Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of Ecuador - Beck, Erwin; Bendix, Jörg.; Kottke, Ingrid; Makeschin, Franz; Mosandl, Reinhard; SpringerLink (Online service) (Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer, 2008)
The Ecosystem (Reserva Biológica San Francisco) -- Mountain Rain Forests in Southern Ecuador as a Hotspot of Biodiversity - Limited Knowledge and Diverging Patterns -- The People Settled Around Podocarpus National Park -- Ecuador Suffers the Highest Deforestation Rate in South America -- Methodological Challenges of a Megadiverse Ecosystem -- Gradients in Ecosystem Analysis -- Investigating Gradients in Ecosystem Analysis -- The Investigated Gradients -- The Altitudinal Gradient -- Climate -- Soils Along the Altitudinal Transect and in Catchments -- Flora and Fungi: Composition and Function -- Flora and Fungi: Composition and Function -- Flora and Fungi: Composition and Function -- Flora and Fungi: Composition and Function -- Flora and Fungi: Composition and Function -- Fauna: Composition and Function -- Fauna: Composition and Function -- Fauna: Composition and Function -- Fauna: Composition and Function -- Water Relations -- Nutrient Status and Fluxes at the Field and Catchment Scale -- Biotic Soil Activities -- Altitudinal Changes in Stand Structure and Biomass Allocation of Tropical Mountain Forests in Relation to Microclimate and Soil Chemistry -- Stand Structure, Transpiration Responses in Trees and Vines and Stand Transpiration of Different Forest Types Within the Mountain Rainforest -- Plant Growth Along the Altitudinal Gradient - Role of Plant Nutritional Status, Fine Root Activity, and Soil Properties -- Spatial Heterogeneity Patterns - a Comparison Between Gorges and Ridges in the Upper Part of an Evergreen Lower Montane Forest -- The Unique Purdiaea nutans Forest of Southern Ecuador - Abiotic Characteristics and Cryptogamic Diversity -- Climate Variability -- Growth Dynamics of Trees in Tropical Mountain Ecosystems -- Temporal Heterogeneities - Matter Deposition from Remote Areas -- Gradients of Disturbance -- Gap Dynamics in a Tropical Lower Montane Forest in South Ecuador -- Landslides as Important Disturbance Regimes - Causes and Regeneration -- Sustainable and Non-Sustainable Use of Natural Resources by Indigenous and Local Communities -- Natural Forest Management in Neotropical Mountain Rain Forests - An Ecological Experiment -- Permanent Removal of the Forest: Construction of Roads and Power Supply Lines -- Forest Clearing by Slash and Burn -- Gradients of Regeneration -- Gradients and Patterns of Soil Physical Parameters at Local, Field and Catchment Scales -- Visualization and Analysis of Flow Patterns and Water Flow Simulations in Disturbed and Undisturbed Tropical Soils -- Pasture Management and Natural Soil Regeneration -- Succession Stages of Vegetation Regeneration: Secondary Tropical Mountain Forests -- Reforestation of Abandoned Pastures: Seed Ecology of Native Species and Production of Indigenous Plant Material -- Reforestation of Abandoned Pastures: Silvicultural Means to Accelerate Forest Recovery and Biodiversity -- Successional Stages of Faunal Regeneration - A Case Study on Megadiverse Moths -- Synopsis -- Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem - a Synthesis.
Keywords: Ecosystems; Biodiversity; Plant ecology; Animal ecology; Forestry management; Environmental management; Ecosystems; Biodiversity; Plant Ecology; Animal Ecology; Forestry Management; Environmental Management