Open Ecosystems

William Bond is an Emeritus Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town. He served as Chief Scientist for the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) from 2014 to 2018. He is an ecologist with broad interests in the processes most strongly influencing vegetation change in the past and present, including fire, vertebrate herbivory, atmospheric CO2, and climate change. In addition, Professor Bond has worked on plant-animal mutualisms and on plant form and function. Particular research interests include grasslands and savannas, and winter-rainfall shrublands. He has served on the Boards of the South African National Botanical Institute and of Cape Nature and on the editorial boards of several journals. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and co-authored three books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and was made a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2013.

Open Ecosystems was a fascinating read, packed with authoritative evidence, personal observations and experimental support across the globe. The content makes out, and often challenges, a solid body of past and novel ecological hypotheses, presented in a rather coherent manner. The ultimate strength of this book is that it clearly defines research gaps and provides important guidelines for future research aimed at an improved understanding of OEs.

• 1: Introduction to open ecosystems: a global anomaly and a local example 2: The pattern of open ecosystems and the climates in which they occur 3: Uncertain ecosystems: the conceptual framework 4: The nature of open ecosystems 5: The origins of closed and open ecosystems: Fossils and phylogenies 6: Soils and open ecosystems 7: Fire and open ecosystems 8: Vertebrate herbivory and open ecosystems 9: The future of open ecosystems