› › Post Agricultural Succession In The Neotropics

Post-Agricultural Succession in the Neotropics

Author : Randall W. Myster

Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media

Page : 317 pages

File Size : 32,61 MB

Release : 2007-10-23

Category : Technology & Engineering

ISBN : 0387336427

Get eBook

Book Description

This timely work draws implications from scientific studies for the wise management of old field ecosystems in the neotropics, where conversion of land to cropping systems is the most common kind of disturbance and many landscapes are defined by areas recovering from agriculture. Understanding old field succession can help us address important scientific and social issues, such as deforestation and forest regeneration, forest restoration, sustainability of agriculture, maintenance of biodiversity, and impacts of global climate change on forest dynamics. This book provides restoration and management strategies, as well as new farming methodologies for practical application.



Neotropical Gradients and Their Analysis

Author : Randall W. Myster

Publisher : Springer Nature

Page : 474 pages

File Size : 35,46 MB

Release : 2023-03-31

Category : Science

ISBN : 3031228480

Get eBook

Book Description

The importance of the Neotropics to the world's climate, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity cannot be questioned. This book suggests that gradients are key to understanding both these issues and Neotropical ecosystem structure, function and dynamics in general. Those gradients are either spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal, where many temporal and spatio-temporal gradients are initiated by disturbances (e.g., tree-fall, landslide, cultivation). And in particular for the Neotropics, three large spatial gradients - latitude, longitude, altitude (elevation) - are of critical importance. The editor has over 30 years of experience investigating Neotropical gradients in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Peru and Ecuador, and has published 5 previous books on different aspects of the Neotropics. Once again he has assembled top-shelf Neotropical scientists and researchers, here to focus on gradients: their nature, interactions and how they structure ecosystems.



The Andean Cloud Forest

Author : Randall W. Myster

Publisher : Springer Nature

Page : 234 pages

File Size : 48,71 MB

Release : 2020-11-12

Category : Science

ISBN : 3030573443

Get eBook

Book Description

A book focused solely on Andean Cloud Forests (ACF) has never been published. ACF are high biodiversity ecosystems in the Neotropics with a large proportion of endemic species, and are important for the hydrology of entire regions. They provide water for large parts of the Amazon basin, for example. Here I take advantage of my many years working in ACF in Ecuador, to edit this book that contains the following sections: (1) ACF over space and time, (2) Hydrology, (3) Light and the Carbon cycle, (4) Soil, litter, fungi and nutrient cycling, (5) Plants, (6) Animals, and (7) Human impacts and management. Under this premise, international experts contributed chapters that consist of reviews of what is known about their topic, of what research they have done, and of what needs to be done in the future. This work is suitable for graduate students, professors, scientists, and researcher-oriented managers.



Second Growth

Author : Robin L. Chazdon

Publisher : University of Chicago Press

Page : 486 pages

File Size : 50,88 MB

Release : 2014-05-23

Category : Science

ISBN : 022611810X

Get eBook

Book Description

For decades, conservation and research initiatives in tropical forests have focused almost exclusively on old-growth forests because scientists believed that these “pristine” ecosystems housed superior levels of biodiversity. With Second Growth, Robin L. Chazdon reveals those assumptions to be largely false, bringing to the fore the previously overlooked counterpart to old-growth forest: second growth. Even as human activities result in extensive fragmentation and deforestation, tropical forests demonstrate a great capacity for natural and human-aided regeneration. Although these damaged landscapes can take centuries to regain the characteristics of old growth, Chazdon shows here that regenerating—or second-growth—forests are vital, dynamic reservoirs of biodiversity and environmental services. What is more, they always have been. With chapters on the roles these forests play in carbon and nutrient cycling, sustaining biodiversity, providing timber and non-timber products, and integrated agriculture, Second Growth not only offers a thorough and wide-ranging overview of successional and restoration pathways, but also underscores the need to conserve, and further study, regenerating tropical forests in an attempt to inspire a new age of local and global stewardship.



Mountain Lexicon

Author : Fausto O. Sarmiento

Publisher : Springer Nature

Page : 245 pages

File Size : 48,52 MB

Release : 2024

Category : Bioclimatology

ISBN : 3031648846

Get eBook

Book Description

This book is the second volume in a series on montology dedicated to the transdisciplinary reflection of mountain research, considering the diversity of views on mountains and their problemata in the context of rapid technological development and unprecedented accumulation and dissemination of information around the world. The necessity for a new orderly and structured lexicon arose from the need to critically reassess the colonial past in the development of mountain territories, the development of a new and alternative understanding of mountain topics in the light of decolonized epistemology. The creation of coordinated and ordered terms for the main parts of mountain research creates the basis for an unorthodox understanding of the ontology of mountains and helps to better understand the complex cultural and natural essence of mountain socio-ecological systems. At the same time, a local episteme of mountains, considering local values, small scales, and vernacular visions are of particular importance, which must be taken into account in the current terminology. The purpose of the book is to provide methodological support for montology as a convergent and transdisciplinary science of mountains, based on the harmonization of its terminological base. The book pays special attention to onomastics, toponymy, standardization and other nuances of terms used in mountain research. According to this goal, three dozen articles in a relatively small format (about 3 pages) vividly, attractively and innovatively reflect the modern view of one or more related terms. Articles include definition(s) of the term, description of etymology, onomastics or toponymy used, examples of local characteristics compared to traditional sources, possible vernacular terms. Articles are grouped into four main areas: 1) Basic glossary of montology terminology, 2) Towards mountain socio-ecological systems, 3) Innovative disciplinary systemic realm, 4) Mountain classifications, onomastics, critical toponomy and rediscovery of meaning. The authors of the articles are leading experts in the field of mountain research from around the world. The book is intended for scientists, experts and teachers. It is provided with an annotated list of the most important montology terms.



Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland

Author : Randall W. Myster

Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media

Page : 333 pages

File Size : 29,19 MB

Release : 2012-07-10

Category : Science

ISBN : 1461437970

Get eBook

Book Description

Ecotones are dynamic over-lapping boundary areas where major terrestrial biomes meet. As past studies have shown, and as the chapters in this book will illustrate, their structure, size, and scope have changed considerably over the millennia, expanding and shrinking as climate and/or other driving conditions, also changed. Today, however, many of them are changing at a rate not seen for a long time, perhaps largely due to climate change and other human-induced factors. Indeed ecotones are more sensitive to climate change than the biomes on either side, and thus may serve as critical early indicators of future climate change. As ecotones change, they also redefine the limits of the biomes on either side by altering their distributions of species because, in addition to their own endemic species, any ecotone will also have species from both adjoining biomes. Consequently, they may also be places of high levels of species interaction, serving as active evolutionary laboratories, which generate new species that then migrate back into adjacent biomes. Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland explores how these ecotones have changed in the past, how they are changing today, and how they are likely to change in the future. The book includes chapters from around the world with a special focus on South American and Neotropical ecotones.



A Caribbean Forest Tapestry

Author : Nicholas Brokaw

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 483 pages

File Size : 40,73 MB

Release : 2012-06-21

Category : Science

ISBN : 0199715114

Get eBook

Book Description

Global change threatens ecosystems worldwide, and tropical systems with their high diversity and rapid development are of special concern. We can mitigate the impacts of change if we understand how tropical ecosystems respond to disturbance. For tropical forests and streams in Puerto Rico this book describes the impacts of, and recovery from, hurricanes, landslides, floods, droughts, and human disturbances in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. These ecosystems recover quickly after natural disturbances, having been shaped over thousands of years by such events. Human disturbance, however, has longer-lasting impacts. Chapters are by authors with many years of experience in Puerto Rico and other tropical areas and cover the history of research in these mountains, a framework for understanding disturbance and response, the environmental setting, the disturbance regime, response to disturbance, biotic mechanisms of response, management implications, and future directions. The text provides a strong perspective on tropical ecosystem dynamics over multiple scales of time and space.



Regreening the Bare Hills

Author : David Lamb

Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media

Page : 560 pages

File Size : 20,49 MB

Release : 2010-10-14

Category : Technology & Engineering

ISBN : 9048198704

Get eBook

Book Description

In Regreening the Bare Hills: Tropical Forest Restoration in the Asia-Pacific Region, David Lamb explores how reforestation might be carried out both to conserve biological diversity and to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. While both issues have attracted considerable attention in recent years, this book takes a significant step, by integrating ecological and silvicultural knowledge within the context of the social and economic issues that can determine the success or failure of tropical forest landscape restoration. Describing new approaches to the reforestation of degraded lands in the Asia-Pacific tropics, the book reviews current approaches to reforestation throughout the region, paying particular attention to those which incorporate native species – including in multi-species plantations. It presents case studies from across the Asia-Pacific region and discusses how the silvicultural methods needed to manage these ‘new’ plantations will differ from conventional methods. It also explores how reforestation might be made more attractive to smallholders and how trade-offs between production and conservation are most easily made at a landscape scale. The book concludes with a discussion of how future forest restoration may be affected by some current ecological and socio-economic trends now underway. The book represents a valuable resource for reforestation managers and policy makers wishing to promote these new silvicultural approaches, as well as for conservationists, development experts and researchers with an interest in forest restoration. Combining a theoretical-research perspective with practical aspects of restoration, the book will be equally valuable to practitioners and academics, while the lessons drawn from these discussions will have relevance elsewhere throughout the tropics.



Global Soil Security

Author : Damien J. Field

Publisher : Springer

Page : 454 pages

File Size : 14,42 MB

Release : 2016-11-01

Category : Nature

ISBN : 3319433946

Get eBook

Book Description

This book introduces the concept of soil security and its five dimensions: Capability, Capital, Condition, Connectivity and Codification. These five dimensions make it possible to understand soil's role in delivering ecosystem services and to quantify soil resource by measuring, mapping, modeling and managing it. Each dimension refers to a specific aspect: contribution to global challenges (Capability), value of the soil (Capital), current state of the soil (Condition), how people are connected to the soil (Connectivity) and development of good policy (Codification). This book considers soil security as an integral part of meeting the ongoing challenge to maintain human health and secure our planet's sustainability. The concept of soil security helps to achieve the need to maintain and improve the world’s soil for the purpose of producing food, fiber and freshwater, and contributing to energy and climate sustainability. At the same time it helps to maintain biodiversity and protects ecosystem goods and services.



Forest Ecology and Conservation

Author : Gopal Shukla

Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand

Page : 162 pages

File Size : 28,64 MB

Release : 2017-04-19

Category : Science

ISBN : 9535130897

Get eBook

Book Description

This book is dedicated to forest ecology and conservation on ecological and conservation aspects of forest. The book is divided into two sections: the first section "Forest Ecology" with four chapters deals with forest ecological aspects, while the second section "Forest Conservation" with two chapters looks into new techniques for conserving the forests. This book will bridge the gaps in the knowledge about some new emerging issues on forest ecology and conservation. It will be an interesting and helpful resource to all those in the field of forestry working for its sustainable use and conservation.