Spieles Protected Land

Disturbance, Stress, and American Ecosystem Management
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4419-6813-5
Verlag: Springer
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 166 Seiten

Reihe: Springer Series on Environmental Management

By many measures, Earth's ecosystems are stressed. Actually, it may be more accurate to say that Earth's remaining ecosystems are stressed. The fact is that most of the planet's biomes support only a fraction of the biological communities they once did, primarily because humans have converted large areas of land to alternate uses. More than two-thirds of the global temperate forests, half of the grasslands, even a third of desert ecosystems have been conscripted for human uses like agriculture, construction, harvest and extraction. Cultivation alone covers a quarter of the habitable terrestrial surface. Aquatic ecosystems have not fared any better. An estimated half of the world's wetlands are gone, particularly those of coastal regions or on arable land. About a fifth of the coral reefs and a third of the m- grove swamps of a century ago have been lost in just the last few decades. The volume of water impounded by dams quadrupled over the same period - it now far exceeds the volume of water in unimpeded rivers (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Mitsch and Gosselink 2007). So any assessment of ecosystem status is necessarily an analysis of fragments and remnants, and many of these are degraded by one or more anthropogenic stressors.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Spieles, Douglas J.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;6
1.1;References;8
2;Acknowledgments;10
3;Contents;12
4;Chapter 1: Four Ecosystems, Four Questions;16
4.1;Oak Openings, Ohio;16
4.2;Kissimmee River, Florida;19
4.3;Tallgrass Prairie, Kansas;21
4.4;Six Rivers National Forest, California;23
4.5;Four Questions;26
4.6;References;27
5;Chapter 2: The Ecosystem Idea and Ideal;30
5.1;Preservation, Conservation, and Ecology;30
5.2;Gleason and Individualism;35
5.3;Leopoldian Preservation and Conservation;36
5.4;Hutchinson, Holism, and Individualism;38
5.5;The New Ecology;40
5.6;Preservation of the Ideal;42
5.7;Toward an Ecosystem Approach to Management;44
5.8;References;46
6;Chapter 3: A Thing is Right;49
6.1;The Adaptive Cycle;49
6.2;Diversity, Stability, Health and Integrity;52
6.2.1;Diversity;52
6.2.2;Ecosystem Services;53
6.2.3;The Stable Equilibrium;54
6.2.4;Ecosystem Health;56
6.2.5;Ecological Integrity;58
6.2.6;Stability, Health and Integrity in Perspective;61
6.3;References;63
7;Chapter 4: Disturbance, Stress and Resilience;66
7.1;Disturbance;67
7.1.1;Disturbance and Stress;68
7.1.2;Disturbance Characteristics;70
7.1.3;Disturbance and Diversity;71
7.2;Resilience;74
7.3;Complications of Stress;77
7.4;References;79
8;Chapter 5: Invasion;81
8.1;Colonization and Succession;82
8.2;Factors of Colonization;83
8.3;Nonnative Invaders;84
8.4;Passengers and Drivers;87
8.5;Ecosystem Function and Service;88
8.6;Ecosystem Services and Invasion;89
8.7;Eradication;91
8.8;A Conservation Dilemma;92
8.9;References;93
9;Chapter 6: Very Small Ecosystems;96
9.1;Microbial Ecosystems;97
9.2;Biofilms as Model Ecosystems;100
9.3;Biofilms as Patches;103
9.4;Micro- and Macro-Ecosystems;105
9.5;References;106
10;Chapter 7: Forested Ecosystems;107
10.1;The Forest Sanctuary;108
10.1.1;Management of Corkscrew Sw110
10.2;The Monongahela Experiment;112
10.3;Wilderness Management;115
10.4;Healthy Forests;117
10.5;Unmanaged Forest Succession;118
10.6;References;120
11;Chapter 8: Grassland Ecosystems;122
11.1;Grasslands, Short and Tall;122
11.1.1;Curtis Prairie;123
11.1.2;The National Grasslands;125
11.2;Prairie Restoration and Umbrella Species;129
11.3;Land Trust Grasslands;132
11.4;References;133
12;Chapter 9: Freshwater Ecosystems;135
12.1;Wetlands;135
12.1.1;Wetland Creation and Restoration;137
12.2;Lakes;140
12.2.1;Alternate States and Desirability;142
12.3;Rivers;143
12.3.1;River Restoration and Response;146
12.4;References;147
13;Chapter 10: Saltwater Ecosystems;149
13.1;Intertidal Ecosystems;150
13.1.1;Salt Marsh Dieback and Restoration;151
13.2;Subtidal Ecosystems;153
13.2.1;Artificial Reefs;155
13.3;Deeper Water;156
13.4;References;159
14;Chapter 11: Protecting the Shifting Quilt;161
14.1;Holism, Strong and Weak;163
14.2;The Four Horsemen Revisited;164
14.3;Along the Continuum;165
14.4;Protecting the Shifting Quilt;167
14.5;References;168
15;Index;169