Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology

F. Stuart Chapin, III is an ecosystem ecologist whose research addresses the sustainability of ecosystems and human communities in a rapidly changing planet. This work emphasizes the impacts of climate change on Alaskan ecology, subsistence resources, and indigenous communities, as a basis for developing climate-change adaptation plans. Pamela Matson is dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, USA. She previously worked at NASA and at the University of California Berkeley. Her professional titles at Stanford are Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences, and Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies. Peter Vitousek is at the forefront of research on biological diversity, his research focus is Hawaii. His Stanford Lab is studying nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems as well as the effects of invasions by exotic species.

• Preface.- I. CONTEXT.- The Ecosystem Concept.- Earth's Climate System.- Geology, Soils, and Sediments.- II. MECHANISMS.- Water and Energy Balance.- Carbon Inputs to  Ecosystems.- Plant Carbon Budgets.- TerrDecomposition and Ecosystem Carbon Budgets.- Plant Nutrient Use.- Nutrient Cycling.- Trophic Dynamics.- Species Effects on Ecosystem Processes.- III. PATTERNS.- Temporal Dynamics.- Landscape Heterogeneity and Ecosystem Dynamics.- IV. INTEGRATION.- Changes in the Earth System.- Managing and Sustaining Ecosystem.- Abbreviations.- Glossary.- References.

Reviews of the first edition: "This textbook includes 16 chapters, each ending with a summary, review questions and references to additional readings. ... It is especially characterized by the great importance (250 pp.) which is attributed to abiotic aspects of ecosystem ecology and to production processes as well as nutrient cycling ... . All these chapters are structured in an excellent and well organized way. ... Altogether, the authors have well succeeded in writing a comprehensive textbook, mainly for graduate students." (Angelika Schwabe, Phytocoenologia, Vol. 34 (3), 2004) "This comprehensive textbook outlines the central processes that characterize terrestrial ecosystems, tracing the flow of water, carbon, and nutrients from their abiotic origins to their cycles through plants, animals, and decomposer organisms. ... This book synthesizes current advances in ecology with established theory to offer a complete survey of ecosystem pattern and process in the terrestrial environment. ... suitable for use in all courses on ecosystem ecology. Resource managers, land use managers, and researchers will also welcome its thorough presentation of ecosystem essentials." (Ethology, Ecology & Evolution, Vol. 15 (4), 2003) From the reviews of the second edition: "An outstanding textbook which, after definitions, sets the stage with primers on Earth's climate system and geological processes. What follows is a magisterial and comprehensive account of the movements of water, energy, carbon and nutrients though natural systems. ... authors delve into the finer detail and explain how biological processes can have important modulating effects through space and time. ... The book is well written throughout and punctuated with excellent colour illustrations; no-one from undergraduates to established researchers can fail to learn something from it." (Frontiers of Biogeography, Vol. 3 (3), 2011)