Plant Disturbance Ecology: The Process and the Response

The media coverage of natural disasters (hurricanes, fires, floods, ice storms, etc.) indicates the prevalence of natural disasters in most, if not all, ecosystems. In order for scientists to study, understand, and ultimately predict how these disturbances affect ecosystems, it is necessary for them to know more about the physical processes involved in these disturbances and to learn how to couple these processes to the ecological systems. Essential for all ecologists, forest researchers, and conservation biologists, this book includes chapters on the disturbance processes, how the disturbance causes necrosis or death to individuals, and their effects on population or community processes. In Plant Disturbance Ecology, physical scientists who study disturbances provide an introduction to the physical disturbance processes, while ecologists relate this information to the way the vegetation responds to the disturbances. This reference is also key for all researchers hydrology, geomorphology, and environmental management.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Disturbance and Succession Wind Processes The turbulent wind in plant and forest canopies; Microbursts and macrobursts: windstorms and blowdowns; Understanding how the interaction of wind and trees results in windthrow, stem breakage and canopy gap formation. Gravity Processes Meteorological conditions associated with ice storm damage to forests; The effect of icing events on the death and regeneration of North American trees Geomorphic Processes Disturbance processes and dynamics in coastal dunes; Coastal dune succession and the reality of dune processes; Fluvial geomorphic disturbances and life history traits of riparian tree species Hydrologic Processes Water level changes in ponds and lakes: the hydrological processes; Vegetation dynamics due to fluctuating water levels in prairie wetlands Combustion Processes Modeling heating effects; Fire effects on grass populations; Wildfire as a distributed tree population process Biotic Processes Insect defoliators as periodic disturbances in northern forest ecosystems; Modelling disturbance and recovery of lodgepole forest due to mountain pine beetle outbreaks on landscape scales; Relationship between spruce budworm outbreaks and forest dynamics in eastern North America; Impact of beaver foraging on structure of boreal forests; Beaver, willow shrubs and floods

About the Author :
Edward A. Johnson is a Professor of Biological Sciences Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Calgary, Canada and up until June 2018, he was also the Director of the Biogeoscience Institute. His research interests are wildfires, avalanches, hillslope and fluvial geomorphic processes, climate, landuse, and other processes as they affect tree populations. He is particularly interested in the explicit coupling of the physical processes to ecological processes. He has over 114 publications and 4,693 total citations. Kiyoko Miyanishi is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Guelph, having retired in 2005. She has edited 2 books, written 11 book chapters and has over 30 publications and 1,200 citations.

Review :
"The process by which vegetation changes over time has fascinated plant ecologists for at least a century. Early theories emphasized slow, steady change to a hypothetical stable "climax" community. By the 1970s, ecologists began to realize that disturbance was the rule, not the exception, and a rather radical shift in thinking about vegetation took hold. This multidisciplinary compendium seeks to move what might be called disturbance science beyond descriptive approaches to look at how particular physical disturbances actually cause particular ecological effects. The many authors cover, e.g., the specifics of how forces like wind (turbulence, microbursts, etc.) can physically cause stem breakage in trees. Other modes of disturbance treated here include ice storm damage to forests and trees; dynamic processes that affect coastal dunes; fluvial processes related to riparian tree growth; the effects of water-level changes in ponds and lakes; heating effects on vegetation; fire's effects on grasslands and trees; a variety of insect impacts on different systems; and the impact of beavers on woody vegetation. The level of technical detail in the chapters varies greatly, and a few rely heavily on mathematical formulas. Other chapters are essentially literature reviews. Plant ecologists with a process- or mechanistically oriented approach to understanding vegetation change will appreciate this book. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above." - CHOICE