Primary Succession and Ecosystem Rehabilitation

This volume provides the first comprehensive summary of how plant animal and microbial communities develop under the harsh conditions following dramatic natural disturbances. The authors examine the basic principles that determine ecosystem development and apply the general rules to the urgent practical need for promoting the reclamation of damaged lands. Written for ecologists concerned with disturbance landscape dynamics restoration life histories invasions modeling soil formation and community or population dynamics this book also serves as an authoritative text for graduate students and as a valuable reference for professionals involved in land management.