Synopses & Reviews
Land degradation in drylands is a multi-faceted problem. Consequently, current management approaches that attempt to mitigate such land degradation often fail to produce significant improvements. The processes associated with land degradation in drylands fall at the interface of ecology and geomorphology. For a better understanding of this degradation, there is a need to uncover the underlying dynamics and characteristic responses to environmental drivers and human-induced disturbances. A primary characteristic of this land degradation is a change in processes and the emergence of patterns; but there remain many unknowns as to how these changing processes and emerging patterns are connected. In the first section of this keystone manual, the theory of ecogeomorphic pattern-process linkages is explored, establishing an integrated view of current concepts of pattern emergence and self-organization from an ecogeomorphic perspective.
Synopsis
A vital, multi-disciplinary addition to the literature, this ground-breaking publication studies a problem faced by two billion people, interweaving ecology and geomorphology for a better grasp of the environmental and anthropogenic causes of land degradation.
Synopsis
This book explores the theory of ecogeomorphic pattern-process linkages, using case studies from Europe, Africa, Australia and North America. Sets forth a research agenda for the emerging field of ecogeomorphology in drylands land-degradation studies.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Land Degradation in Drylands: An Ecogeomorphological Approach
2. The Study of Land Degradation in Drylands: State of the Art
3. Resilience, Self-organization, Complexity and Pattern Formation
4. Short-range Ecogeomorphic Processes in Dryland Systems
5. Long-range Ecogeomorphic Processes
6. Integrating Short- and Long-range Processes into Models: the Emergence of Pattern
7. Approaches to Modelling Ecogeomorphic Systems
8. Characterizing Patterns
9. Assessment of Patterns in Ecogeomorphic Systems
10. Uncertainty assessment
11. Vegetation Change in the Southwestern USA: Patterns and Processes
12. Vegetation Mosaics of Arid Western New South Wales, Australia: Considerations of Their Origin and Persistence
13.