Forests in Time
The Environmental Consequences of 1000 Years of Change in New England
Yale University Press
David R. Foster and John D. Aber, eds.
David R. Foster is the Director of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University.
John D. Aber is Professor of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire.
Forests in Time offers a unique look at combining history and science in ecological studies and environmental management and applies this approach to one of the most remarkably transformed landscapes in North America: the New England countryside. Written in accessible prose and profusely illustrated with photographs, maps, and graphs, the book relates the history of changes in New England and then explores the results of integrated studies and experiments in this largely forested landscape.
New England has changed profoundly in the last 400 years. Shaped initially by natural process, environmental change, and a dispersed native population, the area was largely cleared of forest and farmed extensively by European settlers through the 19th century. The land reforested in a remarkable reversal of its early history as agriculture declined. Currently it is one of the most heavily forested regions of the United States.
However, the forests are embedded in form and function with the legacies of their land-use history. Clues to this past lie in stone walls, empty cellar holes, and woodland paths. Forests in Time explores these clues and then explores the diverse ways in which history has affected ecosystem structure and function, vegetation, and wildlife. It concludes with lessons for conservation and important environmental issues facing the northeastern U.S. and offers a broad perspective on global environmental change.
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Harvard Forest
Forests in Time
324 North Main Street
Petersham, MA 01366
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CONTENTS
I. A Research Program on Forest Ecology and Change
1. Background and Framework for Long-Term Ecological Research
2. The Physical and Biological Setting for Ecological Studies
3. Biogeochemistry: The Physiology of Ecosystems
II. Regional History and Landscape Dynamics
4. The Environmental and Human History of New England
5. Broadscale Forest Response to Land Use and Climate Change
6. Long-Term Forest and Landscape Dynamics
7. Wildlife Dynamics in the Changing New England Landscape
III. The Modern Forest Landscape: Legacies of Historical Change
8. Forest Landscape Patterns, Structure, and Composition
9. Land-Use Legacies in Soil Properties and Nutrients
10. Exchanges between the Forest and the Atmosphere
IV. Understanding Forest Ecosystem Dynamics through Long-Term Experiments
11. Simulating a Catastrophic Hurricane
12. Exploring the Process of Nitrogen Saturation
13. Soil Warming: A Major Consequence of Global Climate Change
14. Comparisons between Physical Disturbance and Novel Stresses
15. The DIRT Experiment: Litter and Root Influences on Forest Soil Organic Matter Stocks and Function
16. Experimental Approaches to Understanding Forest Regeneration
17. Synthesis and Extrapolation: Models, Remote Sensing, and Regional Analysis
V. Lessons from the Forest and Its History
18. Insights for Ecology and Conservation
19. The Harvard Forest and Understanding the Global Carbon Budget
20. The Long Lens of History
Bibliographic Essay
Bibliography