Effect of Disturbance on Natural Forest Regeneration in a Changing Tropical Environment

Effect of Disturbance on Natural Forest Regeneration in a Changing Tropical Environment PDF Author: Donald Mlambo
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832534759
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
Recent research shows that tropical forests are experiencing changes driven by many factors including deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species, wildfires, insect and pathogen outbreaks, drought, windstorms and other climatically-enhanced events. Due to climate change, these disturbance events are becoming unprecedented in their frequency, extent and intensity. There is increasing concern that they may impact natural forest regeneration processes and drive rare and sensitive tropical woody plant species along an extinction trajectory. Although natural regeneration has potential to enhance ecological resilience, support local biodiversity, and provide ecosystem goods and services, it is often overlooked as an approach that can be aligned with biodiversity conservation goals, ecological restoration and climate change mitigation targets. Promoting natural forest regeneration may actually be less costly and more effective for restoring ecosystem functions.

Effect of Disturbance on Natural Forest Regeneration in a Changing Tropical Environment

Effect of Disturbance on Natural Forest Regeneration in a Changing Tropical Environment PDF Author: Donald Mlambo
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832534759
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 105

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent research shows that tropical forests are experiencing changes driven by many factors including deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species, wildfires, insect and pathogen outbreaks, drought, windstorms and other climatically-enhanced events. Due to climate change, these disturbance events are becoming unprecedented in their frequency, extent and intensity. There is increasing concern that they may impact natural forest regeneration processes and drive rare and sensitive tropical woody plant species along an extinction trajectory. Although natural regeneration has potential to enhance ecological resilience, support local biodiversity, and provide ecosystem goods and services, it is often overlooked as an approach that can be aligned with biodiversity conservation goals, ecological restoration and climate change mitigation targets. Promoting natural forest regeneration may actually be less costly and more effective for restoring ecosystem functions.

Large-scale Forest Restoration

Large-scale Forest Restoration PDF Author: David Lamb
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135096066
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Landscapes are being degraded and simplified across the globe. This book explores how forest restoration might be carried out to increase landscape heterogeneity, improve ecological functioning and restore ecosystem services in such landscapes. It focuses on large, landscape-scale reforestation because that is the scale at which restoration is needed if many of the problems that have now developed are to be addressed. It also shows how large-scale forest restoration might improve human livelihoods as well as improve conservation outcomes. A number of governments have undertaken national reforestation programs in recent years; some have been more successful than others. The author reviews these to explore what type of reforestation should be used, where this should be carried out and how much should be done. For example, are the traditional industrial forms of reforestation necessarily the best to use in all situations? How can forest restoration be reconciled with the need for food security? And, are there spatial thresholds that must be exceeded to generate economic and environmental benefits? The book also examines the policy and institutional settings needed to encourage large-scale reforestation. This includes a discussion of the place for incentives to encourage landholders to undertake particular types of reforestation and to reforest particular locations. It also considers forms of governance that are likely to lead to an equitable sharing of the costs and benefits of forest restoration.

Second Growth

Second Growth PDF Author: Robin L. Chazdon
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022611810X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
For decades, conservation and research initiatives in tropical forests have focused almost exclusively on old-growth forests because scientists believed that these “pristine” ecosystems housed superior levels of biodiversity. With Second Growth, Robin L. Chazdon reveals those assumptions to be largely false, bringing to the fore the previously overlooked counterpart to old-growth forest: second growth. Even as human activities result in extensive fragmentation and deforestation, tropical forests demonstrate a great capacity for natural and human-aided regeneration. Although these damaged landscapes can take centuries to regain the characteristics of old growth, Chazdon shows here that regenerating—or second-growth—forests are vital, dynamic reservoirs of biodiversity and environmental services. What is more, they always have been. With chapters on the roles these forests play in carbon and nutrient cycling, sustaining biodiversity, providing timber and non-timber products, and integrated agriculture, Second Growth not only offers a thorough and wide-ranging overview of successional and restoration pathways, but also underscores the need to conserve, and further study, regenerating tropical forests in an attempt to inspire a new age of local and global stewardship.

Climate Change and Insect Pests

Climate Change and Insect Pests PDF Author: Christer Bjorkman
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1780643780
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Insects, being poikilothermic, are among the organisms that are most likely to respond to changes in climate, particularly increased temperatures. Range expansions into new areas, further north and to higher elevations, are already well documented, as are physiological and phenological responses. It is anticipated that the damage by insects will increase as a consequence of climate change, i.e. increasing temperatures primarily. However, the evidence in support of this common “belief” is sparse. Climate Change and Insect Pests sums up present knowledge regarding both agricultural and forest insect pests and climate change in order to identify future research directions.

Challenges and Opportunities for the World's Forests in the 21st Century

Challenges and Opportunities for the World's Forests in the 21st Century PDF Author: Trevor Fenning
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400770766
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 823

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Book Description
This book addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by the world’s forests posed by climate change, conservation objectives, and sustainable development needs including bioenergy, outlining the research and other efforts that are needed to understand these issues, along with the options and difficulties for dealing with them. It contains sections on sustainable forestry & conservation; forest resources worldwide; forests, forestry and climate change; the economics of forestry; tree breeding & commercial forestry; biotechnological approaches; genomic studies with forest trees; bio-energy, lignin & wood; and forest science, including ecological studies. The chapters are contributed by prominent organisations or individuals with an established record of achievement in these areas, and present their ideas on these topics with the aim of providing a ready source of information and guidance on these topics for politicians, policy makers and scientists for many years to come.

Tropical Forest Community Ecology

Tropical Forest Community Ecology PDF Author: Walter Carson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444356267
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 686

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Book Description
Historically, tropical ecology has been a science often content with descriptive and demographic approaches, which is understandable given the difficulty of studying these ecosystems and the need for basic demographic information. Nonetheless, over the last several years, tropical ecologists have begun to test more sophisticated ecological theory and are now beginning to address a broad array of questions that are of particular importance to tropical systems, and ecology in general. Why are there are so many species in tropical forests and what mechanisms are responsible for the maintenance of that vast species diversity? What factors control species coexistence? Are there common patterns of species abundance and distribution across broad geographic scales? What is the role of trophic interactions in these complex ecosystems? How can these fragile ecosystems be conserved? Containing contributions from some of the world’s leading tropical ecologists, Tropical Forest Community Ecology provides a summary of the key issues in the discipline of tropical ecology: Includes contributions from some of the world’s leading tropical ecologists Covers patterns of species distribution, the maintenance of species diversity, the community ecology of tropical animals, forest regeneration and conservation of tropical ecosystems

Wood Quality and its Biological Basis

Wood Quality and its Biological Basis PDF Author: John Barnett
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405147814
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Wood is the most versatile raw material available to man. It isburned as fuel, shaped into utensils, used as a structuralengineering material, converted into fibres for paper production,and put to newer uses as a source of industrial chemicals. Its quality results largely from the chemical and physicalstructure of the cell walls of its component fibres, which can bemodified in nature as the tree responds to physical environmentalstresses. Internal stresses can accumulate, which are releasedcatastrophically when the tree is felled, often rendering thetimber useless. The quality of timber as an engineering materialalso depends on the structure of the wood and the way in which ithas developed in the living tree. Tree improvement for quality cannot be carried out without anunderstanding of the biological basis underlying wood formation andstructure. This volume brings together the viewpoints of bothbiologists and physical scientists, covering the spectrum from theformation of wood to its structure and properties, and relatingthese properties to industrial use. This is a volume for researchers and professionals in plantphysiology, molecular biology and biochemistry.

Quantifying Functional Biodiversity

Quantifying Functional Biodiversity PDF Author: Laura Pla
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400726481
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 103

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Book Description
This book synthesizes current methods used to quantify functional diversity, providing step-by-step examples for defining functional groups and estimating functional indices. The authors show how to compare communities, and how to analyze changes of diversity along environmental gradients, using real-life examples throughout. One section of the book demonstrates the selection of traits, and the standardization and characterization of ecosystem data. Another section presents methods used to quantify functional diversity, shows how to relate functional diversity with environmental variables and how to connect these to ecosystem services. The concluding section introduces FDiversity, a free program developed by the authors. The reader is guided through every step from software installation and basic functions, to sample and database design, to graphical projection methods, employing case study data to illustrate key concepts.

Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences

Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences PDF Author: Julian Evans
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080548016
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 5752

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Book Description
A combination of broad disciplinary coverage and scientific excellence, the Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences will be an indispensable addition to the library of anyone interested in forests, forestry and forest sciences. Packed with valuable insights from experts all over the world, this remarkable set not only summarizes recent advances in forest science techniques, but also thoroughly covers the basic information vital to comprehensive understanding of the important elements of forestry. The Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences also covers relevant biology and ecology, different types of forestry (e.g. tropical forestry and dryland forestry), scientific names of trees and shrubs, and the applied, economic, and social aspects of forest management. Valuable key features further enhance the utility of this Encyclopedia as an exceptional reference tool. Also available online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. Edited and written by a distinguished group of editors and contributors Well-organized encyclopedic format provides concise, readable entries, easy searches, and thorough cross-references Illustrative tables, figures, and photographs in every entry, produced in full color Comprehensive glossary defines new and important terms Complete, up-to-date coverage of over 60 areas of forest sciences - sure to be of interest to scientists, students, and professionals alike! Editor-in-Chief is the past president of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, the oldest international collaborative forestry research organization with over 15,000 scientists from 100 countries

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World

Bats in the Anthropocene: Conservation of Bats in a Changing World PDF Author: Christian C. Voigt
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319252208
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
This book focuses on central themes related to the conservation of bats. It details their response to land-use change and management practices, intensified urbanization and roost disturbance and loss. Increasing interactions between humans and bats as a result of hunting, disease relationships, occupation of human dwellings, and conflict over fruit crops are explored in depth. Finally, contributors highlight the roles that taxonomy, conservation networks and conservation psychology have to play in conserving this imperilled but vital taxon. With over 1300 species, bats are the second largest order of mammals, yet as the Anthropocene dawns, bat populations around the world are in decline. Greater understanding of the anthropogenic drivers of this decline and exploration of possible mitigation measures are urgently needed if we are to retain global bat diversity in the coming decades. This book brings together teams of international experts to provide a global review of current understanding and recommend directions for future research and mitigation.