Long Term Forest Dynamics

The synthesis presented in this volume is a direct outgrowth of our ten-year FORMAP Project (Forest Mapping Across Eastern North America from 20,000 yr B.P. to the Present). Many previous research efforts in paleoecology have used plant-fossil evidence as proxy information for primarily geologic or climatic reconstructions or as a bio stratigraphic basis for correlation of regional events. In contrast, in this book, we deal with ecological questions that require a holistic perspective that integrates the interactions of biota with their dynamically changing environments over time scales up to tens of thousands of years. In the FORMAP Project, our major research objective has been to use late-Quaternary plant-ecological data sets to evaluate long-term patterns and processes in forest de velopment. In order to accomplish this objective, we have prepared subcontinent-scale calibrations that quantitatively relate the production and dispersal of arboreal pollen to dominance in the vegetation for the major tree types of eastern North America. Quantification of pollen-vegetation relationships provides a basis for developing quan titative plant-ecological data sets that allow further ecological analysis of both individual taxa and forest communities through time. Application of these calibrations to fossil pollen records for interpreting forest history thus represents a fundamental step beyond traditional summaries based upon pollen percentages.

The aim of this book is to improve the understanding of forest dynamics and the sustainable management of forest ecosystems. How do tree crowns, trees or entire forest stands respond to thinning in the long term? What effect do tree species mixtures and multi-layering have on the productivity and stability of trees, stands or forest enterprises? How do tree and stand growth respond to stress factors such as climate change or air pollution? Furthermore, in the event that one has acquired knowledge about the effects of thinning, mixture and stress, how can one make that knowledge applicable to decision-making in forestry practice? The experimental designs, analytical methods, general relationships and models for answering questions of this kind are the focus of this book. Given the structures dealt with, which range from plant organs to the tree, stand and enterprise levels, and the processes analysed in a time frame of days or months to decades or even centuries, this book is directed at all readers interested in trees, forest stands and forest ecosystems. This work has been compiled for students, scientists, lecturers, forest planners, forest managers, and consultants.

Temperate-zone forests are being shaped continuously by wind, fire and grazing. This book considers these disturbances and consequent issues such as recovery from disturbance, the changing composition of tree species within the forest and the formation of mosaics of different forest types across the landscape.

This book is a consideration of the dynamics of forested systems at the time and spatial scales that 1 feel are implied by our present-day use of the term "succession." The investigation will be conducted by exercising a set of ecological models called "gap models," which have been in a state of development and improvement for the past 15 years. It is the intent of this book to use these models as tools for exploring theories of ecological succession. Ecological succession is one of the most obvious and demonstrable features of natural systems when viewed from outside the field of ecology. Succession is used by teachers as a theory that introduces young people to the interactive and dynamic nature of ecosystems. Succession theory and examples of succession are proclaimed from legions of nature trail guidebooks and placards. It is a pleasant classroom exercise to discuss how ecological systems change as the product of internal mechanisms that can be demonstrated by observaaon. The deductive explanation of how a particular place came to have a given assemblage of tree species has a pleasing "Sherlock Holmesian" touch that can be challenging to puzzle through.

No matter what forests are used for, forest managers have to deal with interactions between individual trees and between trees and other forest organisms. To understand these interactions, long-term monitoring of spontaneous forest development is necessary. A complete monitoring system has been developed including a computer package for analysis of long-term observation of forest dynamics. The system's name, "SILVI-STAR", is an acronym of SILVIgenesis and Single-tree Three-dimensional Architecture. A method of nested plot data collection on forest architecture and plant species composition has been developed out for monitoring purposes.

This open access book presents and analyzes the results of more than 30 years of long-term ecological research in riparian forest ecosystems with the aim of casting light on changes in the dynamics of riparian forests over time. The research, focusing on the Ooyamazawa riparian forest, one of the remaining old-growth forests in Japan, has yielded a number of interesting outcomes. First, it shows that large-scale disturbances afford various trees opportunities for regeneration and are thus the driving force for the coexistence of canopy trees in riparian forests. Second, it identifies changes in reproductive patterns, highlighting that seed production has in fact quantitatively increased over the past two decades. Third, it describes the decline in forest floor vegetation caused by deer grazing and reveals how this decline has affected bird and insect populations. The book illustrates the interconnectedness of phenomena within an ecosystem and the resultant potential for cascade effects and also stresses the need for long-term ecological studies of climate change impacts on forests. It will be of interest to both professionals and academics in the field of forest science.

The ecology of world vegetation is described in numer all of the drafting and photographic work. They have ous books and journals, but these are usually very spe spent many hours on this project and their care and skill cialized in their scope and treatment. This book provides is reflected in the consistently high quality of the illus a synthesis of this literature. A brief introductory chap trations throughout the book. Many friends and col ter outlines general ecological concepts and subsequent leagues have provided photographs. It has not been chapters examine the form and function of the major possible to include all of them, but the 'global' perspect biomes of the world. A similar organization has been ive of the book has been greatly enhanced in this way. used for each biome type. These chapters begin with a I wish to thank them all for the time and trouble they description of environmental conditions and a brief have taken to supply this material. I must also thank account of floristic diversity in a regional context. The Mary Dykes and the staff of the interlibrary loans de remaining pages describe characteristic adaptations and partment of the Library, University of Saskatchewan, ecosystem processes. for their unfailing ability to get even the most obscure Although there is a rapidly growing literature on eco references.