Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia

Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119090660
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
The Amazon Basin contains the largest and most diverse tropical rainforest in the world. Besides the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the rainforest is bounded to the north by the Guiana crystalline shield and to the south by the Brazilian crystalline shield, marked at their edges by cataracts in the rivers and often dominated by grasslands. This book is motivated not just by the Amazon's scientific interest but also by its role in many ecosystem functions critical to life on Earth. These ecosystems are characterized both by their complexity and their interactive, higher-order linkages among both abiotic and biotic components. Within Amazonia, the Western Amazon (west of 65° latitude) is the most pristine and, perhaps, the most complex within the Amazon Basin. This Western Amazon may be broadly divided into non-flooded forests (e.g. terra firme, white sand, palm) and forests flooded with white water (generally referred to as várzea) and with black water (generally referred to as igapó). Here, for the first time, is a book devoted entirely to Western Amazonia, containing chapters by scientists at the forefront of their own areas of expertise. It should be a valuable resource for all future researchers and scholars who venture into Western Amazonia, as it continues to be one of the most beautiful, mysterious, remote and important ecosystems on Earth.

Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia

Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119090660
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Amazon Basin contains the largest and most diverse tropical rainforest in the world. Besides the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the rainforest is bounded to the north by the Guiana crystalline shield and to the south by the Brazilian crystalline shield, marked at their edges by cataracts in the rivers and often dominated by grasslands. This book is motivated not just by the Amazon's scientific interest but also by its role in many ecosystem functions critical to life on Earth. These ecosystems are characterized both by their complexity and their interactive, higher-order linkages among both abiotic and biotic components. Within Amazonia, the Western Amazon (west of 65° latitude) is the most pristine and, perhaps, the most complex within the Amazon Basin. This Western Amazon may be broadly divided into non-flooded forests (e.g. terra firme, white sand, palm) and forests flooded with white water (generally referred to as várzea) and with black water (generally referred to as igapó). Here, for the first time, is a book devoted entirely to Western Amazonia, containing chapters by scientists at the forefront of their own areas of expertise. It should be a valuable resource for all future researchers and scholars who venture into Western Amazonia, as it continues to be one of the most beautiful, mysterious, remote and important ecosystems on Earth.

Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia

Forest Structure, Function and Dynamics in Western Amazonia PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119090695
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
The Amazon Basin contains the largest and most diverse tropical rainforest in the world. Besides the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean, the rainforest is bounded to the north by the Guiana crystalline shield and to the south by the Brazilian crystalline shield, marked at their edges by cataracts in the rivers and often dominated by grasslands. This book is motivated not just by the Amazon's scientific interest but also by its role in many ecosystem functions critical to life on Earth. These ecosystems are characterized both by their complexity and their interactive, higher-order linkages among both abiotic and biotic components. Within Amazonia, the Western Amazon (west of 65° latitude) is the most pristine and, perhaps, the most complex within the Amazon Basin. This Western Amazon may be broadly divided into non-flooded forests (e.g. terra firme, white sand, palm) and forests flooded with white water (generally referred to as várzea) and with black water (generally referred to as igapó). Here, for the first time, is a book devoted entirely to Western Amazonia, containing chapters by scientists at the forefront of their own areas of expertise. It should be a valuable resource for all future researchers and scholars who venture into Western Amazonia, as it continues to be one of the most beautiful, mysterious, remote and important ecosystems on Earth.

Neotropical Gradients and Their Analysis

Neotropical Gradients and Their Analysis PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031228480
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
The importance of the Neotropics to the world's climate, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity cannot be questioned. This book suggests that gradients are key to understanding both these issues and Neotropical ecosystem structure, function and dynamics in general. Those gradients are either spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal, where many temporal and spatio-temporal gradients are initiated by disturbances (e.g., tree-fall, landslide, cultivation). And in particular for the Neotropics, three large spatial gradients - latitude, longitude, altitude (elevation) - are of critical importance. The editor has over 30 years of experience investigating Neotropical gradients in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Peru and Ecuador, and has published 5 previous books on different aspects of the Neotropics. Once again he has assembled top-shelf Neotropical scientists and researchers, here to focus on gradients: their nature, interactions and how they structure ecosystems.

Igapó (Black-water flooded forests) of the Amazon Basin

Igapó (Black-water flooded forests) of the Amazon Basin PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319901222
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Igapó forests are a common part of the Amazon whose ecosystems are critical to our shared human future. The introduction addresses the structure, function and dynamics of igapó forests in the Amazon basin, focusing on their uniqueness due to their high level of complexity defined as the many ways that different components of igapó forests in the Amazon basin ecosystem interact and also on how those interactions are on a higher-order compared to other tropical forests. The text then breaks down the igapó ecosystem using these sections: (1) Igapó forests over space and time, (2) Water, light and soils, (3) The carbon cycle, (4) Litter, fungi and invertebrates, (5) Vertebrates, (6) Plant population studies, (7) Plant community studies, and (8) Human impacts and management. Experts from around the world serve as chapter authors that review what is known about their specific part of the igapó ecosystem, what research they have done, and also what needs to be done in the future.

The Andean Cloud Forest

The Andean Cloud Forest PDF Author: Randall W. Myster
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030573443
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
A book focused solely on Andean Cloud Forests (ACF) has never been published. ACF are high biodiversity ecosystems in the Neotropics with a large proportion of endemic species, and are important for the hydrology of entire regions. They provide water for large parts of the Amazon basin, for example. Here I take advantage of my many years working in ACF in Ecuador, to edit this book that contains the following sections: (1) ACF over space and time, (2) Hydrology, (3) Light and the Carbon cycle, (4) Soil, litter, fungi and nutrient cycling, (5) Plants, (6) Animals, and (7) Human impacts and management. Under this premise, international experts contributed chapters that consist of reviews of what is known about their topic, of what research they have done, and of what needs to be done in the future. This work is suitable for graduate students, professors, scientists, and researcher-oriented managers.

Psammic Peinobiomes

Psammic Peinobiomes PDF Author: Joseph Alfred Zinck
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031207998
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
The book represents a multidisciplinary approach to understanding soil–landscape–vegetation relationships and, specifically, the ecophysiology of plant communities developing on sandy soils of very low fertility that are subject to seasonal flooding. It provides an overview of the white sand ecosystems within the Amazon basin, and focuses on the forest and herbaceous (meadows) vegetation growing on the dystrophic sandy soils of the upper Negro and Orinoco river basins. Several chapters describe physiographic aspects of the study area using integrated remote sensing and in situ sampling. By doing so they attain a comprehensive description of the origin and evolution of soils and landscapes, an advanced classification of soils, and a mapping of the geographic distribution of psammophilous vegetation. This volume also provides a phytosociological classification of extensive forested areas, and a detailed description of the structure and diversity of little-known herbaceous formations.It targets professionals in the fields of ecology, ecophysiology, geomorphology, soils, vegetation, and the environmental sciences. The information it offers may be of significant use to researchers, protected area planners, and environmental policy makers.

Neotropical Diversification: Patterns and Processes

Neotropical Diversification: Patterns and Processes PDF Author: Valentí Rull
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030311678
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 816

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the patterns of biodiversity in various neotropical ecosystems, as well as a discussion on their historical biogeographies and underlying diversification processes. All chapters were written by prominent researchers in the fields of tropical biology, molecular ecology, climatology, paleoecology, and geography, producing an outstanding collection of essays, synthetic analyses, and novel investigations that describe and improve our understanding of the biodiversity of this unique region. With chapters on the Amazon and Caribbean forests, the Atlantic rainforests, the Andes, the Cerrado savannahs, the Caatinga drylands, the Chaco, and Mesoamerica – along with broad taxonomic coverage – this book summarizes a wide range of hypotheses, views, and methods concerning the processes and mechanisms of neotropical diversification. The range of perspectives presented makes the book a truly comprehensive, state-of-the-art publication on the topic, which will fascinate both scientists and general readers alike.

Forests and Global Change

Forests and Global Change PDF Author: David A. Coomes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107041856
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
This book synthesises recent research across temperate and tropical forest ecosystems, to present the numerous ways forests are responding to global change.

Interactions Between Biosphere, Atmosphere and Human Land Use in the Amazon Basin

Interactions Between Biosphere, Atmosphere and Human Land Use in the Amazon Basin PDF Author: Laszlo Nagy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662499029
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
This book offers a panorama of recent scientific achievements produced through the framework of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere programme (LBA) and other research programmes in the Brazilian Amazon. The content is highly interdisciplinary, with an overarching aim to contribute to the understanding of the dynamic biophysical and societal/socio-economic structure and functioning of Amazonia as a regional entity and its regional and global climatic teleconnections. The target readership includes advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students and researchers seeking to untangle the gamut of interactions that the Amazon’s complex biophysical and social system represent.

Amazonia and Global Change

Amazonia and Global Change PDF Author: Michael Keller
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118671511
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1472

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Book Description
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 186. Amazonia and Global Change synthesizes results of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) for scientists and students of Earth system science and global environmental change. LBA, led by Brazil, asks how Amazonia currently functions in the global climate and biogeochemical systems and how the functioning of Amazonia will respond to the combined pressures of climate and land use change, such as Wet season and dry season aerosol concentrations and their effects on diffuse radiation and photosynthesis Increasing greenhouse gas concentration, deforestation, widespread biomass burning and changes in the Amazonian water cycle Drought effects and simulated drought through rainfall exclusion experiments The net flux of carbon between Amazonia and the atmosphere Floodplains as an important regulator of the basin carbon balance including serving as a major source of methane to the troposphere The impact of the likely increased profitability of cattle ranching. The book will serve a broad community of scientists and policy makers interested in global change and environmental issues with high-quality scientific syntheses accessible to nonspecialists in a wide community of social scientists, ecologists, atmospheric chemists, climatologists, and hydrologists.