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Element Budgets in Catchments

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Ecology of Mediterranean Evergreen Oak Forests

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 137))

Abstract

The element budget concept for the study of forest ecosystems was first developed by an interdisciplinary group of scientists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (New Hampshire, USA) in the early 1960s. The reasoning behind the element budget concept was that “in humid regions, the chemical flux and cycling is intimately linked to the hydrologic cycle” as quoted in their seminal book Biogeochemistry of a Forested Ecosystem (Likens et al. 1977). In this way, terrestrial ecologists could take advantage of the broad experience in using small catchments for hydrological studies (e.g. the Coweeta watersheds in the USA) in order to test hypotheses regarding the nutrient circulation in small catchments. Input-output budgets were used to provide information on the processes operating in catchments at different time scales and to understand the effects of natural or anthropogenic perturbations on biogeochemical cycles at the ecosystem level.

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Authors
  1. Anna Àvila
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  2. Juan Bellot
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  3. Josep Piñol
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Ferran Rodà , Javier Retana  & Carlos A. Gracia ,  & 

  2. Department of Ecology Faculty of Sciences, University of Alicante, PO Box 99, 03080, Alicante, Spain

    Juan Bellot

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Àvila, A., Bellot, J., Piñol, J. (1999). Element Budgets in Catchments. In: Rodà, F., Retana, J., Gracia, C.A., Bellot, J. (eds) Ecology of Mediterranean Evergreen Oak Forests. Ecological Studies, vol 137. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58618-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58618-7_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-63668-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-58618-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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