Ecosystems change on a multitude of spatial and temporal scales. While analyses of ecosystem dynamics in short timespans have received much attention, the impacts of changes in the long term have, to a great extent, been neglected, provoking a lack of information and methodological know-how in this area. Long-Term Ecological Research: Between Theory and Application fills this gap by focusing on studies dealing with the investigation of complex, long-term ecological processes with regard to global change, the development of early warning systems, and the acquisition of a scientific basis for strategic conservation management and the sustainable use of ecosystems.
Within Long-Term Ecological Research: Between Theory and Application, theoretical ecological questions of long-term processes, as well as an international dimension of long-term monitoring, observations and research are brought together. The outcome is an overview on different aspects of long-term ecological research. Aquatic, as well as terrestrial ecosystems are represented.
List of Contributors
Preface
Part I: Introduction
- Long-Term Ecosystem Research between Theory and Application – An Introduction
Part II: The Significance of Ecological Long-Term Processes
- Theoretical demands for Long-term ecosystem dynamics: Theoretical concepts of environmental changes for long-term ecological research and the management of long-term datasets
- The scientific potentials of environmental monitoring
Part III: Exploring Long-Term Processes: International Experience
- Twenty-eight years of the US-LTER Program: Experience, results, and research questions
- Introducing the next generation of ecosystem research in Europe: LTER
- Europe’s multifunctional and multiscale approach
- The role of ecosystem modelling for long-term ecological research
- The role of statistics for long-term ecological research
- The role of remote sensing in LTER projects
Part IV: Concepts and Results: Presenting and Interpreting Long-Term Ecological Processes
Section IV-1 Aquatic Ecosystem Research
- Long-term ecological change in the Northern Wadden Sea
- Long-term model simulation of environmental conditions to identify externally forced signals in biological time series
- Long-term investigations in brackish ecosystems
- Long- term ecological research in freshwater ecosystems
- Long-term monitoring in rivers of south Germany since the 1970s – macrophytes as indicators for the assessment of water quality and its implication for the conservation of rivers
- Section IV-2 Terrestrial Ecosystem Research
- Long-term observations of soil mesofauna
- Tracing biogeochemical processes in small catchments using non-linear methods
- Long- term measurements to quantify the impact of arable management practices on deep seepage and nitrate leaching
- Long-term ecosystem research in a beech forest of Northern Germany
- A conceptual framework for integrated functional landscape monitoring in the wider countryside of Central Europe
- Temporal changes and spatial determinants of plant speciesdiversity and genetic variation
- Integration of long-term environmental data by the example of the UNECE heavy metals in mosses survey in Germany: Application of a WebGIS-based metadata system
Section IV-3 Linking Research and Applications
- Monitoring of ecosystems: Two different approaches – long-term observation versus success control
- National Parks as model regions for inderdisciplinary long term ecological research: The Bavarian Forest and Šumavá National Parks underway to transboundary ecosystem research
- Turning long-term monitoring into policy – using the National park Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea as an example
- Design and importance of multi-tiered ecological monitoring networks
Part V: Future Demands and Challenges
- Conceptualising Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER): Integrating the social dimension
- Integrating social sciences into long-term ecological research
- Ecosystem manipulation and restoration on the basis of long-term conceptions
- Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research
Part VI: Conclusions
- On the Way to an Integrative Long-Term Ecosystem Research – Milestones, Challenges and some Conclusions
Index
"Each of the 30 chapters (written by 104 authors) deals with the conceptual issue of long-term research [...] . The book can serve as a source of arguments and ideas for grant proposals of those who are preparing any monitoring, as even short-term monitoring might be repeated in future and become long-term. The book is an excellent source of flow charts incorporating different scales, ecosystems subjects methods, etc [...] ."
- Jitka Klimešová, Folia Geobot., Vol. 47, 2012
" [...] entsprechende Konzepte, Daten und Methoden zur Verfugung zu stellen. [...] einem Ausblick auf zukunftige Herausforderungen [...] Fur Forscher bietet das Buch einen umfassenden; vertieften Auberblick uber die verschiedenen Aspekte [...] insbesondere fur die jenigen interessant, die sich mit dem Fachgebiet als Ganzem intensiv auseinandersetzen [...] durchgehend auf Englisch verfasst, Zusammenfassende Abstracts und ein abschliessender Ausblick gehoren ebenso zum Standard wie ausfuhrliche Literaturangaben. Grafiken und Abbildungen sind teilweise mehrfarbig gehalten [...] der ein Vorbild fur andere Sammelbande sein konnte – runden den Band ab."
- Geookel Daniel Klein, in: Forum der Geookologie, 2010, Vol. 21, Issue 3, S. 62 f.