Fr. 187.00

Ecosystem Dynamics - From the Past to the Future

English · Hardback

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Description

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Ecosystem Dynamics focuses on long-term terrestrial ecosystems and their changing relationships with human societies. The unique aspect of this text is the long-time scale under consideration as data and insights from the last 10,000 years are used to place present-day ecosystem status into a temporal perspective and to test models that generate forecasts of future conditions. Descriptions and assessments of some of the current modelling tools that are used, along with their uncertainties and assumptions, are an important feature of this book. An overarching theme explores the dynamic interactions between human societies and ecosystem functioning and services.This book is authoritative but accessible and provides a useful background for all students, practitioners, and researchers interested in the subject.

List of contents

Acknowledgements ixAbout the companion website xi1 Where Are We and How Did We Arrive Here? 11.1 Why this book? 11.2 Ecosystems in crisis 21.3 Relevance of the past 51.4 Forecasting the future 71.5 Chapter details and logic 91.6 For whom is the book intended? 121.7 Four key questions and the links to policy 132 Modelling 152.1 Introduction 152.2 Background ecosystem, vegetation and species models 182.3 Dynamic modelling 362.4 Integrating models 442.5 Further reading 483 Data 493.1 Introduction 493.2 Which data are relevant? 503.3 Ecosystem dynamics: direct observation 513.4 Ecosystem dynamics: indirect measurement or 'proxy' data 563.5 'Drivers' of ecosystem dynamics 673.6 Databases 703.7 Gaps in available data and approaches 704 Climate Change and Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics: A Complex Relationship 734.1 Introduction 734.2 Reconstructing climate from biological data 744.3 The very long records of vegetation dynamics 784.4 Holocene records 814.5 Modelling of Holocene vegetation dynamics to help understand pollen data 834.6 Simulating Fennoscandian Holocene forest dynamics 944.7 Climate and megafaunal extinction 1014.8 So how important is climate change for future millennial ecosystem dynamics? 1035 The Role of Episodic Events in Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics: Where the Wild Strawberries Grow 1095.1 Introduction 1095.2 Fire 1155.3 Forest pathogens during the Holocene 1315.4 Hurricanes and wind damage (other large, infrequent disturbances) 1355.5 Conclusion 1396 The Impact of Past and Future Human Exploitation on Terrestrial Ecosystem Dynamics 1416.1 Introduction 1416.2 Denmark: case study of human impact during the Holocene 1466.3 Islands: sensitive indicators of human impact 1526.4 Human influence on Mediterranean, temperate and boreal forests 1576.5 The tropics 1636.6 Spatial upscaling of the timing and ecosystem consequences of human impact 1647 Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics and Their Relationship to Ecosystem Services: Past and Future 1737.1 Introduction 1737.2 MEA classification 1767.3 The current crisis in ecosystem services 1797.4 Ecosystem services and the future 1937.5 Relating the maintenance of biodiversity to ecosystem service provision 1977.6 Scenarios of possible futures: some different approaches 1977.7 So what do scenarios say about the possible futures for ecosystem services? 2048 Cultural Ecosystem Services 2118.1 Introduction 2118.2 Sacred sites and species 2128.3 Cultural landscapes: biodiverse relicts of former land-use systems 2198.4 Hunting as a cultural ecosystem service 2219 Conservation 2259.1 Conservation as we know it 2259.2 Knowledge of the past: relevance for conservation 2289.3 Conservation in practice: protected areas (Natura 2000) 2429.4 Conservation and alien or invasive species 2449.5 Global change, biodiversity and conservation in the future 2539.6 Conclusion 25710 Where Are We Headed? 25910.1 Introduction 25910.2 Emergent themes and important underlying concepts 262References 271Glossary 297Index 311

About the author










Richard H.W. Bradshaw
School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Martin T. Sykes
Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Sweden

Summary

Ecosystem Dynamics focuses on long-term terrestrial ecosystems and their changing relationships with human societies. The unique aspect of this text is the long-time scale under consideration as data and insights from the last 10,000 years are used to place present-day ecosystem status into a temporal perspective and to test models that generate forecasts of future conditions. Descriptions and assessments of some of the current modelling tools that are used, along with their uncertainties and assumptions, are an important feature of this book. An overarching theme explores the dynamic interactions between human societies and ecosystem functioning and services.

This book is authoritative but accessible and provides a useful background for all students, practitioners, and researchers interested in the subject.

Report

"Personal anecdotes enliven the writing and add a human touch; for graduate students, these will serve as important reminders that there is much to learn outside the laboratory." ( Choice , 1 February 2015)

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