A Theory of Forest Dynamics: The Ecological Implications of Forest Succession Models

by Herman H. Shugart

This book is a consideration of the dynamics of forested systems at the time and spatial scales that 1 feel are implied by our present-day use of the term "succession." The investigation will be conducted by exercising a set of ecological models called "gap models," which have been in a state of development and improvement for the past 15 years. It is the intent of this book to use these models as tools for exploring theories of ecological succession. Ecological succession is one of the most obvious and demonstrable features of natural systems when viewed from outside the field of ecology. Succession is used by teachers as a theory that introduces young people to the interactive and dynamic nature of ecosystems. Succession theory and examples of succession are proclaimed from legions of nature trail guidebooks and placards. It is a pleasant classroom exercise to discuss how ecological systems change as the product of internal mechanisms that can be demonstrated by observaaon. The deductive explanation of how a particular place came to have a given assemblage of tree species has a pleasing "Sherlock Holmesian" touch that can be challenging to puzzle through.

278 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 1984

About the author

Herman H. (Hank) Shugart
W.W. Corcoran Professor of Environmental Sciences & Director, Center for Regional Environmental Studies

Regions of Interest:
Global

Research:
Global change, systems ecology, systems analysis and modeling, forest ecosystem analysis and dynamics, ornithology.

Hank Shugart is a Highly Cited™ Scientist and 2006 University of Virginia Distinguished Scientist.

Hank is a systems ecologist whose primary research interests focus on the simulation modeling of forest ecosystems. He has developed and tested models of biogeochemical cycles, energy flow and secondary succession. In his most recent work, he uses computer models to simulate the growth, birth and death of each tree on small forest plots. The simulations describe changes in forest structure and composition over time, in response to both internal and external sources of perturbation. The models are applied at spatial scales ranging in size from small forest gaps to entire landscapes and at temporal scales of years to millennia.

Abstract: Herman H. ("Hank") Shugart, Jr. is the W.W. Corcoran Professor of Environmental Sciences and the Director of the Center for Regional Environmental Studies at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Georgia in 1971, and worked for the next 13 years in Tennessee -- eventually as a Senior Research Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as a Professor in Botany and the Graduate Program in Ecology at the University of Tennessee. In 1984, he moved to his current position at University of Virginia. Dr. Shugart has also served as a Visiting Fellow in the Australian National University (1978-1979, 1993-1994), in Australia's Commonwealth Industrial and Scientific Research Organization, Division of Land Use Research (1982) and Division of Wildlife and Ecology (1993-1994), in the International Meteorological Institute at the University of Stockholm, Sweden (1984), and in the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria (1987,1989). He has served on the editorial board of several scholarly journals including Ecology and Ecological Monographs, Annual Reviews in Ecology and Systematics, Biological Conservation, Landscape Ecology, Journal of Vegetation Science, Forest Science, Global Change Biology and The Australian Journal of Botany. He is the author of more than 300 publications including 11 books, 60 book chapters and 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals.