Distribution Of Organic Matter Reserve In A Desert Shrub Community Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Distribution of Organic Matter Reserve in a Desert Shrub Community In a typical year, the soil is dry most of the time after the short period of spring moisture. The water table lies 145 m. Below the ground surface. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In a community of widely spaced perennials, mostly shrubs, in the cold desert of western Utah, total accumulated organic mass (excluding the small amount of humus) is about 1,770g./m.2. Of this total, 240 g. are above the ground and 1,530 g. below. Of the latter, 295 g. is underground litter. About half of the 1,235 g. of roots are in the surface 30 cm. of the soil, about 0.3 of them in the second 30 cm., 0.15 in the third, 0.03 in the fourth, and 0.01 of them occur below 120 cm. to about 135 cm. Coarce roots (> 2 mm. in diameter) are found only in the immediate vicinity of plants and are unimportant below the 15-cm. depth. Fine (

In a community of widely spaced perennials, mostly shrubs, in the cold desert of western Utah, total accumulated organic mass (excluding the small amount of humus) is about 1,770g./m.2. Of this total, 240 g. are above the ground and 1,530 g. below. Of the latter, 295 g. is underground litter. About half of the 1,235 g. of roots are in the surface 30 cm. of the soil, about 0.3 of them in the second 30 cm., 0.15 in the third, 0.03 in the fourth, and 0.01 of them occur below 120 cm. to about 135 cm. Coarce roots (> 2 mm. in diameter) are found only in the immediate vicinity of plants and are unimportant below the 15-cm. depth. Fine (

The period since World War II, and especially the last decade influenced by the International Biological Program, has seen enormous growth in research on the function of ecosystems. The same period has seen an exponential' rise in environmental problems including the capacity of the Earth to support man's population. The concern extends to man's effects on the "biosphere"-the film of living organisms on the Earth's surface that supports man. The common theme of ecologic research and environmental concerns is primary production the binding of sunlight energy into organic matter by plants that supports all life. Many results from the IBP remain to be synthesized, but enough data are available from that program and other research to develop a convincing sum mary of the primary production of the biosphere-the purpose of this book. The book had its origin in the parallel interests of the two editors and Gene E. Likens, which led them to prepare a symposium on the topic at the Second Biological Congress of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Miami, Florida, October 24, 1971. Revisions of the papers presented at that symposium appear as Chapters 2, 8, 9, 10, and 15 in this book. We have added other chapters that complement this core; these include discussion and evaluation of methods for measuring productivity and regional production, current findings on tropical productivity, and models of primary productivity.

Provides a comprehensive review of the role of species interactions in the process of plant community assembly.