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Human activities impact the environment and modify the cycles of important elements such as carbon and nitrogen from local to global scales. In order to maintain long-term and sustainable use of the world's natural resources it is important that we understand how and why ecosystems respond to such changes. This book explains the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, using examples ranging from the Arctic to the tropics to demonstrate how they react under differing conditions. This knowledge is developed into a set of principles that can be used as starting points for analysing questions about ecosystem behaviour. Ecosystem dynamics are also considered, illustrating how ecosystems develop and change over a range of temporal and spatial scales and how they react to perturbations, whether natural or man-made. Throughout the book, descriptive studies are merged with simple mathematical models to reinforce the concepts discussed and aid the development of predictive tools.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface
• Prologue: environmental changes and ecosystem effects - two historical examples
• Part I History and Concepts
• 1 History of ecosystem research and ecosystem knowledge
• 2 Ecology, ecosystem and ecosystem science
• 3 Ecosystem ecology - cornerstones and scientific methodology
• Part II Ecosystem Structure and Function
• 4 Ecosystem structure - vegetation and soil
• 5 Energy and water
• 6 Plant production
• 7 Soil organic matter processes
• 8 Organisms and ecosystem processes
• 9 Element cycles
• 10 Principles
• Part III Ecosystem Dynamics at Different Time Scales
• 11 Tectonic to orbital changes
• 12 Millennial to centennial or postglacial changes
• 13 Centennial to annual changes
• Part IV Applications
• 14 Air pollution and forest ecosystems
• 15 Global change
• Epilogue: society and terrestrial ecosystem ecology
• Appendices
• Appendix 1 Abbreviations
• Appendix 2 Glossary
• Appendix 3 Some useful values and symbols used to represent them
• Appendix 4 Data on selected ecosystems
• Index

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CHOICE Review

This book, integrating classic descriptive studies with mathematical mechanistic thinking, focuses exclusively on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. Agren and Andersson (both, Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences) introduce terrestrial ecology in the prologue. The book then is divided into four sections, beginning with "History and Concepts." The second section, on structure and function, covers soil, water and energy, plant production, the dynamics of soil organic matter, ecosystems processes, elemental cycles in different terrestrial ecosystems, global nutrient cycles, and human influences on the cycles. The final chapter in the section summarizes processes as principles. Section 3 covers ecosystem developmental dynamics from the long-term history of Earth to more recent changes influenced by natural and human disturbances. The final section, applications, reviews the effects of air pollution on forests and of global change on ecosystem carbon balances. An interesting epilogue discusses ecosystem services and human impacts over the past 50 years. Interestingly written and illustrated with clear functional graphs and charts, the text reflects the authors' Scandinavian background. Conceptual examples chosen from Nordic and European studies nicely complement North American examples used in American ecology texts. This book is ideal for a prerequisite ecology course for forest management studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. R. L. Smith emeritus, West Virginia University