Bøger i Ecological Studies serien

Human-driven greenhouse emissions are increasing the velocity of climate change and the frequency and intensity of climate extremes far above historical levels. These changes, along with other human-perturbations, are setting the conditions for more rapid and abrupt ecosystem dynamics and collapse.This book presents new evidence on the rapid emergence of ecosystem collapse in response to the progression of anthropogenic climate change dynamics that are expected to intensify as the climate continues to warm. Discussing implications for biodiversity conservation, the chapters provide examples of such dynamics globally covering polar and boreal ecosystems, temperate and semi-arid ecosystems, as well as tropical and temperate coastal ecosystems.Given its scope, the volume appeals to scientists in the fields of general ecology, terrestrial and coastal ecology, climate change impacts, and biodiversity conservation.

1. Introduction.- The origin of the lake.- The naming of the Madison lakes.- Ownership of Lake Mendota.- The regional setting.- 2. Physical Limnology.- Morphometry and Hydrography.- General Features of the Lake.- Hypsometry of Lake Mendota.- Climate of the Lake Mendota area.- Water budget of the lake.- Thermal structure and heat budget.- Water movement.- Summary. The four seasons in Lake Mendota.- 3. Chemistry and nutrient loading.- Chemistry of the lake water.- Nutrient loading studies.- Sediment composition and chemistry.- Recent sediments in Lake Mendota.- Oxygen in Lake Mendota.- Nitrogen in Lake Mendota.- Phosphorus in Lake Mendota.- Iron and manganese.- Sulfate.- Chloride.- Silica.- Inorganic carbon in Lake Mendota.- Summary.- 4. Phytoplankton.- Methodology for studying phytoplankton populations in Lake Mendota.- Annual cycles of phytoplankton.- Mean depth of chlorophyll.- Surface/volume ratios of phytoplankton cells.- Diatom blooms in Lake Mendota.- Blue-green algae of Lake Mendota.- Buoyancy of the blue-green algae of Lake Mendota.- Where do the algae go?.- Summary.- 5. Phytoplankton photosynthesis and primary production.- Methods.- Calculating whole lake productivity from incubator data.- Photosynthesis/light (P/I) relationship.- Photosynthetic efficiency of Lake Mendota phytoplankton 125.- Primary production in Lake Mendota.- A model for Lake Mendota production.- 6. Zooplankton.- Methods for studying Lake Mendota Zooplankton.- Species composition.- Zooplankton abundance.- Biomass of Zooplankton.- Conclusions.- 7. Bacteria, carbon cycling, and biogeochemical processes.- Methods.- Bacterial biomass and production in the water column.- The impact of Zooplankton feeding on bacteria.- Importance of bacterial attachment to particles.- A model for bacterioplankton growth and disappearance.- Significance of algal excretory products for epilimnetic bacteria.- Bacterial processes in the anaerobic deep-water sediments.- Sulfate reduction in Lake Mendota.- Conclusion.- 8. Higher Trophic Levels.- Bottom fauna.- Fish.- Summary.- 9. Long-term Change in Lake Mendota.- Chemistry and nutrient loading.- Oxygen in Lake Mendota.- Secchi transparency.- Phytoplankton.- Zooplankton.- Bacteria.- Fish.- Conclusion.- 10. Energy flow in the Lake Mendota ecosystem.- Appendix 1. Physical and chemical data.- Appendix 2. Phytoplankton data.

This book covers the wider aspects of the microbiology of hot desert soil ecosystems, compiling disparate information from a range of relevant desert soil microbial fields.The reader learns about microbial ecology of the more dominant and possibly most important desert habitats, detailing the phylogenetic and functional diversity of these different habitats as well as their potential role in desert ecosystem ecology. Particular attention is also given to microbial stress adaptation in hot desert soils. Furthermore, it is the first volume in this particular field to cover modern metagenomics technologies that can be applied to studies of all aspects of desert microbial communities. Additionally, the book explores viruses and viral communities, which are among the least studied (and little understood) components of desert soil microbial communities. Particular attention is also given to the roles of desert microbial communities in biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Through this book the reader discovers how desert microbiology has been at the forefront of Astrobiology and how it may be used conceptually in future terraforming strategies. Desert ecosystems are increasingly coming into focus given the impacts of climate change and desertification trends, making this volume particularly timely. Each of the chapters is authored by leading international researchers and is a must-read for microbial ecologists. 

A discussion of the direct and indirect mechanisms by which fire and climate interact to influence carbon cycling in North American boreal forests. The first section summarizes the information needed to understand and manage fires' effects on the ecology of boreal forests and its influence on global climate change issues. Following chapters discuss in detail the role of fire in the ecology of boreal forests, present data sets on fire and the distribution of carbon, and treat the use of satellite imagery in monitoring these regions as well as approaches to modeling the relevant processes.

Climate change is one of the most severe dangers for mankind worldwide. Beside the temperature increase, the sea level will rise and flood wide coastal areas, which is already remarkable today. The effects will be dramatic, in particular, at coasts with low elevation gradients such as at the German coasts of the North and Baltic Sea. The impact will be not only severe for coastal people, but still more for the unique coastal ecosystems, which harbors many plant and animal species that are already endangered today.This book focuses on the coastal terrestrial ecosystems of the German North and Baltic Sea. It describes the reactions of plants and animals (i.e. spiders, carabid beetles, bees and nematodes) on the future temperature and sea level increase. The combination of field and experimental studies is unique for Europe and for many parts of the world. It not only studies the actual elevation gradients and the climatic and saline gradients fromWest to East, but also the historical changes to document processes at coastal ecosystems that were already passed. In contrast to many books that studied the marine processes with similar backgrounds, this book concerns the terrestrial coastal ecosystems that were overall rarely studied and, in particular, never studied under this specific viewpoint.

Theory and early empirical work posed that herbivore pressure should be lower on islands than on the mainland owing to lower herbivore abundance and diversity in insular systems. Consequently, plant taxa found on islands are expected to be less protected or even to have lost their defences completely. While early observational studies supported the prediction of lower herbivory and plant defences on islands, recent island-mainland comparisons have yielded mixed results, with some studies finding no differences between islands and mainlands or, surprisingly, higher herbivory and plant defences on islands. In this book, the authors aim to re-assess current theory and initiate a new generation of work on insularity effects on plant-herbivore interactions. This book aims to fill the research gaps by integrating the research that has been done to date and by compiling and summarising new research on insularity effects on plant-herbivore interactions. It provides a critical examinationof the patterns in light of classical theory and identifies potential mechanisms or underlying processes. It also aims to raise new questions that will form the basis for a revised and more robust research programme.