Books in the Ecological Studies series

This is the first truly ecosystem-oriented book on peatlands. It adopts an ecosystems approach to understanding the world's boreal peatlands. A recurring theme is the legacy of boreal peatlands as impressive accumulators of carbon as peat over millennia.

This is the first truly ecosystem-oriented book on peatlands. It adopts an ecosystems approach to understanding the world's boreal peatlands. A recurring theme is the legacy of boreal peatlands as impressive accumulators of carbon as peat over millennia.

Increased stratospheric ozone depletion and the corresponding increase in ground levels of UV radiation as well as ambient, "natural" UV radiation as a key ecological factor in the Arctic spring and summer are discussed in detail.

As stated in the European Community Biodiversity Strategy, "the global scale of biodiversity reduction or losses and the interdependence of different species and ecosystems across national borders demands concerted international action".

Research in Antarctica in the past two decades has fundamentally changed our perceptions of the southern continent. It includes aspects of climate change, soil development and biology, as well as above- and below-ground results of interdisciplinary research projects combining data from botany, zoology, microbiology, pedology, and soil ecology.

Dendroecologists apply the principles and methods of tree-ring science to address ecological questions and resolve problems related to global environmental change. In this fast-growing field, tree rings are used to investigate forest development and succession, disturbance regimes, ecotone and treeline dynamics and forest decline. This book of global scope highlights state-of-the-science dendroecological contributions to paradigm-shifts in our understanding of ecophysiology, stand dynamics, disturbance interactions, forest decline and ecosystem resilience to global environmental change and is fundamental to better managing our forested ecosystems for the full range of ecosystem goods and services that they provide.

The inclusion of forests as potential biological sinks in the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 has attracted international attention and again has put scientific and political focus on the world's forests, regarding their state and development.

This work analyzes vegetation and soils, and investigates the influence of climate change, insect pests, grazing pressure by sheep and reindeer, construction of roads and other consequences of increasing tourism in the Nordic mountain birch forests.

This synthesis of the biology of soil crusts and their importance as an ecosystem component discusses composition and functioning of different soil-crust types. Case studies show the impact of crusts on landscape hydrology, soil stability, nutrient cycles, and land management.

Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology.

Based in extensive research in geology, atmospheric science, and paleontology, this book offers a detailed history of CO2 in the atmosphere, and an understanding of factors that have influenced changes in the past.

In this volume the dynamic patterns of human density and distribution are examined in relation to the viability of native species and the integrity of their habitats.

The vast range of Alaskan habitats ensures that the chapters in this book will provide valuable information for readers interested in freshwaters, particularly nutrient dynamics, biotic adaptations, recovery mechanisms of aquatic biota, stream succession and the management of human-induced changes in aquatic habitats.

With contributions by numerous experts