Throughout history, forests dwellers have adapted to permanent changes of forest ecosystems that, in essence, are dynamic. Accordingly, they have long served as models of how humans lived when their lifestyles and genetic endowment were complementary. What is now commonly described as the “paleodiet” tends to be put forward as a benchmark for present-day efforts to promote health and prevent nu...

This paper presents a review of the behaviour of radiocesium in plants of forest ecosystems, based on a screening of 375 articles. Particular stress is given to those factors which affect data variability in plants, such as vertical and horizontal patterns of radioactivity in soils due to interception, resuspension, wash-off, litter fall etc. The behaviour of radiocesium in different horizons o...

Forest ecosystems are being degraded and lost because of rapid population change and economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. All ecological functions of forests are also economic functions. Many important forest functions have no markets, and hence, no apparent economic value, justifying the use of forest land for other purposes. Imputing...

There are pressing reasons for developing a better understanding of net primary production (NPP) in the world’s forests. These ecosystems play a large role in the world’s carbon budget, and their dynamics, which are likely to be responding to global changes in climate and atmospheric composition, have major economic implications and impacts on global biodiversity. Although there is a long histo...

Botanist, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Riverside, Calif. This session on the potential of Mediterraneantype ecosystems to supply biomass as a supplemental source of energy is a natural result of the present worldwide shortage of low-cost fuel. Some of these ecosystems are highly productive, partly because the summer droug...

JOHN A. STANTURF1, BRIAN J. PALIK2, MARY I. WILLIAMS3, R. KASTEN DUMROESE4, and PALLE MADSEN5 1Center for Forest Disturbance Science, Southern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Athens, Georgia, USA 2Center for Research on Ecosystem Change, Northern Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, USA 3School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences, Michigan Technologi...

Natural and anthropogenic disturbances alter canopy structure, understory vegetation, amount of woody debris, and the litter and soil layers in forest ecosystems. These environmental changes impact forest communities, including ground-dwelling invertebrates that are key regulators of ecosystem processes. Variation in frequency, intensity, duration, and spatial scale of disturbances affect the m...

The frequency and severity of forest fires, coupled with changes in spatial and temporal precipitation and temperature patterns, are likely to severely affect the characteristics of forest and permafrost patterns in boreal eco-regions. Forest fires, however, are also an ecological factor in how forest ecosystems form and function, as they affect the rate and characteristics of tree recruitment....

Forest management has traditionally been considered management of trees for timber. It really includes vegetation management and land management and people management as multiple objectives. As such, forest management is intimately linked with other topics in this volume, most especially those chapters on ecological modelling and human dimensions. The key to responsible forest management is to ...

Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia, Trophic Cascades Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA, CSIRO Land and Water Flagship, PO Box 2111, Alice Springs, NT 0871,...