The minimum critical size of ecosystems; Woodlots as biogeographic islands in southeastern wisconsin; The groundlayer vegetation of forest islands in an urban-suburban matrix; Mammals in forest islands in southeastern wisconsin; The importance of edge in the structure and dynamics of forest islands; biogeography of forest plants in the prairie-forest ecotone of western.

Mediterranean islands exhibit many similarities in their biotic ecological, physical and environmental characteristics. There are also many differences in terms of their human colonization and current anthropogenic pressures. This book addresses in three sections these characteristics and examines the major environmental changes that the islands experienced during the Quaternary period. The first section provides details on natural and cultural factors which have shaped island landscapes. It describes the environmental and cultural changes of the Holocene and their effects on biota, as well as on the current human pressures that are now threats to the sustainability of the island communities. The second section focuses on the landscapes of the largest islands namely Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Cyprus, Crete, Malta and the Balearics. Each island chapter includes a special topic reflecting a particular characteristic of the island. Part three presents strategies for action towards sustainability in Mediterranean islands and concludes with a comparison between the largest islands. Despite several published books on Mediterranean ecosystems/landscapes there is no existing book dealing with Mediterranean islands in a collective manner. Students, researchers and university lecturers in environmental science, geography, biology and ecology will find this work invaluable as a cross-disciplinary text while planners and politicians will welcome the succinct summaries as background material to planning decisions.

As scientific understanding about ecological processes has grown, the idea that ecosystem dynamics are complex, nonlinear, and often unpredictable has gained prominence. Of particular importance is the idea that rather than following an inevitable progression toward an ultimate endpoint, some ecosystems may occur in a number of states depending on past and present ecological conditions. The emerging idea of “restoration thresholds” also enables scientists to recognize when ecological systems are likely to recover on their own and when active restoration efforts are needed. Conceptual models based on alternative stable states and restoration thresholds can help inform restoration efforts. New Models for Ecosystem Dynamics and Restoration brings together leading experts from around the world to explore how conceptual models of ecosystem dynamics can be applied to the recovery of degraded systems and how recent advances in our understanding of ecosystem and landscape dynamics can be translated into conceptual and practical frameworks for restoration. In the first part of the book, background chapters present and discuss the basic concepts and models and explore the implications of new scientific research on restoration practice. The second part considers the dynamics and restoration of different ecosystems, ranging from arid lands to grasslands, woodlands, and savannahs, to forests and wetlands, to production landscapes. A summary chapter by the editors discusses the implications of theory and practice of the ideas described in preceding chapters. New Models for Ecosystem Dynamics and Restoration aims to widen the scope and increase the application of threshold models by critiquing their application in a wide range of ecosystem types. It will also help scientists and restorationists correctly diagnose ecosystem damage, identify restoration thresholds, and develop corrective methodologies that can overcome such thresholds.

Island Landscapes takes a critical look at the evolution of European islandscapes and seascapes to examine the conditions facing them in the twenty first century. Considering island landscapes as an expression of European culture, this book envisages future trends and presents clearly the need to find a balance between preservation and development to ensure sustainability. Both large and small islands are illustrated in the book including the British Isles, Malta and Cyprus as well as archipelagos in Norway, Italy and Greece. Their unique identities and values reveal the remarkable breadth of cultural heritage possessed by these diverse European islands. An interdisciplinary approach is applied to the history, perception, characterisation and planning of islandscape and seascape in Europe, to support culturally-oriented strategies for these fragile landscapes.

"Two whole lake experiments are describes : experimental acidification at Little Rock Lake and the response of Lake Mendota to a natural experiment involving agricultural and urban development. Readers will learn the benefits of doing long-term ecological research, and limnologists will discover the richness of new information derived from studying suites of neighboring lakes across time."--BOOK JACKET.

Landscapes are forged by many forces and are dynamic, not static. Yet most landscape designs are designed as static; that is, they are designed not to change substantially for 20-50 years. As cities become the dominant living space for humans, allowing non-human forces to contribute to our designs as landscape architects will make for more resilient landscapes and a healthier planet. Making these dynamic landscapes with our non-human partners will require a new landscape esthetic, changing the public perception of "landscape," and changing maintenance practices. Dynamic Geographies seeks to address these perceptions with a series of our projects as examples--one for every of our 20 years in business. The book is divided into three segments of overlapping geographies: visible geographies, layered geographies, and unleashing geographies.

This book provides an overview of the ecological indicators of landscape dynamics in the context of geographical landscape integration. Landscape dynamics depicts every change that occurs in the physical, biological, and cognitive assets of a landscape. To understand and interpret the complex physical, biological, and cognitive phenomena of landscapes, it is necessary to operate conceptually and practically on a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Rapid land use changes have become a concern to environmentalists and planners because of their impacts on the natural ecosystem, which further determines socioeconomic dynamics. In this regard, the book discusses case studies that share new insights into how landscape patterns and processes impact small creatures, and how small creatures in turn influence landscape structure and composition. In turn, the relevant aspects of land use and land cover dynamics are covered, and the multi-faceted relationship between the substrata and ecological community is highlighted. The book is unique in its focus on the application of spatial informatics such as automatic building extraction from high-resolution imagery; a soil resource inventory for meeting the challenges of land degradation; hydrological modeling; the temporal variation analysis of glacier area and the identification and mapping of glacial lakes; morphometric analysis of river basins; and the monitoring and modeling of urban sprawl, among other features.