Thomas T. Veblen - Böcker

Ecologists and biogeographers have been intrigued for a long time by the striking similarity of the vegetation and flora of southern temperate zone regions separated by large oceans. These scientists have been particularly interested in the occurrence in these regions of Nothofagus--southern beeches. This book, which focuses on the distribution, history, and ecology of the genus Nothofagus, provides a key to understanding the historical plant geography and modern vegetation patterns of the southern hemisphere.The book begins with a discussion of the long-term and broad-scale patterns of origin and differentiation in the genus. Next each major Nothofagus biome is discussed, first in a chapter that considers contemporary ecological patterns and then in a chapter that focuses on the history and paleoecology of the region. Authorities in the field deal with the temperate zone of the southwest Pacific region (New Zealand and Australia); the adjacent tropical zone of the southwest Pacific (New Guinea and New Caledonia); and South America, ranging from the Mediterranean-type climate region of central Chile to the subantarctic latitudes of Tierra del Fuego.

Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories.The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.