Ecosystem Dynamics From the Past to the Future

About this book

Ecosystem Dynamics focuses on long-term terrestrial ecosystems and their changing relationships with human societies. The unique aspect of this text is the long-time scale under consideration as data and insights from the last 10 000 years are used to place present-day ecosystem status into a temporal perspective and to test models that generate forecasts of future conditions. Descriptions and assessments of some of the current modelling tools that are used, along with their uncertainties and assumptions, are an important feature of Ecosystem Dynamics. An overarching theme explores the dynamic interactions between human societies and ecosystem functioning and services. Ecosystem Dynamics is authoritative but accessible and provides a useful background for all students, practioners, and researchers interested in the subject.

Contents

Acknowledgements ix
About the companion website xi

1 Where Are We and How Did We Arrive Here? 1
2 Modelling 15
3 Data 49
4 Climate Change and Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics: A Complex Relationship 73
5 The Role of Episodic Events in Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics: Where the Wild Strawberries Grow 109
6 The Impact of Past and Future Human Exploitation on Terrestrial Ecosystem Dynamics 141
7 Millennial Ecosystem Dynamics and Their Relationship to Ecosystem Services: Past and Future 173
8 Cultural Ecosystem Services 211
9 Conservation 225
10 Where Are We Headed? 259

References 271
Glossary 297
Index 311

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