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Protected Land

Disturbance, Stress, and American Ecosystem Management

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Authors:
  1. Douglas J. Spieles

    1. Denison University, Granville, USA

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  • Translation of concept into management practice
  • Different perspectives and views are used to evaluate the debate of ecosystems' nature
  • Very relevant to the current environmental agenda
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Environmental Management (SSEM)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Ecosystems in Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15
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  3. Four Ecosystems, Four Questions

    1. Four Ecosystems, Four Questions

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 1-13

  4. Ecosystems in Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15
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    2. The Ecosystem Idea and Ideal

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 17-35

    3. A Thing is Right

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 37-53

    4. Disturbance, Stress and Resilience

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 55-69

    5. Invasion

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 71-84

  5. Ecosystems in Practice

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 85-85
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    2. Very Small Ecosystems

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 87-97

    3. Forested Ecosystems

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 99-113

    4. Grassland Ecosystems

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 115-127

    5. Freshwater Ecosystems

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 129-142

    6. Saltwater Ecosystems

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 143-154

    7. Protecting the Shifting Quilt

      • Douglas J. Spieles
      Pages 155-162

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 163-164
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Keywords

About this book

By many measures, Earth’s ecosystems are stressed. Actually, it may be more accurate to say that Earth’s remaining ecosystems are stressed. The fact is that most of the planet’s biomes support only a fraction of the biological communities they once did, primarily because humans have converted large areas of land to alternate uses. More than two-thirds of the global temperate forests, half of the grasslands, even a third of desert ecosystems have been conscripted for human uses like agriculture, construction, harvest and extraction. Cultivation alone covers a quarter of the habitable terrestrial surface. Aquatic ecosystems have not fared any better. An estimated half of the world’s wetlands are gone, particularly those of coastal regions or on arable land. About a fifth of the coral reefs and a third of the m- grove swamps of a century ago have been lost in just the last few decades. The volume of water impounded by dams quadrupled over the same period – it now far exceeds the volume of water in unimpeded rivers (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Mitsch and Gosselink 2007). So any assessment of ecosystem status is necessarily an analysis of fragments and remnants, and many of these are degraded by one or more anthropogenic stressors.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“This new volume may be slender, but brevity, coupled with clarity, is a virtue here. The book focuses on ‘ecological protection and management, in the face of our changing concept of the ecosystem.’ … The simple, lucid prose sustains the reader, making complexity easy to grasp. This book is slated to become a must read for students, conservation professionals, and citizen activists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.” (K. B. Sterling, Choice, Vol. 48 (8), April, 2011)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Denison University, Granville, USA

    Douglas J. Spieles

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