The product of decades of intensive research into alpine timberlines, this book presents a complete synthesis of current knowledge on the ecophysiology of tree growth and survival on high mountains in Europe. Amid growing realization that high elevation forests have a crucial role to play in protection against natural hazards, this book sets a new standard for research on the ecophysiology of trees growing at the alpine timberline.
Excerpt from The Natural History of Plants: Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution Although the authors of the Flora had no such purpose in view, their works furnished the starting-point for a real history of the vegetable world. A com parison of the Floras of neighbouring regions shows that certain plants inhabit a greater, others a lesser area; that the boundaries of the species confined to a distinct district coincide with territories inhabited by various races of mankind; that the boundaries of this and that species coincide and stand in relation to various climatic and other conditions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Each of the various species of coniferous trees which dominate the Rocky Mountain forests has rather definite limits of altitude above and below which is normally does not grow, and these vary considerably among species. It seems safe to assume that the factors which govern the upper altitudinal limits of a tree are in all probability different from those which effect the lower limits of its range. For example, if the summer temperature above a certain elevation is insufficient to meet the heat requirements of a particular species, this factor cannot be effective the same way at the lower limit of the species range, since temperature increases down the slope. It is therefore feasible to ignore one set of factors, such as those involved in determining the upper altitudinal limits, and concentrate attention on the other set. This paper is concerned primarily with the two factors most frequently suggested as playing a critical role in determining the downward limits of distribution, namely, high temperature and drought. --Introduction.
