Pattern and Process in a Forested Ecosystem

1 The Northern Hardwood Forest: A Model for Ecosystem Development.- Objectives.- Limits for Our Theoretical Model of Ecosystem Development.- Biomass Accumulation After Clear-Cutting.- The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study.- Summary.- 2 Energetics, Biomass, Hydrology, and Biogeochemistry of the Aggrading Ecosystem.- Solar Energy Flow.- Biomass: Development of Regulation and Inertia.- Detrital-Grazing Cycles.- Biotic Regulation of Biogeochemical Flux.- Nutrient Reservoirs Within the Aggrading Ecosystem.- Sources of Nutrients for the Aggrading Ecosystem.- Circulation and Retention of Nutrients.- Summary.- 3 Reorganization: Loss of Biotic Regulation.- A Deforestation Experiment.- Relationship of the Deforestation Experiment to Commercial Clear-Cutting.- Summary.- 4 Development of Vegetation After Clear-Cutting: Species Strategies and Plant Community Dynamics.- What is Secondary Succession?.- Reproductive and Growth Strategies Responsive to Perturbations That Open the Forest Canopy.- The Buried-Seed Strategy.- Floristic Response to Removal of the Forest Canopy by Clear-Cutting.- Differentiation of the Vegetation Established Immediately After Clear-Cutting.- Growth Strategies Underlying Initial Canopy Differentiation.- Morphogenesis and Growth Strategy.- Endogenous Disturbance.- Interactions Between Reproductive Strategies and Degree of Canopy Disturbance.- Composition of the Dominant Layer During Ecosystem Development After Clear-Cutting.- Species Richness.- Summary.- 5 Reorganization: Recovery of Biotic Regulation.- Primary Productivity.- Recovery of Biotic Regulation Over Ecosystem Export.- Coupling of Mineralization and Storage Processes.- Replacement of Lost Nutrient Capital.- Ecosystem Regulation.- Summary.- 6 Ecosystem Development and the Steady State.- Evidence for a Steady State.- Steady-State Models.- Living Biomass Accumulation.- Total Biomass Accumulation.- The Plot as a Unit of Study.- Trends Associated With Ecosystem Development.- Summary.- 7 The Steady State as a Component of the Landscape.- Exogenous Disturbance Defined.- Comparative Effects of Major Perturbations.- Disturbance in Presettlement Northern Hardwood Forests.- Postsettlement Disturbance.- Increased Regularity of Whole-System Biomass Oscillation.- Summary.- 8 Forest Harvest and Landscape Management.- Air Pollution.- Forest Harvesting Practices.- Landscape Management.- References.