Download or read book Ecosystem Organization of a Complex Landscape written by Otto Fränzle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-06-24 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is an essential text for scientists from a huge variety of disciplines, from ecologists to geographers and soil scientists. It provides a synthesis of long-term ecological analyses in the Bornhöved Lake District of northern Germany. The emphasis is on the comprehensive assessment of matter and energy fluxes. These operate in and between the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems on the one hand, and on transdisciplinary landscape planning approaches on the other.
Download or read book Complexity in Landscape Ecology written by David G. Green and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines key concepts and analytical approaches in complexity theory as it applies to landscape ecology, including complex networks, connectivity, criticality, feedback, and self-organisation. It then reviews the ways that these ideas have led to new insights into the nature of ecosystems and the role of processes in landscapes. The updated edition explores innovations in ecotechnology, including automated monitoring, big data, simulation and machine learning, and shows how they are revolutionizing ecology by making it possible to deal more effectively with complexity. Addressing the topic in a progression of ideas from small to large, and from simple to sophisticated, the book examines the implications of complexity for major environmental issues of our time, particularly the urgencies of climate change and loss of biodiversity. Understanding ecological complexity is crucial in today’s globalized and interconnected world. Successful management of the world’s ecosystems must combine models of ecosystem complexity with biodiversity, environmental, geographic, and socioeconomic data. The book examines the impact of humans on landscapes and ecosystems, as well as efforts to embed sustainability, commerce and industrial development in the larger context of ecosystem services and ecological economics. Well-established as researchers in the field, the authors provide a new perspective on current and future understanding of complexity in landscape ecology. The new edition offers a non-technical account of the topic, so it is both accessible and informative for general readers. For students of ecology, it provides a fresh approach to classical ideas.
Download or read book Complexity in Landscape Ecology written by David Geoffrey Green and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-02-22 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an introduction to the field of complexity and landscape ecology. It covers such topics as connectivity, criticality, feedback, and networks, as well as their impact on the stability and predictability of ecosystem dynamics.
Download or read book Discontinuities in Ecosystems and Other Complex Systems written by Craig R. Allen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the publication of C. S. Holling's seminal work on the relationship between animal body mass patterns and scale-specific landscape structure, ecologists began to explore the theoretical and applied consequences of discontinuities in ecosystems and other complex systems. Are ecosystems and their components continuously distributed and do they adhere to scaling laws, or are they discontinuous and more complex than early models would have us believe? The resulting propositions over the structure of complex systems sparked an ongoing debate regarding the mechanisms generating discontinuities and the statistical methods used for their detection. This volume takes the view that ecosystems and other complex systems are inherently discontinuous and that such fields as ecology, economics, and urban studies greatly benefit from this paradigm shift. Contributors present evidence of the ubiquity of discontinuous distributions in ecological and social systems and how their analysis provides insight into complex phenomena. The book is divided into three sections. The first focuses on background material and contrasting views concerning the discontinuous organization of complex systems. The second discusses discontinuous patterns detected in a number of different systems and methods for detecting them, and the third touches on the potential significance of discontinuities in complex systems. Science is still dominated by a focus on power laws, but the contributors to this volume are convinced power laws often mask the interesting dynamics of systems and that those dynamics are best revealed by investigating deviations from assumed power law distributions. In 2008, a grand conference on resilience was held in Stockholm, hosting 600 participants from around the world. There are now three big centers established with resilience, the most recent one being the Stockholm Resilience Center, with others in Australia (an international coral reef center), Arizona State University's new sustainability center focusing on anthropology, and Canada's emerging social sciences and resilience center. Activity continues to flourish in Alaska, South Africa, and the Untied Kingdom, and a new center is forming in Uruguay.
Download or read book Self Organization in Complex Ecosystems MPB 42 written by Ricard Solé and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can physics be an appropriate framework for the understanding of ecological science? Most ecologists would probably agree that there is little relation between the complexity of natural ecosystems and the simplicity of any example derived from Newtonian physics. Though ecologists have long been interested in concepts originally developed by statistical physicists and later applied to explain everything from why stock markets crash to why rivers develop particular branching patterns, applying such concepts to ecosystems has remained a challenge. Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems is the first book to clearly synthesize what we have learned about the usefulness of tools from statistical physics in ecology. Ricard Solé and Jordi Bascompte provide a comprehensive introduction to complex systems theory, and ask: do universal laws shape the structure of ecosystems, at least at some scales? They offer the most compelling array of theoretical evidence to date of the potential of nonlinear ecological interactions to generate nonrandom, self-organized patterns at all levels. Tackling classic ecological questions--from population dynamics to biodiversity to macroevolution--the book's novel presentation of theories and data shows the power of statistical physics and complexity in ecology. Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems will be a staple resource for years to come for ecologists interested in complex systems theory as well as mathematicians and physicists interested in ecology.
Download or read book Toward a Unified Ecology written by T. F. H. Allen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two key demands are being made of ecology: that the discipline increasingly be a predictive one; and that ecologists be prepared to consider large-scale systems. These systems become simple or complex based on the level and type of explanation required, and a strict and consistent epistemology is needed in light of new insights into the nature of complexity. T. F. H. Allen and Thomas W. Hoekstra argue that complex systems analysis requires ecologists to distinguish models and to recognize that models must invoke a scale and point of view. Toward a Unified Ecology offers a strategy to attain a unity that brings basic ecology to bear on ecological management. Beginning with hierarchy theory as a basic premise, the book goes on to explain that the conventional "levels"--ecosystems, landscapes, communities, populations, organisms--are not levels in themselves but criteria for observation. The authors assert that the essential character of ecology's subdisciplines is scale-dependent. Putting scale back into systems of well-defined type captures the richness of the connections in the material ecological system. Allen and Hoekstra present a conceptual framework for a more coherent view of ecology, showing how to link the various parts of ecology into a natural whole.
Download or read book Landscape Ecology written by Zev Naveh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the preface to the softcover edition of this book in 1989, we stated: Since the publication of the first edition of this book, landscape ecology has made great strides. It has overcome its continental isolation and has also established itself in the English-speaking world. By attracting both problem inquiry and problem-solving-oriented scientists with different cultural, academic, and profes sional backgrounds from all over the world, it has broadened not only its geo graphical but also its conceptual and methodological scopes. We are pleased to confirm in 1993 that the growth of landscape ecology continues, and to again express our gratification at the encouraging re sponse to this first English-language monograph on the subject and its contribution to these developments. As before, we feel special satisfac tion that it has reached not only the shelves of libraries and academic re searchers, but that it has also appealed to professional practitioners, teachers, and their students from industrialized and developing countries, embracing the broad range of fields related to landscape ecology in the natural sciences as well as in the humanities.
Download or read book Ecosystem Function in Heterogeneous Landscapes written by Gary M. Lovett and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-12-21 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking work connects the knowledge of system function developed in ecosystem ecology with landscape ecology's knowledge of spatial structure. The book elucidates the challenges faced by ecosystem scientists working in spatially heterogeneous systems, relevant conceptual approaches used in other disciplines and in different ecosystem types, and the importance of spatial heterogeneity in conservation resource management.
Download or read book Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice written by Monica G. Turner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-29 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work provides in-depth analysis of the origins of landscape ecology and its close alignment with the understanding of scale, the causes of landscape pattern, and the interactions of spatial pattern with a variety of ecological processes. The text covers the quantitative approaches that are applied widely in landscape studies, with emphasis on their appropriate use and interpretation. The field of landscape ecology has grown rapidly during this period, its concepts and methods have matured, and the published literature has increased exponentially. Landscape research has enhanced understanding of the causes and consequences of spatial heterogeneity and how these vary with scale, and they have influenced the management of natural and human-dominated landscapes. Landscape ecology is now considered mainstream, and the approaches are widely used in many branches of ecology and are applied not only in terrestrial settings but also in aquatic and marine systems. In response to these rapid developments, an updated edition of Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice provides a synthetic overview of landscape ecology, including its development, the methods and techniques that are employed, the major questions addressed, and the insights that have been gained.”
Download or read book Landscape Heterogeneity and Disturbance written by Monica G. Turner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscape pattern is generated by a variety of processes, including disturbances. In turn, the heterogeneity of the landscape may enhance or retard the spread of disturbance. The complex relationship between landscape pattern and disturbance is the subject of this book. It is designed to present an illustrative analysis of the topic, presenting the perspectives of several different disciplines. The book includes conceptual considerations, empirical studies, and management examples. Important features include: hypotheses about the spread of disturbance and the effects of scale changes in landscape studies; the multidisciplinary approach; and the explicit focus on the landscape level. The intended audience comprises graduate students, academics, and professionals interested in landscape ecology. The reader will receive a state-of-the-art treatment of a current topic in landscape ecology.
Download or read book Long Term Ecological Research written by Felix Müller and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-06-21 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecosystems change on a multitude of spatial and temporal scales. While analyses of ecosystem dynamics in short timespans have received much attention, the impacts of changes in the long term have, to a great extent, been neglected, provoking a lack of information and methodological know-how in this area. This book fills this gap by focusing on studies dealing with the investigation of complex, long-term ecological processes with regard to global change, the development of early warning systems, and the acquisition of a scientific basis for strategic conservation management and the sustainable use of ecosystems. Within this book, theoretical ecological questions of long-term processes, as well as an international dimension of long-term monitoring, observations and research are brought together. The outcome is an overview on different aspects of long-term ecological research. Aquatic, as well as terrestrial ecosystems are represented.
Download or read book Modelling Complex Ecological Dynamics written by Fred Jopp and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-02-11 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Model development is of vital importance for understanding and management of ecological processes. Identifying the complex relationships between ecological patterns and processes is a crucial task. Ecological modelling—both qualitatively and quantitatively—plays a vital role in analysing ecological phenomena and for ecological theory. This textbook provides a unique overview of modelling approaches. Representing the state-of-the-art in modern ecology, it shows how to construct and work with various different model types. It introduces the background of each approach and its application in ecology. Differential equations, matrix approaches, individual-based models and many other relevant modelling techniques are explained and demonstrated with their use. The authors provide links to software tools and course materials. With chapters written by leading specialists, “Modelling Complex Ecological Dynamics” is an essential contribution to expand the qualification of students, teachers and scientists alike.
Download or read book Complex Ecology written by Charles G. Curtin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 595 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From climate change to species extinction, humanity is confronted with an increasing array of societal and environmental challenges that defy simple quantifiable solutions. Complexity-based ecology provides a new paradigm for ecologists and conservationists keen to embrace the uncertainty that is pressed upon us. This book presents key research papers chosen by some sixty scholars from various continents, across a diverse span of sub-disciplines. The papers are set alongside first person commentary from many of the seminal voices involved, offering unprecedented access to experts' viewpoints. The works assembled also shed light on the process of science in general, showing how the shifting of wider perspectives allows for new ideas to take hold. Ideal for undergraduate and advanced students of ecology and conservation, their educators and those working across allied fields, this is the first book of its kind to focus on complexity-based approaches and provides a benchmark for future collected volumes.
Download or read book Ecological Systems written by Rik Leemans and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-12 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Earth is home to an estimated 8 million animal species, 600,000 fungi, 300,000 plants, and an undetermined number of microbial species. Of these animal, fungal, and plant species, an estimated 75% have yet to be identified. Moreover, the interactions between these species and their physical environment are known to an even lesser degree. At the same time, the earth’s biota faces the prospect of climate change, which may manifest slowly or extremely rapidly, as well as a human population set to grow by two billion by 2045 from the current seven billion. Given these major ecological changes, we cannot wait for a complete biota data set before assessing, planning, and acting to preserve the ecological balance of the earth. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the scientific and engineering basis of the systems ecology of the earth in 15 detailed, peer-reviewed entries written for a broad audience of undergraduate and graduate students as well as practicing professionals in government, academia, and industry. The methodology presented aims at identifying key interactions and environmental effects, and enabling a systems-level understanding even with our present state of factual knowledge.
Download or read book Landscape Ecology written by James Sanderson and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-02-10 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscape Ecology - a rapidly growing science - quantifies the ways ecosystems interact. It establishes links between activities in one region and repercussions in another. Landscape Ecology: A Top-Down Approach serves as a general introduction to this emerging area of study. In this book the authors take a "top down" approach. They believe that
Download or read book Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology written by Almo Farina and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-22 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Landscape ecology is an integrative and multi-disciplinary science and Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology reconciles the geological, botanical, zoological and human perspectives. In particular ,new paradigms and theories such as percolation, metapopulation, hierarchies, source-sink models have been integrated in this last edition with the recent theories on bio-complexity, information and cognitive sciences. Methods for studying landscape ecology are covered including spatial geometry models and remote sensing in order to create confidence toward techniques and approaches that require a high experience and long-time dedication. Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology is a textbook useful to present the landscape in a multi-vision perspective for undergraduate and graduate students of biology, ecology, geography, forestry, agronomy, landscape architecture and planning. Sociology, economics, history, archaeology, anthropology, ecological psychology are some sciences that can benefit of the holistic vision offered by this texbook.
Download or read book The Landscape Ecology of Fire written by Donald McKenzie and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world. What will be the landscape-scale effects of these altered fire regimes? Within what theoretical contexts can we accurately assess these effects? We explore the possible effects of altered fire regimes on landscape patch dynamics, dominant species (tree, shrub, or herbaceous) and succession, sensitive and invasive plant and animal species and communities, and ecosystem function. Ultimately, we must consider the human dimension: what are the policy and management implications of increased fire disturbance, and what are the implications for human communities?
