Landscape Disturbance and Biodiversity in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems

Download or read book Landscape Disturbance and Biodiversity in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems written by Philip W. Rundel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human impact on natural landscapes through urbanization and agricultural expansion are becoming more and more dramatic and are the cause of serious environmental problems. This volume examines the effect of landscape disturbance on plant and animal diversity in the five mediterranean-climate regions of the world. It begins with three introductory chapters broadly reviewing the issues of landscape degradation. Further contributions describe regional land use conflicts in each of the five regions. Landscape disturbance and plant diversity, and landscape disturbance and animal diversity are treated in separate chapters. Four contributions deal with demography and ecophysiology in vegetation succession following disturbance. The volume closes with a consideration of the future addressing aspects of environmental politics.