Social historians will look back on the 1980s as a period when a global consciousness of the environment developed. Stimulated by major issues and events such as oil and chemical spills, clearing of rainforests, pollu tion of waterways, and, towards the end of the decade, concern over the greenhouse effect, concern for the environment has become a major social and political force. Unfortunately, the state of the environment and its future manage ment are still very divisive issues. Often, at a local level, concern for the environment is the antithesis of development. The debate usually focusses on the possible negative environmental impacts of an activity versus the expected positive economic impacts. It is a very difficult task to integrate development and conservation, yet it is towards this objec tive that the sustainable development debate is moving. The issues in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia are typical of the environment versus development debate. It is undoubted that the development of the area, which involved clearing the native vegetation, has had a major impact upon the original ecosystems. Many of the natural habitats are threatened and local extinction of flora and fauna species is a continuing process. Moreover, there are clear signs that land degradation processes such as dryland salinity are depleting the land resource.

The effects of isolation, area size, and habitat quality on the survival of animal and plant populations in the cultural landscape are central aspects of a research project started in Germany in 1993 (,Forschungsverbund, Isolation, FHichengroBe und BiotopquaIiHit', abbreviated to 'FIFB'). After a long period of preparation, scientists from seven univer sities and one research institution started to work within the frame of this project. Fund ing for four years was provided by the former German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT), now the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). A strong focus of the project has been the improvement of the methodology for environmental impact assessments and the implementation of results into environmental planning. As there is a certain risk that national projects develop some kind of 'mental in breeding', it was decided to discuss concepts, methods, and first results with scientists of international reputation at a rather early stage of the project. For this purpose, an inter national workshop was held in the small village of Lubast, north of Leipzig (state of Saxony) in March 1995. 130 scientists from 10 nations met to discuss and debate issues surrounding habitat fragmentation for three days. Papers presented there formed the basis for this book. As discussions included general reviews as well as particular case studies, we decided to structure this book in a similar way. Consequently, a combination of broad and more general, review-like papers as well as original papers are presented.

Landscape ecology is a relatively new area of study, which aims to understand the pattern of interaction of biological and cultural communities within a landscape. This book brings together leading figures from the field to provide an up-to-date survey of recent advances, identify key research problems and suggest a future direction for development and expansion of knowledge. Providing in-depth reviews of the principles and methods for understanding landscape patterns and changes, the book illustrates concepts with examples of innovative applications from different parts of the world. Forming a current 'state-of-the-science' for the science of landscape ecology, this book forms an essential reference for graduate students, academics, professionals and practitioners in ecology, environmental science, natural resource management, and landscape planning and design.

An ideal text for students taking a course in landscape ecology. The book has been written by very well-known practitioners and pioneers in the new field of ecological analysis. Landscape ecology has emerged during the past two decades as a new and exciting level of ecological study. Environmental problems such as global climate change, land use change, habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity have required ecologists to expand their traditional spatial and temporal scales and the widespread availability of remote imagery, geographic information systems, and desk top computing has permitted the development of spatially explicit analyses. In this new text book this new field of landscape ecology is given the first fully integrated treatment suitable for the student. Throughout, the theoretical developments, modeling approaches and results, and empirical data are merged together, so as not to introduce barriers to the synthesis of the various approaches that constitute an effective ecological synthesis. The book also emphasizes selected topic areas in which landscape ecology has made the most contributions to our understanding of ecological processes, as well as identifying areas where its contributions have been limited. Each chapter features questions for discussion as well as recommended reading.

As the human population inexorably grows, its cumulative impact on the Earth's resources is hard to ignore. The ability of the Earth to support more humans is dependent on the ability of humans to manage natural resources wisely. Because disturbance alters resource levels, effective management requires understanding of the ecology of disturbance. This book is the first to take a global approach to the description of both natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes that physically impact the ground. Natural disturbances such as erosion, volcanoes, wind, herbivory, flooding and drought plus anthropogenic disturbances such as foresty, grazing, mining, urbanization and military actions are considered. Both disturbance impacts and the biotic recovery are addressed as well as the interactions of different types of disturbance. Other chapters cover processes that are important to the understanding of disturbance of all types including soil processes, nutrient cycles, primary productivity, succession, animal behaviour and competition. Humans react to disturbances by avoiding, exacerbating, or restoring them or by passing environmental legislation. All of these issues are covered in this book.Managers need better predictive models and robust data-collections that help determine both site-specfic and generalized responses to disturbance. Multiple disturbances have a complex effect on both physical and biotic processes as they interact. This book provides a wealth of detail about the process of disturbance and recovery as well as a synthesis of the current state of knowledge about disturbance theory, with extensive documentation.

Discusses the ways in which we can continue to benefit from forests, while conserving their biodiversity.

Land abandonment is increasing as human influence on the globe intensifies and various ecological, social, and economic factors conspire to force the cessation of agriculture and other forms of land management. The “old fields” that result from abandonment have been the subject of much study, yet few attempts have been made to examine the larger questions raised by old field dynamics. Old Fields brings together leading experts from around the world to synthesize past and current work on old fields, providing an up-to-date perspective on the ecological dynamics of abandoned land. The book gives readers a broad understanding of why agricultural land is abandoned, the factors that determine the ecological recovery of old fields, and how this understanding contributes to theoretical and applied ecology. Twelve case studies from diverse geographical and climatic areas—including Australian rainforest, Brazilian Amazonia, New Jersey piedmont, and South African renosterveld—offer a global perspective on the causes and results of land abandonment. Concluding chapters consider the similarities and differences among the case studies, examine them in the context of ecological concepts, and discuss their relevance to the growing field of restoration ecology. Old Fields is the first book to draw together studies on old fields from both a theoretical and practical perspective. It represents an important contribution to the development of theory on old field dynamics and the practice of ecological restoration on abandoned farmland, and the broader implications of old field dynamics to ecology and restoration.