Download or read book Fire in South African Mountain Fynbos written by Brian W. van Wilgen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecologists are increasingly being drawn into the task of addressing problems of environmental degradation. They are expected to find solutions that will lead to sustainable resource use throughout the world. In doing so, the robustness of the science becomes increasingly important, and the problem of extrapolating the results of research conducted within what is usually a relatively limited geographical scope is increasingly highlighted. One approach to developing a globally robust ecology involves more or less formal intercontinental comparative studies, usually focused on the question of ecological convergence. These studies are directed at testing the prediction that similar physical and other environmental factors in different parts of the world, through their selective influences, will give rise to ecosystems which share com mon structural and functional features. Should this be true, the predictive power of ecology developed within such a framework should be sufficient to solve similar problems elsewhere in such biomes. There is a long history of such an approach in mediterranean type ecosystems, documented in a series of volumes and their accompanying scientific papers beginning with that of Di Castri and Mooney (1973).
Download or read book Vegetation of Southern Africa written by R. M. Cowling and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprehensive illustrated guide to plant science and ecology of southern African vegetation.
Download or read book Burning Table Mountain written by Simon Preston Pooley and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Burning Table Mountain the author tackles the environmental and social challenges of fire management on the wildland-urban interface of South Africa\2019s Cape Peninsula, where a UNESCO World Heritage Site for Nature protects the unique fynbos vegetation and incorporates the iconic Table Mountain, and abuts the suburbs, townships and informal settlements of South Africa\2019s parliamentary capital. He combines narrative, the history of ecological science in the region and the role of fire in fynbos ecology, to provide the first integrated history of wildfire and its management on the Cape Peninsula. He reflects on the need to use a holistic approach to understanding the range and conjunctions of causes that conspire to cause large fires and increase fire incidence over time. This book will demonstrate the contribution environmental history can make, through combining scientific and social approaches, to understanding past environments and managing the environment today. It is a seminal contribution to a neglected area of South African history, but also offers an important contribution to global histories of fire"--
Download or read book Burning Table Mountain written by S. Pooley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain and the surrounding peninsula has been a crucible for attempts to integrate the social and ecological dimensions of wild fire. This environmental history of humans and wildfire outlines these interactions from the practices of Khoikhoi herders to the conflagrations of January 2000. The region's unique, famously diverse fynbos vegetation has been transformed since European colonial settlement, through urbanisation and biological modifications, both intentional (forestry) and unintentional (biological invasions). In all the diverse visions people have formed for Table Mountain, aesthetic and utilitarian, fire has been regarded as a central problem. This book shows how scientific understandings of fire in fynbos developed slowly in the face of strong prejudices. Human impacts were intensified in the twentieth century, which provides the temporal focus for the book. The disjunctures between popular perception, expert knowledge, policy and management are explored, and the book supplements existing short-term scientific data with proxies on fire incidence trends recovered from historical records.
Download or read book Fynbos written by Nicky Allsopp and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book provides the first synthesis of the field for 20 years, bringing together the latest ecological and evolutionary research on the South African global biodiversity hotspots of the Greater Cape Floristic Region--the iconic fynbos and succulent karoo"--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Ecological Effects of Fire in South African Ecosystems written by P. de V. Booysen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a stimulating tale of the interplay of observation, experimentation, working hypotheses, tentative conclusions, niggling and weightier doubts and great aspirations, on the part of some score of students, on varied ecological and other aspects of the regime and role of fire in relevant biomes and ecosystem- mainly in South Africa - and on other pertinent features of fire ecology. The impressive contents is a tribute to conveners and authors alike. One can expect a profound range and depth ofinvestigation and interpretation, a closeknit fabric of knowledge, delicately interwoven with wisdom, an exposition and quintessence of information. Admipable is the collective vision responsible for selecting appropriate topics: the wide sweeps of the brush picturing the nature of the biomes; ably describing the fire regimes - whether in grassland, savanna, fynbos or forest; skillfully defining the effects of such regimes - according to ecosystem - upon aerial and edaphic factors of the habitat, upon constituent biota, individually, specifically and as a biotic community; elucidating the basic implications in the structure and dynamics of the plant aspect of that community ... and unravelling to some degree the tangled knot of the conservation and dissipation of moisture and nutrients. Moreover, gratitude is owed for efforts exerted to understand the interplay of fire and faunal behaviour and dynamics as well as composition, together with the principle of adaptive responses of organisms of diverse kinds.
Download or read book Burning Table Mountain written by S. Pooley and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain and the surrounding peninsula has been a crucible for attempts to integrate the social and ecological dimensions of wild fire. This environmental history of humans and wildfire outlines these interactions from the practices of Khoikhoi herders to the conflagrations of January 2000. The region's unique, famously diverse fynbos vegetation has been transformed since European colonial settlement, through urbanisation and biological modifications, both intentional (forestry) and unintentional (biological invasions). In all the diverse visions people have formed for Table Mountain, aesthetic and utilitarian, fire has been regarded as a central problem. This book shows how scientific understandings of fire in fynbos developed slowly in the face of strong prejudices. Human impacts were intensified in the twentieth century, which provides the temporal focus for the book. The disjunctures between popular perception, expert knowledge, policy and management are explored, and the book supplements existing short-term scientific data with proxies on fire incidence trends recovered from historical records.
Download or read book Fire and Plants written by William J. Bond and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large regions of the world are regularly burnt either deliberately or naturally. However, despite the widespread occurrence of such fire-prone ecosystems, and considerable body of research on plant population biology in relation to fire, until now there have only been limited attempts at a coherent conceptual synthesis of the field for use by students or researchers.
Download or read book Mediterranean Type Ecosystems written by George W. Davis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human activities are causing species extinctions at a rate and magnitude rivaling those of past geologic extinction events. Exploring mediterranean-type ecosystems - the Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, Australia, and South Africa - this volume addresses the question whether biological diversity plays a significant role in the functioning of natural ecosystems, and to what extent that diversity can be reduced without causing system malfunction. Comparative studies in ecosystems that are similar in certain respects, but differ in others, offer considerable scope for gaining new insights into the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Download or read book Fire in the Tropical Biota written by Johann G. Goldammer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1977, the Volkswagen Foundation sponsored the first of a series of International Symposia on Fire Ecology at Freiburg University, Federal Republic of Germany. The scope of the congresses was to create a platform for researchers at a time when the science of fire ecology was not yet recognized and established outside of North America and Australia. Whereas comprehensive information on the fire ecology of the northern boreal, the temperate, and the mediter ranean biotas is meanwhile available, it was recognized that conside rable gaps in information exist on the role of fire in tropical und sub tropical ecosystems. Thus it seemed timely to meet the growing scientific interest and public demand for reliable and updated infor mation and to synthesize the available knowledge of tropical fire ecology and the impact of tropical biomass burning on global eco system processes. The Third Symposium on Fire Ecology, again sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation and held at Freiburg University in May 1989, was convened to prepare this first pantropical and multidisci plinary monograph on fire ecology!. The book, in which 46 scientists cooperated, analyzes those fire-related ecosystem processes which have not yet been described in a synoptic way. Following the editor's concept, duplication at previous efforts in describing tropical vegeta tion patterns and dynamics was avoided. Extensive bibliographical sources are given in the reference lists of the chapters.
Download or read book Fire in Mediterranean Ecosystems written by Jon E. Keeley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the role of fire in Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems, providing unique insights into the assembly and evolutionary convergence of ecosystems.
Download or read book Forestry and Water Conservation in South Africa written by Brett Bennett and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2015-11-11 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative interdisciplinary study focuses on the history, science, and policy of tree planting and water conservation in South Africa. South Africa’s forestry sector has sat—often controversially—at the crossroads of policy and scientific debates regarding water conservation, economic development, and biodiversity protection. Bennett and Kruger show how debates about the hydrological impact of exotic tree planting in South Africa shaped the development of modern scientific ideas and state policies relating to timber plantations, water conservation, invasive species control, and biodiversity management within South Africa as well as elsewhere in the world. Forestry and Water Conservation in South Africa shows how scientific research on the impact of exotic and native vegetation led to the development of a comprehensive national policy for conserving water, producing timber, and protecting indigenous species from invasive alien plants. Policies and laws relating to forests and water began to change in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result of political and administrative changes within South Africa. This book suggests that the country’s contemporary policies towards timber plantations, guided by the National Water Act of 1998, need to be reconsidered in light of the authors’ findings. Bennett and Kruger also call for more interdisciplinary research and greater emphasis on integrated policies and management plans for forestry, invasive alien plants, water conservation, and biodiversity preservation.
Download or read book The Ecology of Fire written by Robert J. Whelan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-08-10 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildfires kill many animals, but are populations of animals affected? How do animals survive the passage of fire? Why do some tree species survive and others die in a fire? Do frequent fires cause changes in plant community composition? Answering questions such as these requires an understanding of the ecological effects of fire. Aimed at senior undergraduate students, researchers, foresters and other land managers, Dr Whelan's book examines the changes wrought by fires with reference to general ecological theory. The impacts of fires on individual organisms, populations and communities are examined separately, and emphasis is placed on the importance of fire regime. Each chapter includes a listing of 'outstanding questions' that identify gaps in current knowledge. The book finishes by summarising the major aspects of ecology that are of particular relevance to management of fires - both protection against wildfires and deliberate use of fire.
Download or read book Plant Functional Types written by Thomas Michael Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-05-13 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes approaches and methods for grouping species with similar characteristics into functional types in ways which maximise our potential to predict accurately the responses of real vegetation with real species diversity.
Download or read book Seed Fate written by J. E. Lambert and published by CABI. This book was released on 2005 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents current knowledge of seed fate in both natural and human-disturbed landscapes, from various regions of the world. Habitats considered range from mountain and arid deserts in the temperate zone, to savanna and lowland rainforests in tropical regions of the world. Particular attention is paid to plant diversity conservation when seed removal is affected by factors such as hunting, habitat fragmentation or intensive logging. Contributors include leading scientists involved in research on seed ecology and on animal-plant relationships from the perspective of both primary and secondary seed dispersal, and predation.
Download or read book Ecology and Biogeography of Mediterranean Ecosystems in Chile California and Australia written by Mary T. Kalin Arroyo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mediterranean-type ecosystems have provided ecologists with some of the most scientifically-rewarding opportunities to formulate and evaluate hypotheses about large and small-scale ecological phenomena. Comparison of mediterranean-type climate ecosystems in different parts of the world has not only permitted a strong test for ecological convergence, but also critical understanding of key ecophysiological and population processes.
Download or read book Wildland Fire Management Handbook for Sub Sahara Africa written by Johann Georg Goldammer and published by African Minds. This book was released on 2004 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa is a fire continent. Since the early evolution of humanity, fire has been harnessed as a land-use tool. Many ecosystems of Sub-Sahara Africa that have been shaped by fire over millennia provide a high carrying capacity for human populations.
