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.