturbance and emulation of natural disturbance, and ecosystem management and landscape ecology.
  - Provides students with a more comprehensive text.
• Many new diagrams and graphs - Includes improvements to several existing diagrams.
  - Gives students visuals that aid in understanding.
• Section on philosophy and ethics.
  - Contributes to students understanding of the issues surrounding forestry and ecology.
• “Ecological Theatre” theme - Presents the subject as a metaphor: Ecological Stage/Ecological Diversity, Ecological Play/Temporal Diversity, and Ecological Actors/Biological Diversity.
  - Introduces students to forest ecology in an exciting and different manner, promoting further interest and understanding.
• Revised study questions - Included for each chapter.
  - Provides students with nume rous opportunities for review and study.
• Ecosystem approach.
  - Enables students to understand that forests exist as ecosystems, not as their component parts.
• Strong treatment of ecosystem function - Emphasizes that ecosystem management is about the management of function as well as the management of structures by including chapters on ecological energetics and biogeochemistry.
  - Gives students a thorough treatment of function at the outset, emphasizing the systems nature of forests.
• Strong treatment of the ecosystems physical components - Includes chapters on light, temperature, water, soil, wind, and fire.
  - Enables students to understand that the major determinant of regional diversity is diversity in the physical environment.
• Evaluation of the basics of population and community ecology - Includes the genetic aspects of ecology.
  - Provides students with the means to understand the basics of population and community ecology. Provides instructors with a text that covers all the topics necessary to teach a comprehensive course.
• Temporal diversity - Gives the temporal dynamics of forests, their most fundamental aspect.
  - Gives students the heart of the science of forest management: sustainable management is the management of change.
• Introductions to two of the current foci of the science of forest management - Includes coverage of the emulation of natural disturbance as a template for sustainable forest management, and landscape ecology/ecosystem management.
  - Provides students with the key topics in forest ecology today - all other topics are the foundation for understanding these topics.
• Forest ecosystem modeling - Presents modeling as the vehicle by which knowledge of forest ecosystem function, structure, complexity, interactions of the components, and change over time can be integrated into hypotheses that cannot be tested by conventional disciplinary research.
  - Shows students the analysis tools that are essential in todays forest management planning for stewardship, certification, and sustainability.
• Issues in forestry - Provides comprehensive treatment of all major aspects of forest ecosystems.
  - Gives students a basis by which to undertake scientific analyses of biophysical issues.
• Philosophical context - Does not consider the science in isolation from the social and cultural environment.
  - Addresses for students the broad issues that face humankind and the environment.