Primary Succession and Ecosystem Rehabilitation
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Biology Department
  Primary Succession and Ecosystem Rehabilitation
By L. R. Walker and Roger del Moral

burried town
Natural disturbances such as lava flows, landslides and glacial moraines, and human-damaged sites such as pavement, road edges and mine wastes often leave little or no soil or biological legacy. This book provides the first comprehensive summary of how plant, animal and microbial communities develop under the harsh conditions following such dramatic disturbances. We examine the basic principles that determine ecosystem development and apply the general rules to the urgent practical need for promoting the restoration of damaged lands to productivity. This book is for ecologists and other professionals involved land management. It will serve as an excellent text for graduate study.

This book developed from our strong interests in the mechanisms of primary succession and how understanding these mechanisms can be used to enhance the rehabilitation of damaged landscapes—RdM & LRW

For information:
Go to Cambridge University Press catalogue:
http://us.cambridge.org/titles/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521529549

(Also available in hardback)

CONTENTS:
PREFACE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. DENUDATION: THE CREATION OF A BARREN SUBSTRATE
3. SUCCESSION THEORY
4. SOIL DEVELOPMENT
5. LIFE HISTORIES OF EARLY COLONISTS
6. SPECIES INTERACTIONS
7. SUCCESSIONAL PATTERNS
8. APPLICATIONS OF THEORY FOR REHABILITATION
9. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
GLOSSARY
REFERENCES
INDEX