Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Science for Conservation and Management
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests: Science for Conservation and Management
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热带山地云林：保护和管理科学
DOI：
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Adrian Newton
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作者：
Adrian Newton
很少有人会质疑热带云雾林的生态和社会经济重要性，所以很高兴发现一本致力于保护和管理的新书。事实上，在过去的几十年里，云雾森林事业一直由一个专门的研究人员和保护主义者社区努力推动，并在此过程中产生了一系列着名的出版物。这份新出版物给这场盛宴带来了什么？首先打动你的是它的大小; 700多页，这在任何意义上都不是轻阅读。用劳里安德森不朽的话来说，它真的厚到可以把牛打晕。也许这证明了现在对这一特别重要的森林类型进行的大量研究。这本书是提出了一个高标准的整个，与视觉上有吸引力的设计和充足的插图（虽然不是彩色）。正文分为72章，分为7个部分，这一结构源于本书的起源，即2004年举行的一次会议的议事录。这些部分包括区域植物和动物多样性，水文气象，营养动态，水资源利用，气候影响和保护管理的评估。令人遗憾的是，这些会议记录过了这么长时间才付印，因为尽管编辑们尽了最大努力更新文本，但所提供的一些信息不可避免地有点过时。尽管它的大小，这本书的覆盖面是不完整的;例如，有很少在这里对autecology或保护遗传学，虽然近年来在这些领域有重大的研究进展。文本的重点是生态系统生态学，特别是水文学。这也许并不奇怪，因为最初的专题讨论会是由教科文组织国际水文计划共同赞助的。这本书的主要贡献之一是提供了一个有价值的概述的一系列重大研究计划的结果，进入水文的云雾森林，是大约十年前进行的。许多读者都熟悉L. A. Bruijnzeel，谁是本卷的高级编辑，显然值得大量的信贷为艰巨的努力所需的使这本书成为现实。由于他是一个共同作者的一个章节，以及共同编辑的所有部分，这是非常bruijnzeelian概述。因此，这本书在介绍这一系列工作方面具有很大的价值，但可以说它受到了专题讨论会形式的影响。有了这么多对个别案例研究的简洁描述，读者所产生的效果更像是过度沉迷于开胃小菜，而不是吃一顿令人满意的主菜。鉴于标题包罗万象的性质，读者可能合理地期望更注重综合。然而，这里提供了许多有用和有趣的信息，例如，关于雾的影响和气候变化对云雾森林的潜在影响。有证据表明，云雾林从干扰中恢复缓慢，恢复成本相对较高，尽管这并不令人惊讶，但这为今后加强保护工作提供了进一步的理由。尽管有充分的证据表明，在过去20年里，研究取得了重大进展，但仍有许多东西有待发现。即使是像云雾林损失的水文后果或气候变化对生物多样性的影响这样至关重要的问题，仍然非常不确定。通过识别这些知识差距，这本书提供了一个有价值的平台，可以作为未来研究的基础，当然，没有一个活跃在云雾森林研究中的人可以负担得起没有副本的代价。希望这本重要的书中的关键信息将进入那些参与云雾森林保护和管理的人的心灵和思想，但如果要广泛使用，可能需要以更容易理解的形式呈现。
Few people would question the ecological and socioeconomic importance of tropical cloud forests, so it is a pleasure to discover a new book dedicated to their conservation and management. In fact, the cloud forest cause has been diligently promoted by a dedicated community of researchers and conservationists over the past couple of decades and produced a series of notable publications in the process. What does this new publication bring to the feast? The first thing that strikes you is its size; at more than 700 pages, this is not light reading in any sense. In the immortal words of Laurie Anderson, it really is thick enough to stun an ox. Perhaps this is testament to the amount of research that is now being devoted to this exceptionally important forest type. The book is presented in a high standard throughout, with a visually attractive design and ample illustrations (although not in color). The text is divided into 72 chapters, organized into 7 sections, a structure that arises from the book’s genesis as the proceedings of a conference held in 2004. These sections include assessments of regional floristic and animal diversity, hydrometeorology, nutrient dynamics, water use, climate impacts, and conservation management. It is a shame that these proceedings have taken so long to appear in print, because, inevitably, some of the information presented is a little out of date, in spite of the best efforts of the editors to refresh the text. Despite its size, the book’s coverage is incomplete; for example, there is little here on autecology or on conservation genetics, although there have been significant research advances in these areas in recent years. The focus of the text is very much on ecosystem ecology and particularly on hydrology. This is perhaps not surprising, because the original symposium was cosponsored by UNESCO’s International Hydrology Programme. One of the book’s main contributions is to provide a valuable overview of the results of a series of major research programs into the hydrology of cloud forests that were undertaken approximately a decade ago. Many readers will be familiar with the seminal work on this theme by L. A. Bruijnzeel, who is the senior editor of this volume, and clearly deserves a great deal of credit for the herculean efforts required to bring this book into being. As he is a coauthor of onefourth of the chapters as well as a coeditor of all sections, this is very much a Bruijnzeelian overview. The book, consequently, has undoubted value in providing an introduction to this body of work, but arguably it suffers from its symposium format. With so many concise accounts of individual case studies, the effect induced in the reader is more akin to overindulging on canapés than eating a satisfying main course. Given the allencompassing nature of the title, the reader might legitimately have expected far greater focus on synthesis. Nevertheless, much useful and interesting information is presented here, for example, on the influence of fog and the potential impacts of climate change on cloud forests. Evidence that cloud forests are slow to recover from disturbance and are relatively costly to restore, although unsurprising, provides further justification for strengthening conservation efforts in the future. Despite the ample evidence provided of the significant progress in research that has been achieved over the past 20 years, it is also striking how much remains to be discovered. Even issues of such crucial importance as the hydrological consequences of cloud forest loss or the impacts of climate change on biodiversity remain highly uncertain. By identifying such knowledge gaps, this book provides a valuable platform on which to base future research, and certainly no one active in cloud forest research can afford to be without a copy. It is to be hoped that the key messages of this important volume will find their way into the hearts and minds of those involved in cloud forest conservation and management, but they may need to be presented in a more digestible format if they are to be widely consumed.