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Author: P. de V. Booysen Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 3642698050 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 431
Book Description
This is a stimulating tale of the interplay of observation, experimentation, working hypotheses, tentative conclusions, niggling and weightier doubts and great aspirations, on the part of some score of students, on varied ecological and other aspects of the regime and role of fire in relevant biomes and ecosystem- mainly in South Africa - and on other pertinent features of fire ecology. The impressive contents is a tribute to conveners and authors alike. One can expect a profound range and depth ofinvestigation and interpretation, a closeknit fabric of knowledge, delicately interwoven with wisdom, an exposition and quintessence of information. Admipable is the collective vision responsible for selecting appropriate topics: the wide sweeps of the brush picturing the nature of the biomes; ably describing the fire regimes - whether in grassland, savanna, fynbos or forest; skillfully defining the effects of such regimes - according to ecosystem - upon aerial and edaphic factors of the habitat, upon constituent biota, individually, specifically and as a biotic community; elucidating the basic implications in the structure and dynamics of the plant aspect of that community ... and unravelling to some degree the tangled knot of the conservation and dissipation of moisture and nutrients. Moreover, gratitude is owed for efforts exerted to understand the interplay of fire and faunal behaviour and dynamics as well as composition, together with the principle of adaptive responses of organisms of diverse kinds.
Author: P. de V. Booysen Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 3642698050 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 431
Book Description
This is a stimulating tale of the interplay of observation, experimentation, working hypotheses, tentative conclusions, niggling and weightier doubts and great aspirations, on the part of some score of students, on varied ecological and other aspects of the regime and role of fire in relevant biomes and ecosystem- mainly in South Africa - and on other pertinent features of fire ecology. The impressive contents is a tribute to conveners and authors alike. One can expect a profound range and depth ofinvestigation and interpretation, a closeknit fabric of knowledge, delicately interwoven with wisdom, an exposition and quintessence of information. Admipable is the collective vision responsible for selecting appropriate topics: the wide sweeps of the brush picturing the nature of the biomes; ably describing the fire regimes - whether in grassland, savanna, fynbos or forest; skillfully defining the effects of such regimes - according to ecosystem - upon aerial and edaphic factors of the habitat, upon constituent biota, individually, specifically and as a biotic community; elucidating the basic implications in the structure and dynamics of the plant aspect of that community ... and unravelling to some degree the tangled knot of the conservation and dissipation of moisture and nutrients. Moreover, gratitude is owed for efforts exerted to understand the interplay of fire and faunal behaviour and dynamics as well as composition, together with the principle of adaptive responses of organisms of diverse kinds.
Author: P. de V. Booysen Publisher: Springer ISBN: Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 452
Book Description
The ecological effects of fire in Southern Africa is designed to consolidate the knowledge accumulated to date on the effects of fire in the different biomes of the sub-continent, and to define its potential role in the management of each of these biomes. It examines the historical use of fire, revieuws the research which has been undertaken in each of the biomes in which it plays an ecological role, and outlines its influence on the structure and dynamics of the flora and fauna in each of the biomes. Finally, the role of fire as a management tool is discussed in relation to its known effects and in accordance with the different objectives of land management in different ecological areas.
Author: Devan Allen McGranahan Publisher: CRC Press ISBN: 0429944934 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 540
Book Description
Ecology of Fire-Dependent Ecosystems is brimming with intriguing ecological stories of how life has evolved with and diversified within the varied fire regimes that are experienced on earth. Moreover, the book places itself as a communication between students, fire scientists, and fire fighters, and each of these groups will find some familiar ground, and some challenging aspects in this text: something which ultimately will help to bring us closer together and enrich our different approaches to understanding and managing our changing planet. -- Sally Archibald, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Most textbooks are as dry as kindling and about as much fun to sink your teeth into. This is not that kind of textbook. Devan Allen McGranahan and Carissa L. Wonkka have taken a complex topic and somehow managed to synthesize it into a comprehensive, yet digestible form. This is a book you can read cover to cover – I know, I did it. As a result, I took an enlightening journey through the history and fundamentals of fire and its role in the natural and human world, ending with a thoughtful review of the evolving relationship between humans and wildland fire. -- Chris Helzer, Nebraska Director of Science, The Nature Conservancy, and author of The Prairie Ecologist blog Ecology of Fire-Dependent Ecosystems: Wildland Fire Science, Policy, and Management is intended for use in upper-level courses in fire ecology and wildland fire management and as a reference for researchers, managers, and other professionals involved with wildland fire science, practice, and policy. The book helps guide students and scientists to design and conduct robust wildland fire research projects and critically interpret and apply fire science in any management, education, or policy situation. It emphasizes variability in wildland fire as an ecological regime and provides tools for students, researchers, and managers to assess and connect fire environment and fire behaviour to fire effects. Fire has not only shaped social and ecological communities but pushed ecosystems beyond previous boundaries, yet understanding the nature and effects of fire as an ecological disturbance has been slow, hampered by the complexity of the dynamic interactions between vegetation and climate and the fear of the destruction fire can bring. This book will help those who study, manage, and use wildland fire to develop new answers and novel solutions, based on an understanding of how fire functions in natural and social environments. It reviews literature, synthesizes concepts, and identifies research gaps and policy needs. The text also explores the interaction of fire and human culture, demonstrating how fire policy can be made adaptable to cultural and socio-ecological objectives.
Author: Johann Georg Goldammer Publisher: African Minds ISBN: 191983365X Category : Fire ecology Languages : en Pages : 446
Book Description
Africa is a fire continent. Since the early evolution of humanity, fire has been harnessed as a land-use tool. Many ecosystems of Sub-Sahara Africa that have been shaped by fire over millennia provide a high carrying capacity for human populations.
Author: Mark Cochrane Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 3540773819 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 696
Book Description
The tropics are home to most of the world’s biodiversity and are currently the frontier for human settlement. Tropical ecosystems are being converted to agricultural and other land uses at unprecedented rates. Land conversion and maintenance almost always rely on fire and, because of this, fire is now more prevalent in the tropics than anywhere else on Earth. Despite pervasive fire, human settlement and threatened biodiversity, there is little comprehensive information available on fire and its effects in tropical ecosystems. Tropical deforestation, especially in rainforests, has been widely documented for many years. Forests are cut down and allowed to dry before being burned to remove biomass and release nutrients to grow crops. However, fires do not always stop at the borders of cleared forests. Tremendously damaging fires are increasingly spreading into forests that were never evolutionarily prepared for wild fires. The largest fires on the planet in recent decades have occurred in tropical forests and burned millions of hectares in several countries. The numerous ecosystems of the tropics have differing levels of fire resistance, resilience or dependence. At present, there is little appreciation of the seriousness of the wild fire situation in tropical rainforests but there is even less understanding of the role that fire plays in the ecology of many fire adapted tropical ecosystems, such as savannas, grasslands and other forest types.
Author: Nicky Allsopp Publisher: ISBN: 0199679584 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 413
Book Description
South Africa's fynbos region has intrigued biologists for centuries. It has achieved iconic status as a locus of megadiversity and therefore a place to study the ecological underpinnings of massive evolutionary radiations. Researchers have made great advances over the past two decades in unravelling the complexities of fynbos ecology and evolution, and the region has contributed significant insights into the adaptive radiations of large lineages, conservation science, pollination biology, invasive plant biology, and palaeoanthropology. Lessons from the fynbos offer much of value for understanding the origin, maintenance, and conservation of diversity anywhere in the world. This book provides the first synthesis of the field for 20 years, bringing together the latest ecological and evolutionary research on the South African global biodiversity hotspots of the Greater Cape Floristic Region - the iconic fynbos and succulent karoo. It explores the historical and modern physical and biological environment of this region, the circumstances and processes which have fostered its remarkable biodiversity, and the role this diversity has played in the emergence of modern humans. It also discusses the challenges of contemporary management and conservation of the region's biodiversity in the face of accelerating global change.
Author: Jon E. Keeley Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521824915 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 523
Book Description
Explores the role of fire in Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems, providing unique insights into the assembly and evolutionary convergence of ecosystems.
Author: F.J. Kruger Publisher: Springer ISBN: 9783642689376 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
The theory of ecological convergence underlies the biogeographers' maps of world biome-types. It also determines the degree to which ecological principles, derived from research on particular populations, communities or ecosystems, are generally valid, and hence also to what extent resource management principles are general. To quote Di Castri and Mooney (1973): "In effect, in order to assess the transfer of technology, it is essential to know to what extent information acquired from studying one particular ecosystem is applicable to another ecosystem of the same type but situated in a different location. " The five relatively small, isolated, mediterranean-climate zones of the earth, each with its distinct fauna and flora, have provided the ideal testing grounds for this theory. A heritage of precisely focused ecosystems research has resulted, beginning with the international comparative analyses conducted by Specht (l969a, b) but with antecedents in earlier studies in South Australia (Specht and Rayson 1957, Specht 1973). Cody and Mooney (1978) reviewed the information available at the time for the four zones excepting Australia and concluded that the arrays of strategy-types to be found among the different biotas were so similar that they could be explained only in terms of the convergence hypothesis; nevertheless, evident differences in community organization and dynamics, especially phenol ogy, required closer study of resource availability and resource-use patterns to better explain relations between form and function overall, and to assess the degree of convergence at higher levels of organization than the population.
Author: Richard Primack Publisher: Open Book Publishers ISBN: 1783747536 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 712
Book Description
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region. Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
Author: P. de V. Booysen
Author: P. de V. Booysen
Author: B. J. Huntley
Author: P. de V. Booysen
Author: Devan Allen McGranahan
Author: Johann Georg Goldammer
Author: Mark Cochrane
Author: Nicky Allsopp
Author: Jon E. Keeley
Author: F.J. Kruger
Author: Richard Primack