Plant succession; an analysis of the development of vegetation,

Clements, Frederic E.

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.56234

Cited by 2,308 publications

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“…Various units succeed each other: the biome, the climax, plant associations and the biotic community. According to Clements (1916) the climax formation is an organic entity. The formation grows, develops and dies as an organism.…”

Section: From Organicism To the Oxymoronic "Reductionist Holism" Of Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Multifaceted Ecology Between Organicism, Emergentism and Reductionism

Bergandi

2011

Ecology Revisited

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The classical holism-reductionism debate, which has been of major importance to the development of ecological theory and methodology, is an epistemological patchwork. At any moment, there is a risk of it slipping into an incoherent, chaotic Tower of Babel. Yet philosophy, like the sciences, requires that words and their correlative concepts be used rigorously and univocally. The prevalent use of everyday language in the holism-reductionism issue may give a false impression regarding its underlying clarity and coherence. In reality, the conceptual categories underlying the debate have yet to be accurately defined and consistently used. There is a need to map out a clear conceptual, logical and epistemological framework. To this end, we propose a minimalist epistemological foundation. The issue is easier to grasp if we keep in mind that holism generally represents the ontological background of emergentism, but does not necessarily coincide with it. We therefore speak in very loose terms of the "holism-reductionism" debate, although it would really be better characterised by the terms emergentism and reductionism. The confrontation between these antagonistic paradigms unfolds at various semantic and operational levels. In definitional terms, there is not just emergentism and reductionism, but various kinds of emergentisms and reductionisms.In fact, Ayala (1974; see also Ruse 1988;Mayr 1988;Beckermann et al. 1992;Jones 2000) have proposed a now classic trilogy among various semantic domains -ontology, methodology and epistemology. This trilogy has been used as a kind of epistemological screen to interpret the reductionist field. It is just as meaningful and useful, however, to apply the same trilogy to the emergentist field. By revealing the basic assumptions of each, we should be better able to understand the points that are similar and shared, as well as the incommensurable ones.The first question regarding the emergentism and reductionism debate concerns the type of explanation the sciences are seeking. At present in the sciences -from physics to the human sciences -the ontological and epistemological foundation is essentially naturalistic and materialistic, meaning that all natural (or social) objects, events and processes can be understood without reference to extra-or supernatural (vitalistic or theological) entities,

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Section: From Organicism To the Oxymoronic "Reductionist Holism" Of Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Multifaceted Ecology Between Organicism, Emergentism and Reductionism

Bergandi

2011

Ecology Revisited

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“…Historically, botanists from Cockayne (1928) onwards viewed NZ forests through a classical Clementsian lens, following the guiding paradigm of the time (Clements 1916(Clements , 1936, whereby forests were deemed to reach an equilibrium or 'climax' state of long-term stability dominated by broadleaved angiosperms. More recently, however, ecologists such as Ogden (1985), Bray (1989), and Ogden and Stewart (1995), recognised the central role that disturbances play in NZ forests, fundamentally shifting the way we view NZ forest dynamics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Zealand forest dynamics: a review of past and present vegetation responses to disturbance, and development of conceptual forest models

Wyse¹,

Wilmshurst²,

Burns³

et al. 2018

NZ J Ecol

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New Zealand forests have been and are shaped by a suite of disturbance types that vary in both their spatial extent and frequency of recurrence. Post-disturbance forest dynamics can be complex, non-linear, and involve multiple potential pathways depending on the nature of a perturbation, site conditions, and history. To capture the full range of spatial and temporal dynamics that shape forest ecosystems in a given area, we need to use and synthesise data sources that collectively capture all the relevant space-time scales. Here we integrate palaeoecological data with contemporary ecological evidence to build conceptual models describing post-disturbance dynamics in New Zealand (NZ) forests, encompassing large temporal and spatial scales. We review NZ forest disturbance regimes, focussing primarily on geological and geomorphic disturbances and weather-related disturbances but also considering the role of anthropogenic disturbance in shaping present-day NZ forests. Combining information from 58 studies of post-disturbance forest succession, we derive conceptual models and describe forest communities and forest change for conifer-angiosperm (including kauri forest), and beech forests (pure and mixed). The methods used in these studies included chronosequences, assessments of stand dynamics, longitudinal studies, palaeoecological reconstructions, and comparisons with historical observations; the temporal range of the studies extended from 15 years to millennia (c. 14 000 years BP). Our models capture the generalities of NZ forest dynamics, and can be used to support modelling and help guide decision-making in areas such as ecosystem restoration. However, this generality limits model resolution, meaning the models do not always portray the specific features of individual sites and successional pathways. There is, therefore, scope for more detailed, site-specific development and refinement of these frameworks. Finally, our models capture successional pathways and native plant communities from the past and present; invasive species, climate change, and exotic plant pathogens are likely to alter future forest dynamics in novel and unpredictable ways. These models, however, provide us with baselines against which to interpret and assess the impacts of such effects on forest composition and processes.

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“…Vegetation patterns are determined by a suite of factors including environmental filtering, disturbance history, dispersal limitation, and biotic interactions (Clements 1916;Pickett et al 2009). Understanding the relative importance of these processes underpins habitat restoration (Hobbs and Norton 1996), prediction of biotic responses to climate change (Sala et al 2000), and assisted colonization (Ricciardi and Simberloff 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking vegetation patterns to environmental gradients and human impacts in a mediterranean-type island ecosystem

2014

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Vegetation patterns at the landscape scale are shaped by myriad processes and historical events, and understanding the relative importance of these processes aids in predicting current and future plant distributions. To quantify the influence of different environmental and anthropogenic patterns on observed vegetation patterns, we used simultaneous autoregressive modeling to analyze data collected by the Carnegie Airborne Observatory over Santa Cruz Island (SCI; California, USA). SCI is a large continental island, and its limited suite of species and well documented land use history allowed us to consider many potential determinants of vegetation patterns, such as topography, substrate, and historical grazing intensity. As a metric of vegetation heterogeneity, we used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) stratified into three vegetation height classes using LiDAR (short, medium, and tall). In the SAR models topography and substrate type were important controls, together explaining 8-15 % of the total variation in NDVI, but historical grazing and spatial autocorrelation were also key components of the models, together explaining 17-21 % of the variation in NDVI. Optimal spatial autocorrelation distances in the short and medium height vegetation models (600-700 m) were similar to the home range sizes of two crucial seed dispersers on the island-the island fox (Urocyon littoralis santacruzae) and the island scrub-jay (Aphelocoma insularis)-suggesting that these animals may be important drivers of the island's vegetation patterns. This study highlights the importance of dynamic processes like dispersal limitation and disturbance history in determining presentday vegetation patterns.

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Plant succession; an analysis of the development of vegetation,

Cited by 2,308 publications

References 0 publications

Multifaceted Ecology Between Organicism, Emergentism and Reductionism

Multifaceted Ecology Between Organicism, Emergentism and Reductionism

New Zealand forest dynamics: a review of past and present vegetation responses to disturbance, and development of conceptual forest models

Linking vegetation patterns to environmental gradients and human impacts in a mediterranean-type island ecosystem

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