Ecology Biogeography And Management Of Pinus Halepensis And P Brutia Forest Ecosystems In The Mediterranean Basin

Almost 20 years after the first MEDPINE book "Ecology, biogeography and management of Pinus halepensis and P. brutia forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin "(Ne'eman and Trabaud, 2000) was published, this new book presents up-to-date and state of the art information, covering a wide range of topics concerning Mediterranean pine trees growing in native and planted forests, their ecosystems and management. This will be an essential source of scientific information for learning, exploring planning and managing mediterranean pine and mixed forests. We focus on: genetics, adaptation, distribution and evolution; ecophysiology and drought resistance; pine and mixed forest ecosystems; forest dynamics biodiversity and biotic interactions; fire ecology; ecosystem services and policy; afforestation and management; all under the effect of global climate change. While forests are studied mainly in temperate and tropical zones, in the light of current climate change, focusing on Mediterranean forests growing in semi-humid to semi-arid zones is more important than ever. This book will include mostly review chapters (and two outstanding case studies) contributed by leading scientists, foresters and managers, and will serve as a scientific textbook for students of biology, agriculture and forestry, researchers of ecology forestry and related fields, forest managers, policy and decision makers.

In spite of all the efforts made in fire prevention and suppression, every year about 45 000 forest fires occur in Europe, burning ca. 0.5 million hectares of forests and other rural lands. The management of these burned forests has been given much less attention than fire prevention or fire suppression issues, but the post-fire management of burned areas raises strong concerns (economic and social impacts, soil erosion and water quality, biodiversity loss, forest restoration). Although there are a few publications which address post-fire management, the focus of these has been either on general approaches to restoration or specific topics such as preventing post-fire soil erosion. This book is about the post-fire management of fire-prone forest types in southern Europe. It provides the first comprehensive overview of the topic, ranging from stand-level to landscape-level management, and from emergency actions to long-term restoration approaches.

Almost 20 years after the first MEDPINE book "Ecology, biogeography and management of Pinus halepensis and P. brutia forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin "(Ne'eman and Trabaud, 2000) was published, this new book presents up to date and state of the art scientific knowledge and information. It covers a wide range of topics concerning Mediterranean pine trees growing in natural and planted forests, their ecosystems and management. This book will be an essential source for learning, exploring, planning and managing Mediterranean pine and mixed pine-broadleaved forests. It includes mostly review chapters contributed by leading scientists, foresters and managers. It covers: genetics and adaptation, distribution and evolution, ecophysiology and drought resistance, function of pine and mixed forest ecosystems, forest dynamics, biodiversity and biotic interactions, fire ecology, afforestation and management, ecosystem services and policy - all under the effect of global climate change. While forests are studied mainly in temperate and tropical climate zones, looking at Mediterranean forests of sub-humid to semi-arid regions is important more than ever due to current global climate trends. This collection can serve as a scientific textbook for students of biology, agriculture and forestry, researchers of ecology, forestry and related fields, forest managers, policy and decision makers.

While remote sensing gives a surface depiction of the world, its recent convergence with GIS enables richer depictions that can be used to simulate physical processes, identify trends, and make more accurate predictions. GeoDynamics is based on specialized lectures from an international field of experts, addressing remote sensing, spatially

Explores the role of fire in Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems, providing unique insights into the assembly and evolutionary convergence of ecosystems.

Trees are among the longest-living organisms. They are sensitive to extreme climatic events and document the effects of environmental changes in form of structural modifications of their tissues. These modifications represent an integrated signal of complex biological responses enforced by the environment. For example, temporal change in stem increment integrates multiple information of tree performance, and wood anatomical traits may be altered by climatic extremes or environmental stress. Recent developments in preparative tools and computational image analysis enable to quantify changes in wood anatomical features, like vessel density or vessel size. Thus, impacts on their functioning can be related to climatic forcing factors. Similarly, new developments in monitoring (cambial) phenology and mechanistic modelling are enlightening the interrelationships between environmental factors, wood formation and tree performance and mortality. Quantitative wood anatomy is a reliable indicator of drought occurrence during the growing season, and therefore has been studied intensively in recent years. The variability in wood anatomy not only alters the biological and hydraulic functioning of a tree, but may also influence the technological properties of wood, with substantial impacts in forestry. On a larger scale, alterations of sapwood and phloem area and their ratios to other functional traits provide measures to detect changes in a tree’s life functions, and increasing risk of drought-induced mortality with possible impacts on hydrological processes and species composition of plant communities. Genetic variability within and across populations is assumed to be crucial for species survival in an unpredictable future world. The magnitude of genetic variation and heritability of adaptive traits might define the ability to adapt to climate change. Is there a relation between genetic variability and resilience to climate change? Is it possible to link genetic expression and climate change to obtain deeper knowledge of functional genetics? To derive precise estimates of genetic determinism it is important to define adaptive traits in wood properties and on a whole-tree scale. Understanding the mechanisms ruling these processes is fundamental to assess the impact of extreme climate events on forest ecosystems, and to provide realistic scenarios of tree responses to changing climates. Wood is also a major carbon sink with a long-term residence, impacting the global carbon cycle. How well do we understand the link between wood growth dynamics, wood carbon allocation and the global carbon cycle? Papers contribution to this Research Topic will cover a wide range of ecosystems. However, special relevance will be given to Mediterranean-type areas. These involve coastal regions of four continents, making Mediterranean-type ecosystems extremely interesting for investigating the potential impacts of global change on growth and for studying responses of woody plants under extreme environmental conditions. For example, the ongoing trend towards warmer temperatures and reduced precipitation can increase the susceptibility to fire and pests. The EU-funded COST Action STREeSS (Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a SynthesiS) addresses such crucial tree biological and forest ecological issues by providing a collection of important methodological and scientific insights, about the current state of knowledge, and by opinions for future research needs.

This volume brings together papers from geotechnical and civil engineers, biologists, ecologists and foresters. They discuss current problems in slope stability research and how to address them using ground bio- and eco-engineering techniques. Coverage presents studies by scientists and practitioners on slope instability, erosion, soil hydrology, mountain ecology, land use and restoration and how to mitigate these problems using vegetation.