Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: a crescendo of destruction
- 2 Natural disturbances: synergistic interactions with humans
- 3 Infertile and unstable habitats
- 4 Infertile and stable habitats
- 5 Fertile and unstable habitats
- 6 Fertile and stable habitats
- 7 The lessons learned
- Glossary
- Illustration credits
- Index
- Plate section
- References
6 - Fertile and stable habitats
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction: a crescendo of destruction
- 2 Natural disturbances: synergistic interactions with humans
- 3 Infertile and unstable habitats
- 4 Infertile and stable habitats
- 5 Fertile and unstable habitats
- 6 Fertile and stable habitats
- 7 The lessons learned
- Glossary
- Illustration credits
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Disturbances of fertile, stable habitats are often caused by natural events including fire, hurricanes, intense rainfall events and strong winds or by human activities that include intentionally set fires, agriculture, logging and grazing. Recovery following mild disturbances is normally rapid compared to intensely damaged sites because there is residual soil, vegetation and fauna and because the disturbance was not severe. However, wildfire, strong winds and human actions can lead to dramatic or subtle degradation of ecosystem properties on a site. When these more intense disturbances occur or chronic disturbances cease, the functioning of the system may have changed permanently and a return to productive ecosystems is not assured. The recovery then occurs in a new context, often quite different from that under which the ecosystem developed.
Today, many natural ecosystems across the world are in crisis. It is as if their immune systems have been compromised as combinations of natural and man-made disturbances become increasingly severe. How to manipulate the aftermath of these disturbances without loss of fertility or stability are lessons that silviculture and agriculture can learn from natural processes. Given that world agricultural production contributes about three quarters of global soil erosion, those lessons appear not yet to have been mastered.
How do ecosystems and humans respond to disturbances in stable habitats that cause relatively little loss of fertility?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Environmental Disasters, Natural Recovery and Human Responses , pp. 144 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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and (1980). The use of vital attributes to predict successional changes in plant-communities subject to recurrent disturbances. Vegetatio, 43, 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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and , eds. (1991). Impacts of Hurricane Hugo: September 10–22, 1989. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 8.
(2005). The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
(2000). Seedling and sapling dynamics in treefall pits in Puerto Rico. Biotropica, 32, 267–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1991). An introduction to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Biotropica, 23, 313–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, S. L. (1999). Disturbance by wind in temperate-zone forests. In Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground, Ecosystems of the World 16, ed. . Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 197–222.Google Scholar
Whigham, D. F., Dickinson, M. B. and Brokaw, N. V. L. (1999). Background canopy gap and catastrophic wind disturbances in tropical forests. In Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground, ed. . Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 223–52.Google Scholar
Zaman, M. W. (1999). Vulnerability, disaster, and survival in Bangladesh: three case studies. In The Angry Earth, eds. and . New York: Routledge, pp. 192–212.Google Scholar
, , and (1996). Introduction: disturbance and Caribbean ecosystems. Biotropica, 28, 414–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2004). Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2001). Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders. Ringwood, Victoria, Australia: Penguin Books Australia, Ltd.Google Scholar
(2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
, , , , and (2005). Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science, 309, 287–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2005). Which mosaic? A landscape ecological approach for evaluating interactions between fire regimes, habitat and animals. Wildlife Research, 32, 409–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2001). The Nature of Mediterranean Europe: An Ecological History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
, and (2005). Determinants of post-fire recovery and succession in Mediterranean-climate shrublands of California. Ecological Applications, 15, 1515–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1980). The use of vital attributes to predict successional changes in plant-communities subject to recurrent disturbances. Vegetatio, 43, 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2003). Surprises and lessons from the 1988 Yellowstone fires. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 1, 351–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1991). Summary of the effects of Caribbean hurricanes on vegetation. Biotropica, 23, 442–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , eds. (1991). Impacts of Hurricane Hugo: September 10–22, 1989. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 8.
(2005). The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
(2000). Seedling and sapling dynamics in treefall pits in Puerto Rico. Biotropica, 32, 267–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1991). An introduction to hurricanes in the Caribbean. Biotropica, 23, 313–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, S. L. (1999). Disturbance by wind in temperate-zone forests. In Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground, Ecosystems of the World 16, ed. . Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 197–222.Google Scholar
Whigham, D. F., Dickinson, M. B. and Brokaw, N. V. L. (1999). Background canopy gap and catastrophic wind disturbances in tropical forests. In Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground, ed. . Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 223–52.Google Scholar
Zaman, M. W. (1999). Vulnerability, disaster, and survival in Bangladesh: three case studies. In The Angry Earth, eds. and . New York: Routledge, pp. 192–212.Google Scholar
, , and (1996). Introduction: disturbance and Caribbean ecosystems. Biotropica, 28, 414–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2004). Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2001). Feral Future: The Untold Story of Australia's Exotic Invaders. Ringwood, Victoria, Australia: Penguin Books Australia, Ltd.Google Scholar
(2005). 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
, , , , and (2005). Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science, 309, 287–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar