Long-Term Forest Dynamics of the Temperate Zone

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. The Nature of Long-Term Vegetational Change

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 1-28

3. Modern Pollen—Vegetation Relationships

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 29-61

4. Reconstructing Long-Term Forest Changes from Fossil-Pollen Data

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 62-84

5. Vegetation Map Patterns at the Biome Level

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 85-106

6. Tree Population Dynamics During the Past 20,000 Years

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 107-291

7. Late-Quaternary Migrational Strategies of Tree Species

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 292-330

8. The Role of Competition in Long-Term Forest Dynamics

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 331-343

9. Gradient Analysis, Ecotones, and Forest Communities

   • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

   Pages 344-362

10. Quaternary Landscape Ecology

    • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

    Pages 363-373

11. Long-Term Forest Dynamics of the Temperate Zone

    • Paul A. Delcourt, Hazel R. Delcourt

    Pages 374-398

12. Back Matter

    Pages 399-439

    PDF

The synthesis presented in this volume is a direct outgrowth of our ten-year FORMAP Project (Forest Mapping Across Eastern North America from 20,000 yr B.P. to the Present). Many previous research efforts in paleoecology have used plant-fossil evidence as proxy information for primarily geologic or climatic reconstructions or as a bio­ stratigraphic basis for correlation of regional events. In contrast, in this book, we deal with ecological questions that require a holistic perspective that integrates the interactions of biota with their dynamically changing environments over time scales up to tens of thousands of years. In the FORMAP Project, our major research objective has been to use late-Quaternary plant-ecological data sets to evaluate long-term patterns and processes in forest de­ velopment. In order to accomplish this objective, we have prepared subcontinent-scale calibrations that quantitatively relate the production and dispersal of arboreal pollen to dominance in the vegetation for the major tree types of eastern North America. Quantification of pollen-vegetation relationships provides a basis for developing quan­ titative plant-ecological data sets that allow further ecological analysis of both individual taxa and forest communities through time. Application of these calibrations to fossil­ pollen records for interpreting forest history thus represents a fundamental step beyond traditional summaries based upon pollen percentages.

• Polle
• climate
• development
• ecology
• ecotone
• environment
• evolution
• forest
• geomorphology
• landscape ecology
• population dynamics
• stability
• tree
• vegetation

• Program for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States Graduate Program in Ecology Department of Geological Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

  Paul A. Delcourt

• Program for Quaternary Studies of the Southeastern United States Graduate Program in Ecology Department of Botany, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA

  Hazel R. Delcourt

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