An Integrative Approach to Successional Dynamics

Much of what is considered conventional wisdom about succession is not as clear cut as it is generally believed. Yet the importance of succession in ecology is undisputed since it offers a real insight into the dynamics and structure of all plant communities. Part monograph and part conceptual treatise An Integrative Approach to Successional Dynamics presents a unifying conceptual framework for dynamic plant communities and uses a unique long-term data set to explore the utility of that framework. The fourteen chapters each written in a nontechnical style and accompanied by numerous illustrations and examples cover diverse aspects of succession including community population and disturbance dynamics diversity community assembly heterogeneity functional ecology and biological invasion. This unique text will be a great source of reference for researchers and graduate students in ecology and plant biology as well as others with an interest in the subject.