Abstract
This paper is a short version of a recently published book ‘Ōhi’a Lehua Rainforest, which resulted from studies of vegetation at multiple scales in space and time. The objective of this short version is not only to demonstrate some of these changes in scale, but also to show that different perspectives through scale changes were needed for synthesizing the subject matter into a coherent story. In other words, any vegetation study that aims at comprehensive explanations needs to view the subject matter from several different perspectives or scales. The five decade-long research on native Hawaiian rainforest is such a study. Following the introduction, this study is summarized under five subheadings:
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A rainforest born among volcanoes
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Turnover by auto-succession
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From rainforest to bog and stream formation
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Fragmentation into smaller units as islands age
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Conclusion: the rainforest on Windward O’ahu
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Mueller-Dombois, D., Jacobi, J.D. (2016). Dynamics of the Hawaiian Rainforest at Multiple Scales. In: Box, E. (eds) Vegetation Structure and Function at Multiple Spatial, Temporal and Conceptual Scales. Geobotany Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21452-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21452-8_7
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