Structure and Functioning of Seminatural Meadows

M. Rychnovská

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780444986696
• eBook ISBN:
  9780444599643
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Twelve years' analysis of natural grassland and experimentally managed meadows have produced this unique set of data on the structures and physiological functions of primary producers, consumers and decomposers. Obtained during the 1973-1985 Ecosystem Study on Highland Meadows in Czechoslovakia, such original information is rare in scientific literature. The aim of the study was to define the functioning of these grasslands and their changes under different impact of man, and to examine the ecological function of those ecosystems in the intensively managed catchment area. Hence, this book contains deep analyses of soil microorganisms, their functions in decomposition and soil forming processes - leading to the evaluation of the whole carbon cycle - as well as dealing with nitrogen pathways in the experimental plots - resulting in precise determination of the full nitrogen cycle. Procedures used in practical agriculture, such as cutting, fertilization and renovation, have also been applied, producing evaluations from both ecological and economical view-points.The book's integrated ecosystem approach to grasslands, its deep professional analyses in each section, along with the synthesis on each particular level and across all levels, renders it an invaluable, informative text, comprising extensive figures and tables and a substantial bibliography of world-wide sources.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Structure and Functioning of Seminatural Meadows
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Meadow communities of the Ždárské Vrchy Landscape Reserve
• Chapter 3. Characteristics of the climatic factors
• Chapter 4. Grassland ecosystems for pilot studies – the Kameničky area
• Chapter 5. Edaphic factors
• Chapter 6. Structure of the populations of plant communities
• Chapter 7. Primary producers of the natural stand (N)
• Chapter 8. Underground biomass in meadow stands
• Chapter 9. Anatomical structure of leaves of the dominant grasses
• Chapter 10. Limits of forage production and the efficiency of grassland management
• Chapter 11. Photosynthesis and limiting factors
• Chapter 12. Plant–water relationships in grasslands
• Chapter 13. Consumers in grassland ecosystems at Kamenicky
• Chapter 14. Micro-organisms in grassland ecosystems
• Chapter 15. Carbon cycling in grassland ecosystems
• Chapter 16. The nitrogen cycle
• Chapter 17. The water budget
• Chapter 18. Fertility of grassland soils
• Chapter 19. Exploitation and management of grassland in the Bohemian-Moravian Uplands
• Chapter 20. Functioning of grasslands in the landscape
• Bibliography
• Subject index