The Earth in Transition: Patterns and Processes of Biotic Impoverishment

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511529917

Life occurs, as far as we know, only as part of the earthly biosphere. Yet the earth's biotic resources are experiencing a spreading crisis that is leading not only to the most rapid loss of species in the last 65 million years, but also causing abrupt changes in the structure and function of natural communities. This disturbance, unfortunately, is the result of human carelessness in the name of advancing civilisation. As our technologies and societies continue to improve and grow, we remove ourselves more and more from our natural habitat; as a consequence, we destroy countless numbers of species of every style and complexity. To identify and begin rectifying this dangerous situation, a group of outstanding environmental scientists has compiled a collection of case studies that illustrate the changes being wrought on the biosphere by the human presence.

Review of the hardback:‘…this is an exceptionally competent book, the only one of its sort to achieve a systematized, also systemic, insight into the question of how far and how fast we are reducing the biotic diversity of the Earth.’

Source: Nature

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv
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Contents
pp v-viii
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Preface
pp ix-xi
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Acknowledgments
pp xii-xii
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List of Contributors
pp xiii-xiv
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Part I - Global Change and the Patterns of Impoverishment
pp 1-2
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1 - The Earth under Stress: A Transition to Climatic Instability Raises Questions about Patterns of Impoverishment
pp 3-8
- By George M. Woodwell
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2 - The Experimental Impoverishment of Natural Communities: Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Plant Communities, 1961 – 1976
pp 9-24
- By George M. Woodwell, Richard A. Houghton
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3 - Air Pollution and Temperate Forests: Creeping Degradation
pp 25-44
- By F. Herbert Bormann
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4 - The Long-Term Effects of Air Pollutants on Lichen Communities in Europe and North America
pp 45-64
- By D. L. Hawksworth
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5 - Biotic Impoverishment in Northern Peatlands
pp 65-98
- By Eville Gorham
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6 - Climatic Change and the Survival of Forest Species
pp 99-110
- By Margaret Bryan Davis
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7 - The Atmosphere and the Future of the Biosphere: Points of Interactive Disturbance
pp 111-130
- By Michael Oppenheimer
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Part II - Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Forests
pp 131-132
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8 - The Restoration of Nonsuch Island as a Living Museum of Bermuda's Precolonial Terrestrial Biome
pp 133-150
- By David B. Wingate
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9 - Patterns of Impoverishment in Natural Communities: Case History Studies in Forest Ecosystems – New Zealand
pp 151-176
- By A. F. Mark, G. D. McSweeney
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10 - Changes in the Eucalypt Forests of Australia as a Result of Human Disturbance
pp 177-198
- By R. L. Specht
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11 - Impoverishment in Pacific Island Forests
pp 199-210
- By Dieter Mueller-Dombois
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12 - Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia
pp 211-238
- By Philip M. Fearnside
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13 - Incentives for Sustainable Forest Management
pp 239-256
- By Robert Repetto
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Part III - Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Woodlands, Grasslands, and Tundra
pp 257-258
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14 - Changes in the Mediterranean Vegetation of Israel in Response to Human Habitation and Land Use
pp 259-300
- By Zev Naveh, Pua Kutiel
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15 - Bromus tectorum, a Biotic Cause of Ecosystem Impoverishment in the Great Basin
pp 301-322
- By W.D. Billings
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16 - Detecting Early Signs of Regional Air-Pollution Injury to Coastal Sage Scrub
pp 323-346
- By Walter E. Westman
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17 - Arctic Ecosystems: Patterns of Change in Response to Disturbance
pp 347-366
- By L.C. Bliss
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Part IV - Chronic Disturbance and Natural Ecosystems: Aquatic and Emergent Ecosystems
pp 367-368
- By A. Marine Systems
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18 - Changes in a Red Sea Coral Community Structure: A Long-Term Case History Study
pp 369-384
- By Y. Loya
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19 - Are Deep-Sea Communities Resilient?
pp 385-394
- By J. Frederick Grassle, Nancy J. Maciolek, James A. Blake
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20 - Species Dominance–Diversity Patterns in Oceanic Communities
pp 395-424
- By John A. McGowan
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21 - Natural and Anthropogenically Imposed Limitations to Biotic Richness in Fresh Waters
pp 425-462
- By David W. Schindler
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The Earth in Transition

Patterns and Processes of Biotic Impoverishment

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