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Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales. The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and value trade-offs in natural resources management; and assist policy makers, managers and researches working in assessment of sustainable forest management and ecosystem management. Several real-life examples of using the FORECAST family of models in forest management and other applications are presented from countries including Canada, China, Spain and the USA, to illustrate the concepts described in the text. The book also demonstrates how these models can be extended for scenario and value trade-off analysis through visualization and educational or management games. Hamish Kimmins: Following an undergraduate degree in Forestry from the University of Wales and an M.Sc. in Forest Entomology from the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Kimmins, received his PhD in Forest Ecology at Yale University, focusing on the relationship between ecosystem function and herbivore population dynamics. Since 1969 he has been a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he has presented courses on forest ecology, ecosystem classification, ecological aspects of silviculture, environmental issues in forestry, ecosystem function and response to disturbance, and modelling forest ecosystems to undergraduates, graduate students and professional foresters. He has developed and until recently tutorsed a UBC web-based Distance Education course in Forest Ecology. For the past thirty three years, Dr. Kimmins has worked to develop ecologically-based forest ecosystem management models, from the spatially-explicit, individual tree stand model FORCEE, to the a-spatial stand model FORECAST, to the spatial, local landscape, complex disturbance patch model LLEMS, and the spatial watershed ecosystem management model POSSIBLE FOREST FUTURES. These models range from a high school education forest management game (FORTOON), to decision support and research tools, to scenario analysis and value trade-off assessment tools. He is currently an emeritus professor after holding a Senior Canada Research Chair in Modelling the Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems, and is Director of the Forest Ecosystem Management Modelling Group in the Department of Forest Sciences. Dr. Kimmins is a former member of UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST) and serves on many science advisory boards. Juan A. Blanco: Dr. Blanco studied Agricultural Engineering at the Public University of Navarra, Spain. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from the Public University in 2004, for his examination of the influence of forest management on nutrient cycles in pine forests of the Pyrenees. He has published several papers and book chapters on this topic. In 2003, he also collaborated with the team from the Technical University of Oruro to study environmental issues in the Uru-Uru Lake, Bolivia. He then moved to Vancouver, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia. His work is centered on the use of ecological forest models for developing and assessing long-term sustainable forest management practices, a subject on which he has published several papers in international journals. He is currently collaborating in Canada, Spain, Cuba and China in research projects to assess the long-term sustainability of forest management with ecological models. Brad Seely: Dr. Seely was awarded a Ph.D. in terrestrial ecology from the Department of Biology at Boston University in 1996. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Hamish Kimmins in the Forest Ecosystem Management Simulation group at UBC, developing the FORECAST and LLEMS models. Presently, he is a Research Associate in the Department of Forest Sciences at UBC where he develops and tests forest ecosystem management models at multiple spatial scales. His specific interests lie in the development and application of process-based models of stand growth and development. He has also conducted research and developed models to examine the interactions between forest management, site productivity, hydrologic processes, carbon sequestration and climate change. Clive Welham: Dr. Welham was awarded his B.Sc. (1983) and M.Sc. (1986) degrees from the University of Manitoba, and his Ph.D. (1993) from Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver. His academic career began with an emphasis on evolutionary ecology and ecological modeling. Following a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Botany Department at UBC, he joined the Forest Ecosystem Management Simulation Group, in the Department of Forest Sciences, to which he still belongs. His work at UBC is principally concerned with forest ecosystem model development, testing and validation, at spatial scales from the individual tree to the landscape. Specific interests include ecosystem reclamation, carbon dynamics, and climate change. Clive also teaches a graduate level course in ecosystem modeling, and occasional undergraduate courses. Kim Scoullar: Mr. Scoullar is a professional programmer with more than 35 years of experience developing code for ecosystem models. He was the main developer of the FORCYTE series of models commissioned under the Energy from the Forest (ENFOR) project by the Government of Canada. Mr. Scoullar has developed educational software (FORTOON) and software for forest management and research (FORECAST, LLEMS, FORCEE). He is also collaborating in the development of CALP-Forester. PREFACE 1. INTRODUCTION: WHY DO WE NEED ECOSYSTEM-LEVEL MODELS AS A DECISION-SUPPORT TOOL IN FORESTRY? 2. ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS THAT SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN FORESTRY DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS 3. HYBRID SIMULATION (HS) IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHER CLASSES OF FOREST MODELS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FORECAST FAMILY OF HS MODELS 4. FORESTRY IN TRANSITION: THE NEED FOR INDIVIDUAL TREE MODELS 5. STAND-LEVEL MODELS IN FOREST MANAGEMENT AS TOOLS TO SUPPORT ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT 6. LANDSCAPE-LEVEL MODELS IN FOREST MANAGEMENT 7. EDUCATIONAL MODELS IN FOREST MANAGEMENT 8. HOW TO DEVELOP A MODEL FOR FOREST MANAGEMENT 9. THE ROLE OF ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT MODELS IN ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT, CERTIFICATION AND LAND RECLAMATION 10. THE FUTURE OF HYBRID MODELS IN FOREST MANAGEMENT REFERENCES INDEX 'Kimmins and his colleagues provide the definitive text on hybrid modelling approach based on 33 years working experience with the FORECAST family of hybrid models. Each chapter follows a logical progression and is very readable. This is the most significant contribution to forecasting future forests across levels of organization, bravo!' Changhui Peng, Canada Research Chair in Environment Modelling, Institute of Environment Sciences, Department of Biology Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal 'Written by top ecologists, this book imparts brilliantly how to integrate scattered pieces of knowledge, develop a model of the whole and use it for sustainable forest ecosystem management. It should be on the shelf of any scientist, student or practician interested in understanding, modelling or managing forest ecosystems.' Hans Pretzsch, Professor and Chair of Forest Yield Science, Department for Eco-System and Landscape Management, Center of Life and Food Sciences, Technical University of M nchen 'At last, a book well-written and carefully and clearly thought out about how to think about and make useful, scientifically sound, forecasts about forestry. More than that, it will be of immense help in conservation and management of all living resources, because it has the clarity of thought and depth of understanding needed and sorely lacking in the past. A must read for those involved in natural resource management and conservation.' Dan Botkin, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 'Ecosystem modelling has been described as an 'organized way of thinking about the future'. Hamish Kimmins and co-workers do just that, in synthesizing over 30 years of experience with forest ecosystem models for sustainable management. A thought-provoking, informative, and stimulating book.' Frits Mohren, Professor of Forest Ecology and Management, University of Wageningen, Centre for Ecosystem Studies, Wageningen University and Research Centre 'A grand tour of issues and insights, approaches and applications in forest modeling based on three decades of experience with the FORECAST family of models, and offering a well-reasoned rationale for better models, and better use of models.' Jerry Vanclay, Professor for Sustainable Forestry, and Head of the School of Environmental Science and Management, School of Environmental Science and Management, Southern Cross University, Australia 'Providing a comprehensive review of forest models, their history and underlying ideas and concepts, this book is fascinating and thought-provoking reading which should not be missed by anyone engaged in model building and model application to forest management.' Annikki Makela, Head of the Department of Forest Ecology, University of Helsinki

Written to help researchers and environmental managers tackle environmental problems, this book presents models as reference points for specific plans of action. The first part of the book focuses on the type of ecosystem, while the second focuses on the different types of environmental problems. The author explains which models to use in particular situations. Areas covered include lakes, estuaries, and rivers. Environmental problems covered include oxygen depletion, species diversity, and ground water pollution. The book includes many tables and figures throughout.

The past five decades have witnessed a rapid growth of computer models for simulating ecosystem functions and dynamics. This has been fueled by the availability of remote sensing data, computation capability, and cross-disciplinary knowledge. These models contain many submodules for simulating different processes and forcing mechanisms, albeit it has become challenging to truly understand the details due to their complexity. Most ecosystem models, fortunately, are rooted in a few core biophysical foundations, such as the widely recognized Farquhar model, Ball-Berry-Leuning and Medlyn family models, Penman-Monteith equation, Priestley-Taylor model, and Michaelis-Menten kinetics. After an introduction of biophysical essentials, four chapters present the core algorithms and their behaviors in modeling ecosystem production, respiration, evapotranspiration, and global warming potentials. Each chapter is composed of a brief introduction of the literature, in which model algorithms, their assumptions, and performances are described in detail. Spreadsheet (or Python codes) templates are included in each chapter for modeling exercises with different input parameters as online materials, which include datasets, parameter estimation, and real-world applications (e.g., calculations of global warming potentials). Users can also apply their own datasets. The materials included in this volume serve as effective tools for users to understand model behaviors and uses with specified conditions and in situ applications.

The book aims to bridge the gap between conventional ecological modelling and 'ecophysics', a neologism that stands for approaching ecological and environmental problems using ideas and techniques from physics. Such an approach to the involved complex systems has demonstrated its usefulness to enhance our understanding of intrinsically interdisciplinary problems and inform sustainable practices in agriculture, conservation and environmental management. The motivation behind this book is twofold: to enhance comprehension and to bolster our capacity to tackle practical challenges using rigorous quantitative methods. This is why the structure of the book is designed such that each chapter dedicated to methods in community/population ecology is accompanied by an Application chapter, which presents the practical implementation of the discussed methods. A main objective of these latter chapters is to actively involve readers interested in devising tools and strategies to address their own issues. Among the Applications provided, the first two focus on optimizing agricultural production, specifically livestock production and polyculture crops. The other Applications centre around environmental concerns, including the dynamics of tree species in tropical forests, the identification of early warning signals for catastrophic shifts in lakes and the dynamics of land use/land cover (LULC), i.e. the categorization or classification of human activities and natural elements on the landscape. What unites these diverse problems is their reliance on population dynamics models.

This book focuses on use-inspired basic science by connecting theoretical methods and mathematical developments in ecology with practical real-world problems, either in production or conservation. Each methods-based chapter is complimented by an application chapter to engage practitioners from different disciplines interested in tools and strategies to solve ecological problems.

\"Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales. The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and value trade-offs in natural resources management; and assist policy makers, managers and researches working in assessment of sustainable forest management and ecosystem management. Several real-life examples of using the FORECAST family of models in forest management and other applications are presented from countries including Canada, China, Spain and the USA, to illustrate the concepts described in the text. The book also demonstrates how these models can be extended for scenario and value trade-off analysis through visualization and educational or management games.\"--Pub. desc.

Most human tissues do not regenerate spontaneously. Cell therapy and tissue engineering, which involve collecting cells from either the patient or a donor and introducing them into injured tissues or organs, sometimes after modifying their properties, offer promising solutions for regenerative medicine. Indeed, so promising are these therapies that current research has shifted from organ growth to cell therapy. The range of therapeutic applications is wide, including cardiac insufficiency, atherosclerosis, cartilage defects, bone repair, burns, diabetes and liver or bladder regeneration.This book, whilst not covering all aspects of regenerative medicine or cell therapy, offers a current overview of this emerging multidisciplinary field, which has been described as \"the way to improve the health and quality of life by restoring, maintaining, or enhancing tissue and organ functions\". It explores some of the problems and challenges encountered, such as the need to overcome risks of teratogenic effects and/or immune reactions, and deals with the legal issues involved in national regulations. The first 11 chapters of the book are devoted to basic knowledge of stem cells and the remaining 20 chapters deal with potential clinical applications: hematology, cardiac, vascular, osteoarticular, liver, skin, etc. - although of course it is impossible to envisage all of the applications which will undoubtedly be developed in the next decade or so.The book will be of interest to all researchers and clinicians involved in regenerative medicine or cell therapy.

Theoretical Ecology provides a succinct, up-to-date overview of the field set in the context of applications, thereby bridging the traditional division of theory and practice. It describes the recent advances in our understanding of how interacting populations of plants and animals change over time and space, in response to natural or human-created.

Ecosystem Dynamics focuses on long-term terrestrial ecosystems and their changing relationships with human societies.  The unique aspect of this text is the long-time scale under consideration as data and insights from the last 10,000 years are used to place present-day ecosystem status into a temporal perspective and to test models that generate forecasts of future conditions. Descriptions and assessments of some of the current modelling tools that are used, along with their uncertainties and assumptions, are an important feature of this book. An overarching theme explores the dynamic interactions between human societies and ecosystem functioning and services. This book is authoritative but accessible and provides a useful background for all students, practitioners, and researchers interested in the subject.