This comprehensive handbook provides a unique resource covering all aspects of forest ecology from a global perspective. It covers both natural and managed forests, from boreal, temperate, sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world. The book is divided into seven parts, addressing the following themes:
- forest types
- forest dynamics
- forest flora and fauna
- energy and nutrients
- forest conservation and management
- forests and climate change
- human impacts on forest ecology.
While each chapter can stand alone as a suitable resource for a lecture or seminar, the complete book provides an essential reference text for a wide range of students of ecology, environmental science, forestry, geography and natural resource management. Contributors include leading authorities from all parts of the world.
This comprehensive handbook provides a unique resource and essential reference text covering all aspects of forest ecology from a global perspective, with contributions from leading authorities covering both natural and managed forests from all regions and climates of the world.
"...the Routledge Handbook is an accomplished book and was a great pleasure to read. Its greatest strength is its modernity and the way in which disparate topics are linked through common themes of climate change and disturbance, which is then concluded very succinctly in the final three sections. This binds all the chapters together and provides continuity throughout such a large subject as forest ecology. In all it was difficult to find fault with the book, and ultimately I can highly recommend it to students, postgraduates, teachers and researchers alike. I imagine it could become a standard text for students in this field, and I will certainly be using it as a reference text for topics I am less well versed in." - Michael J.W. Boyle, Imperial College London, UK, in International Forestry Review (2016).
"This is a weighty tome in every sense. It aims to provide a 'state of the art summary of our current knowledge of forest ecology' from a variety of perspectives, production, conservation recreation, and across a wide range of forest biomes with over 80 contributors... I think it succeeds surprisingly well, given the spread of its subject matter. It does provide a framework for understanding the different topics covered by the chapters, that you cannot get just from running a search for papers in Google Scholar or Web of Science." - Keith Kirby, in Bulletin of the British Ecological Society (October 2016)."Forests have a multitude of resources (timber, non-timber plants, wildlife, water retention/erosion control, carbon sequestration, amelioration of climate, recreation, and inspiration); yet, at times, these may be incompatible. The key goals of this book are to help the reader gain the ability to understand forest ecology and a wider awareness of many forest values. The work offers detailed sections on forest biomes, forest dynamics, flora and fauna, forest biodiversity, energy and nutrient cycling, conservation and management, forests and climate change, and human interaction in forests (including agriculture, indigenous knowledge, recreation, hunting, and urban forests). Overall, the 44 chapters, written by 86 scholars, provide reliable information on forest ecological requirements, as well as on management needs. In the introduction, the editors write, "This handbook aims to act as a state-of-the-art summary of our current knowledge of forest ecology." As such, it succeeds. This title will be of interest to laypersons as an introduction to forest ecology. For the graduate student, it provides extensive coverage of current research and excellent bibliographies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students." - C. G. Heister, Yale University, in CHOICE (November 2016)
