Table of Contents

1 The nature of vegetation and kinds of vegetation change.- Kinds of organisms comprising the vegetation.- Plant populations.- Properties of vegetation.- Vegetation classification and terminology.- The vegetation continuum.- Why study vegetation change?.- Observing vegetation change.- Styles of vegetation change.- 2 Plants and their abiotic environment.- The environmental complex.- Plant variables.- Productivity.- The role of physical and chemical variables.- Master factors.- Factor gradients.- Stress.- Disturbance.- Plants in their environment.- Changes in environments.- 3 Plants and their biotic environment.- Regeneration and plant populations.- Ecophysiological amplitude.- Differences between plant species.- Plant-neighbour relationships.- Plant senescence.- Ecological niches.- Conclusions.- 4 Vegetation development on volcanic ejecta.- Surtsey, Iceland.- Krakatau, Indonesia.- Mount Tarawera, New Zealand.- Mauna Loa and Kilauea, Hawaii, USA.- Some conclusions.- 5 Vegetation development on sand dunes.- The Indiana dunes, Lake Michigan, USA.- The Manawatu dunes, New Zealand.- Some Australian dunes.- Some conclusions.- 6 Vegetation development on glacial deposits.- Glacier Bay, Alaska, USA.- Glacier moraines in other localities in North America.- Direct colonization of moraines by trees.- Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand.- Suggestions about causes of the vegetation changes.- Some conclusions.- 7 Influences of strong environmental pressures.- Deserts of the warm temperate to subtropic zones.- Grasslands and drought.- Rock outcrops.- Temperate alpine regions.- Subpolar regions — the Arctic tundra.- Protected coasts and estuaries subject to tidal influences.- Other extreme soil conditions.- Grazing.- Fire.- Disturbances in confined areas.- Some conclusions.- 8 Patternsof vegetation change in wetlands.- Lakes.- Mires.- Water conditions.- Peat mire stratigraphy.- Some British and Scandinavian mires.- Mires in the southern Great Lakes region, North America.- Stratigraphic studies of British mires.- Indications of interruptions of mire sequential development.- ‘Phasic regeneration cycles’ in bogs.- Vegetation change processes in wetlands.- Some conclusions.- 9 Changes in some temperate forests after disturbance.- The mixed forests of eastern North America.- The different scales of disturbance.- Sprouts and regeneration.- Revegetation of abandoned farmland.- Actual records of population changes.- The development of old-growth forest stands.- Some conclusions.- 10 Changes in some tropical forests.- Forest structure and diversity.- Forest species structure.- Maintenance of the diversity of tree species in the vegetation.- Diversity, communities and mature forest.- 11 Processes of vegetation change.- Colonization of unvegetated areas.- Population changes of woody species on abandoned fields.- Sequences in other localities.- The causes of continued changes in woody plant populations.- Physiological ecology of juveniles.- Niches.- Maintenance of mature forest.- Influences of other biota.- Some community properties.- Some conclusions.- 12 Community phenomena in vegetation change.- Older theory on succession to climax.- The orthodox succession to climax theory.- Holism and determinism in succession theory.- Reductionism versus determinism.- Ecosystem nutrient budgets.- Plant community and climax concepts.- Predictability and convergence in succession.- Problems with the climax concept.- The kinetic concept.- Individual plant lifestyles (‘strategies’).- Causes for sequential replacements.- Community stability.- Mathematical and modellingapproaches to community development.- Fluctuations and cycles.- Problems with the succession concept.- 13 On the theory of vegetation change.- Important recent vegetation change literature.- Holism versus reductionism.- Problems with ideas on ‘succession to climax’.- Problems with ideas on stability and ‘climax’.- ‘Kinetic’ ideas on vegetation dynamics.- Formulating a theory of vegetation change: the essential problems.- A theory of vegetation change.- New theory in relation to orthodox theory.- Requirements for further research.- The past, present and future of natural vegetation and human relationships with it.- References.

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This is a very readable, straightforward, open-minded account - The Biologist