Old-Growth Forests

• Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value – an Overview.- Old-Growth Forest Definitions: a Pragmatic View.- Old Trees and the Meaning of ‘Old’.- Aboveground Processes.- Ecophysiological Characteristics of Mature Trees and Stands - Consequences for Old-Growth Forest Productivity.- The Imprint of Species Turnover on Old-Growth Forest Carbon Balances - Insights From a Trait-Based Model of Forest Dynamics.- Functional Relationships Between Old-Growth Forest Canopies, Understorey Light and Vegetation Dynamics.- Biosphere–Atmosphere Exchange of Old-Growth Forests: Processes and Pattern.- Woody Detritus its Contribution to Carbon Dynamics of Old-Growth Forests: the Temporal Context.- Belowground Processes.- Aboveground and Belowground Consequences of Long-Term Forest Retrogression in the Timeframe of Millennia and Beyond.- Rooting Patterns of Old-Growth Forests: is Aboveground Structural and Functional Diversity Mirrored Belowground?.- Soil Carbon Accumulation in Old-Growth Forests.- Is There a Theoretical Limit to Soil Carbon Storage in Old-Growth Forests? A Model Analysis with Contrasting Approaches.- Biomes.- Old-Growth Forests in the Canadian Boreal: the Exception Rather than the Rule?.- Biomass Chronosequences of United States Forests: Implications for Carbon Storage and Forest Management.- Temperate and Boreal Old-Growth Forests: How do Their Growth Dynamics and Biodiversity Differ from Young Stands and Managed Forests?.- Old-Growth Temperate Rainforests of South America: Conservation, Plant–Animal Interactions, and Baseline Biogeochemical Processes.- Tropical Rain Forests as Old-Growth Forests.- Human Dimensions.- Detecting Intact Forests from Space: Hot Spots of Loss, Deforestation and the UNFCCC.- Impacts of Land Use on Habitat Functions of Old-GrowthForests and their Biodiversity.- Old-Growth Forests in the Context of International Environmental Agreements.- Synthesis.- Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value – a Synthesis.

From the reviews: "This book pulls together the most imperative current original research on old-growth forests. The editors, (all, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany) authoritative and well respected for their broad knowledge of biogeochemical processes of ecosystems, and forests in particular, have assembled contributions from more than 50 other experts on old-growth forest form/function (7 are North American). ... Includes a handy geographic/taxonomic index and an extensive subject index, numerous photographs and scientific figures, and end-of-chapter references. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." (D. L. Richter, Choice, Vol. 47 (6), February, 2010)