Methods to Study Litter Decomposition PDF Download
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Author: Manuel A.S. Graça
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402033483
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
The primary objective of this book is to provide students and laboratory instructors at universities and professional ecologists with a broad range of established methods to study plant litter decomposition. Detailed protocols for direct use in the field or laboratory are presented in an easy to follow step-by-step format. A short introduction to each protocol reviews the ecological significance and principles of the technique and points to key references.
Author: Manuel A.S. Graça
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402033483
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
The primary objective of this book is to provide students and laboratory instructors at universities and professional ecologists with a broad range of established methods to study plant litter decomposition. Detailed protocols for direct use in the field or laboratory are presented in an easy to follow step-by-step format. A short introduction to each protocol reviews the ecological significance and principles of the technique and points to key references.
Author: Richard D. Bardgett
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199546878
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
Aboveground-Belowground Linkages provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in our understanding of the roles that interactions between aboveground and belowground communities play in regulating the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, and their responses to global change. It charts the historical development of this field of ecology and evaluates what can be learned from the recent proliferation of studies on the ecological and biogeochemical significance of aboveground-belowground linkages. The book is structured around four key topics: biotic interactions in the soil; plant community effects; the role of aboveground consumers; and the influence of species gains and losses. A concluding chapter draws together this information and identifies a number of cross-cutting themes, including consideration of aboveground-belowground feedbacks that occur at different spatial and temporal scales, the consequences of these feedbacks for ecosystem processes, and how aboveground-belowground interactions link to human-induced global change.
Author: Uffe N. Nielsen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107191483
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 381
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Book Description
A holistic overview of soil fauna, their contributions to ecosystem function, and implications of global change belowground.
Author: Ulrich Sommer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642561667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
The question "Why are there so many species?" has puzzled ecologist for a long time. Initially, an academic question, it has gained practical interest by the recent awareness of global biodiversity loss. Species diversity in local ecosystems has always been discussed in relation to the problem of competi tive exclusion and the apparent contradiction between the competitive exclu sion principle and the overwhelming richness of species found in nature. Competition as a mechanism structuring ecological communities has never been uncontroversial. Not only its importance but even its existence have been debated. On the one extreme, some ecologists have taken competi tion for granted and have used it as an explanation by default if the distribu tion of a species was more restricted than could be explained by physiology and dispersal history. For decades, competition has been a core mechanism behind popular concepts like ecological niche, succession, limiting similarity, and character displacement, among others. For some, competition has almost become synonymous with the Darwinian "struggle for existence", although simple plausibility should tell us that organisms have to struggle against much more than competitors, e.g. predators, parasites, pathogens, and envi ronmental harshness.
Author: Jan Dirk van Elsas
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780824727499
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 704
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Book Description
In the ten years since the publication of Modern Soil Microbiology, the study of soil microbiology has significantly changed, both in the understanding of the diversity and function of soil microbial communities and in research methods. Ideal for students in a variety of disciplines, this second edition provides a cutting-edge examination of a fascinating discipline that encompasses ecology, physiology, genetics, molecular biology, and biotechnology, and makes use of biochemical and biophysical approaches. The chapters cover topics ranging from the fundamental to the applied and describe the use of advanced methods that have provided a great thrust to the discipline of soil microbiology. Using the latest molecular analyses, they integrate principles of soil microbiology with novel insights into the physiology of soil microorganisms. The authors discuss the soil and rhizosphere as habitats for microorganisms, then go on to describe the different microbial groups, their adaptive responses, and their respective processes in interactive and functional terms. The book highlights a range of applied aspects of soil microbiology, including the nature of disease-suppressive soils, the use of biological control agents, biopesticides and bioremediation agents, and the need for correct statistics and experimentation in the analyses of the data obtained from soil systems.
Author: Hans de Kroon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783540001850
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424
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Book Description
In the course of evolution, a great variety of root systems have learned to overcome the many physical, biochemical and biological problems brought about by soil. This development has made them a fascinating object of scientific study. This volume gives an overview of how roots have adapted to the soil environment and which roles they play in the soil ecosystem. The text describes the form and function of roots, their temporal and spatial distribution, and their turnover rate in various ecosystems. Subsequently, a physiological background is provided for basic functions, such as carbon acquisition, water and solute movement, and for their responses to three major abiotic stresses, i.e. hard soil structure, drought and flooding. The volume concludes with the interactions of roots with other organisms of the complex soil ecosystem, including symbiosis, competition, and the function of roots as a food source.
Author: Rima Franklin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402062168
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339
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Book Description
This volume highlights recent advances that have contributed to our understanding of spatial patterns and scale issues in microbial ecology. The book brings together research conducted at a range of spatial scales (from μm to km) and in a variety of different types of environments. These topics are addressed in a quantitative manner, and a primer on statistical methods is included. In soil ecosystems, both bacteria and fungi are discussed.
Author: Shripad Tuljapurkar
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642516521
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
Demography relates observable facts about individuals to the dynamics of populations. If the dynamics are linear and do not change over time, the classical theory of Lotka (1907) and Leslie (1945) is the central tool of demography. This book addresses the situation when the assumption of constancy is dropped. In many practical situations, a population will display unpredictable variation over time in its vital rates, which must then be described in statistical terms. Most of this book is concerned with the theory of populations which are subject to random temporal changes in their vital rates, although other kinds of variation (e. g. , cyclical) are also dealt with. The central questions are: how does temporal variation work its way into a population's future, and how does it affect our interpretation of a population's past. The results here are directed at demographers of humans and at popula tion biologists. The uneven mathematical level is dictated by the material, but the book should be accessible to readers interested in population the ory. (Readers looking for background or prerequisites will find much of it in Hal Caswell's Matrix population models: construction, analysis, and in terpretation (Sinauer 1989) ). This book is in essence a progress report and is deliberately brief; I hope that it is not mystifying. I have not attempted to be complete about either the history or the subject, although most sig nificant results and methods are presented.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309072549
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 107
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Book Description
Scientists have long sought to unravel the fundamental mysteries of the land, life, water, and air that surround us. But as the consequences of humanity's impact on the planet become increasingly evident, governments are realizing the critical importance of understanding these environmental systemsâ€"and investing billions of dollars in research to do so. To identify high-priority environmental science projects, Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences explores the most important areas of research for the next generation. The book's goal is not to list the world's biggest environmental problems. Rather it is to determine areas of opportunity thatâ€"with a concerted investmentâ€"could yield significant new findings. Nominations for environmental science's "grand" challenges were solicited from thousands of scientists worldwide. Based on their responses, eight major areas of focus were identifiedâ€"areas that offer the potential for a major scientific breakthrough of practical importance to humankind, and that are feasible if given major new funding. The book further pinpoints four areas for immediate action and investment.
Author: Stephen P. Hubbell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400837529
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390
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Book Description
Despite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context. Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book, Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales. Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers.
