Format:
Online-Ressource (XI, 349 p)
,
online resource
Edition:
2nd Edition
Edition:
Springer eBook Collection. Biomedical and Life Sciences
ISBN:
9783642189708
Content:
Recent years have seen renewed interest in the fragile alpine biota. The International Year of Mountains in 2002 and numerous international programs and initiatives have contributed to this. Since nearly half of mankind depends on water supplies originating in mountain catchments, the integrity and functional signi?cance of the upland biota is a key to human welfare and will receive even more attention as water becomes an increasingly limited resource. Intact alpine vegetation,as the safeguard of the water towers of the world, is worth being well understood. This new edition of Alpine Plant Life is an update with over 100 new references,new diagrams, revised and extended chapters (particularly 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17) and now also offers a geographic index. My thanks go to the many careful readers of the ?rst edition for their most valuable comments, in parti- lar to Vicente I. Deltoro (Valencia) and Johanna Wagner (Innsbruck). Basel,April 2003 Christian Körner Preface to the ?rst edition One of the largest natural biological experiments, perhaps the only one replicated across all latitudes and all climatic regions,is uplift of the la- scape and exposure of organisms to dramatic climatic gradients over a very short distance, otherwise only seen over thousands ofkilometers of poleward traveling. Generations of plant scientists have been fascinated by these natural test areas,and have explored plant and ecosystem responses to alpine life conditions. Alpine Plant Life is an attempt at a synthesis
Note:
1 Plant ecology at high elevationsThe concept of limitation -- A regional and historical account -- The challenge of alpine plant research -- 2 The alpine life zone -- Altitudinal boundaries -- Global alpine land area -- Alpine plant diversity -- Origin of alpine floras -- Alpine growth forms -- 3 Alpine climate -- Which alpine climate -- Common features of alpine climates -- Regional features of alpine climates -- 4 The climate plants experience -- Interactions of relief, wind and sun -- How alpine plants influence their climate -- The geographic variation of alpine climate -- 5 Life under snow: protection and limitation -- Temperatures under snow -- Solar radiation under snow -- Gas concentrations under snow -- Plant responses to snowpack -- 6 Alpine soils -- Physics of alpine soil formation -- The organic compound -- The interaction of organic and inorganic compounds -- 7 Alpine treelines -- About trees and lines -- Current altitudinal positions of climatic treelines -- Treeline-climate relationships -- Intrazonal variations and pantropical plateauing of alpine treelines -- Treelines in the past -- Attempts at a functional explanation of treelines -- A hypothesis for treeline formation -- Growth trends near treelines -- Evidence for sink limitation -- 8 Climatic stress -- Survival of low temperature extremes -- Avoidance and tolerance of low temperature extremes -- Heat stress in alpine plants -- Ultraviolet radiation - a stress factor -- 9 Water relations -- Ecosystem water balance -- Soil moisture at high altitudes -- Plant water relations - a brief review of principles -- Water relations of alpine plants -- Desiccation stress -- Water relations of special plant types -- 10 Mineral nutrition -- Soil nutrients -- The nutrient status of alpine plants -- Nutrient cycling and nutrient budgets -- Nitrogen fixation -- Mycorrhiza -- Responses of vegetation to variable nutrient supply -- 11 Uptake and loss of carbon -- Photosynthetic capacity of alpine plants -- Photosynthetic responses to the environment -- Daily carbon gain of leaves -- The seasonal carbon gain of leaves -- C4 and CAM photosynthesis at high altitudes -- Tissue respiration of alpine plants -- Ecosystem carbon balance -- 12 Carbon investments -- Non-structural carbohydrates -- Lipids and energy content -- Carbon costs of leaves and roots -- Whole plant carbon allocation -- 13 Growth dynamics and phenology -- Seasonal growth -- Diurnal leaf extension -- Rates of plant dry matter accumulation -- Functional duration of leaves and roots -- 14 Cell division and tissue formation -- Cell size and plant size -- Mitosis and the cell cycle -- From meristem activity to growth control -- 15 Plant biomass production -- The structure of alpine plant canopies -- Primary productivity of alpine vegetation -- Plant dry matter pools -- Biomass losses through herbivores -- 16 Plant reproduction -- Flowering and pollination -- Seed development and seed size -- Germination -- Alpine seed banks and natural recruitment -- Clonal propagation -- Alpine plant age -- Community processes -- 17 Global change at high elevation -- Alpine land use -- The impact of altered atmospheric chemistry -- Climatic change and alpine ecosystems -- References (with chapter annotation) -- Taxonomic index (genera) -- Geographical index -- Color plates -- Plant life forms -- The alpine life zone -- Environmental stress -- The human dimension.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9783540003472
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9783642189692
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9783642189715
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9783540003472
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1007/978-3-642-18970-8
URL:
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