Bücher der Reihe Ecological Studies

This volume provides a timely understanding of resource allocation and its regulation in plants, linking the molecular with biochemical and physiological-level processes. The validity of the "Growth-Differentiation Balance Hypothesis" is examined and novel theoretical concepts and approaches to modelling plant resource allocation are discussed.

This book provides a broad and well-integrated overview of recent major scientific results in wetland science and their applications in natural resource management issues.

This book gives a broad and well-integrated overview of recent major scientific results in wetland science and their applications in natural resource management. The coverage is divided into three sections: Functioning of Plants and Animals in Wetlands; Conservation and Management of Wetlands; and Wetland Restoration and Creation.

Regional intercomparisons between ecosystems on different continents can be a powerful tool to better understand the ways in which ecosystems respond to global change.

During recent decades, large-scale effects of pollution on marine estuaries and even entire enclosed coastal seas have become apparent. One of the first regions where this was observed is the Baltic Sea, whereby the appearance of anoxic deep basins, extensive algal blooms and elimination of top predators like eagles and seals indicated effects of both increased nutrient inputs and toxic substances.This book describes the physical, biochemical and ecological processes that govern inputs, distribution and ecological effects of nutrients and toxic substances in the Baltic Sea. Extensive reviews are supplemented by budgets and dynamic simulation models.This book is highly interdisciplinary and uses a systems approach for analyzing and describing a marine ecosystem. It gives an overview of the Baltic Sea, but is useful for any marine scientist studying large marine ecosystems.

This volume gives a current overview of theoretical considerations and empirical findings of activity patterns in small mammals, a group in which the energetic and ecological constraints are particularly severe and the diversity of activity patterns is particularly high.

Research in Antarctica in the past two decades has fundamentally changed our perceptions of the southern continent. It includes aspects of climate change, soil development and biology, as well as above- and below-ground results of interdisciplinary research projects combining data from botany, zoology, microbiology, pedology, and soil ecology.

Increased stratospheric ozone depletion and the corresponding increase in ground levels of UV radiation as well as ambient, "natural" UV radiation as a key ecological factor in the Arctic spring and summer are discussed in detail.

The effect of global climate change on these heavily populated areas will have major social and political ramifications. This volume addresses issues in these areas, from processes at the leaf level to the individual, ecosystem, and landscape levels.

Written by the leading authorities on the plant diversity and ecology of the Pacific islands, this book is a magisterial synthesis of the vegetation and landscapes of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands features over 400 color photographs, plus dozens of maps and climate diagrams.

Plant-animal interactions have become a focus of ecological research, with the processes of herbivory being of special interest. The text is an invaluable reference for researchers and land managers working in the fields of plant-animal interactions, herbivory, community ecology and biodiversity.

Topics covered include: all the major mycorrhizal types, plant population biology, multitrophic interactions, biological diversity, ecosystem functioning, global change and evolution. This volume shows that collaboration in the rhizosphere is essential for plants, microbes, plant communities and ecosystems.

Coastal and marine ecosystems, some severely degraded, other still pristine, control rich resources of inshore environments and coastal seas of Latin America's Pacific and Atlantic margins.

In this book, coastal dune specialists from tropical and temperate latitudes cover a wide set of topics, including: geomorphology, community dynamics, ecophysiology, biotic interactions and environmental problems and conservation.

This volume provides an overview of climate change data, its effects on the structure and functioning of Antarctic ecosystems, and the occurrence and cycling of persistent contaminants. The book also examines possible future scenarios of climate change and the role of Antarctic organisms in the early detection of environmental perturbations.

This book offers a timely overview and synthesis of biogeographic patterns of plants and fungi and their mycorrhizal associations across geographic scales.

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 is the first truly ecosystem-oriented book on peatlands. It adopts an ecosystems approach to understanding the world's boreal peatlands. A recurring theme is the legacy of boreal peatlands as impressive accumulators of carbon as peat over millennia.

The Guayana Highlands in northeastern tropical America, rising from lowland rain forests and savannas up to 3000 m elevation, are characterized by ancient tablelands called tepuis.

Permafrost Ecosystems offers valuable ecological data from a region that has long been inaccessible to scientists. This authoritative text explores permafrost forest diversity, structure, dynamics and physiology, in addition to its response to climate change.

Mangrove ecosystems are being increasingly threatened by human activities. This volume highlights the results of a ten-year German / Brazilian research project, called MADAM, in one of the largest continuous mangrove areas of the world, located in northern Brazil.

This is the first truly ecosystem-oriented book on peatlands. It adopts an ecosystems approach to understanding the world's boreal peatlands. A recurring theme is the legacy of boreal peatlands as impressive accumulators of carbon as peat over millennia.

This is the first integrative book on the functioning and ecologically oriented use of floodplain forests in the tropics and sub-tropics. It provides fundamental knowledge for professionals and students on their distribution, evolution and phytogeography.

Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world.

This book discusses the water and carbon cycle system in the permafrost region of eastern Siberia, Providing vitalin sights into how climate change has affected the permafrost environment in recent decades.

Global warming is expected to change fire regimes, likely increasing the severity and extent of wildfires in many ecosystems around the world.

Domestic and wild large mammalian herbivores occur on every continent except Antarctica. Through their browsing and grazing, they affect the structure and distribution not only of vegetation, but also of associated fauna. Consequently, the interactions between management practices and herbivore populations influence the biodiversity, structure and dynamics of ecosystems across vast expanses around the globe: signs of human activity that will be detectable for epochs to come.As a follow-up work to The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing, published in 2008, this new volume presents cutting-edge research on the behaviour, distribution, movement, and direct and indirect impacts of domestic and wild herbivores on terrestrial ecosystems. The respective chapters highlight strategic and applied research on cross-cutting issues in palaeontology and ecology, and provide concrete recommendations on the management of large herbivores to integrate production and conservation in terrestrial systems. Given its scope, the book will appeal to students, researchers and anyone interested in understanding these fascinating wild animals and how they shape the natural world.

Drawing on a diverse pool of global expertise, the authors present diverse approaches that span a range of scales and levels of complexity. The respective chapters provide in-depth information on the current state of research, and outline future prospects in the field of aboveground-belowground community ecology.

Cave organisms are the 'monsters' of the underground world and studying them invariably raises interesting questions about the ways evolution has equipped them to survive in permanent darkness and low-energy environments.