The biology of disturbed habitats / Lawrence R. Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Lawrence R.

Series:

Biology of habitats

The biology of habits series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecological disturbances.

Nature--Effect of human beings on.

Nature.

Physical Description:

xiii, 319 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2012]

Summary:

This book provides the first global synthesis of the biology of disturbed habitats and offers readers both the conceptual underpinnings and practical advice required to comprehend and address the unprecedented environmental challenges facing humans. Every habitat on earth has been impacted by natural disturbances such as volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, fires, floods, and droughts. Humans have contributed many additional disturbances such as mining, urbanization, forestry, agriculture, fishing, and recreation. These anthropogenic disturbances modify and often exacerbate the effects of the natural disturbances. Together, they result in the abrupt loss of biomass or ecosystem structure and function to create denuded surfaces where novel mixtures of native and non-native microbes, plants, and animals establish, grow, and die. The Biology of Disturbed Habitats examines both natural and anthropogenic disturbances in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. It explores how nutrients and productivity are altered in the disturbed habitats, the effects of disturbance on biodiversity, and the spatial and temporal dynamics of organisms that colonize disturbed habitats. This book also addresses how to manage disturbances through appropriate conservation and restoration measures, and discusses how climate change and overpopulation now represent the most challenging disturbances at a global scale.

The Biology of Disturbed Habitats offers a novel and highly readable introduction to disturbance ecology for any student or professional trying to make sense of the recent, high-profile earthquakes and tsunamis and the links between such natural forces and human activities. Ecologists, naturalists, land managers, environmental policy makers, and restoration professionals involved in disturbances and their environmental consequences will find this book a thorough, authoritative, and incisive summary.

Main image: Lava flowing into the ocean from the eruption of Kilauea Volcano on the Island of Hawaii. Inset: Plants growing from vegetative parts that survived the eruption of Kasatochi Volcano, Alaska. Photographs by Lawrence R. Walker. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Terrestrial habitats

Aquatic habitats

Anthropogenic habitats

Ecosystem processes

Biodiversity and invasive species

Spatial patterns

Temporal dynamics

Management

Global concerns and future scenarios.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0199575304

9780199575305

9780199575299

0199575290

OCLC:

748331361

Publisher Number:

99947807528