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Jose and Gordon s Toward Agroforestry Design is an important reference for anyone interested in exploring or managing the physiological and ecological processes which underlie resource allocation and plant growth in agroforestry systems. Drawing together a wide range of examples from around the world, the book highlights how recent developments in agroforestry research can contribute to understanding agroforestry system function, and discusses the potential application of agroforestry in addressing a range of land use challenges in both tropical and temperate regions of the world. Including both original research and synthetic analyses, the book presents examples from a wide range of environments. It focuses largely on resource allocation both above- and below-ground including an assessment of the recent advances in analytical and modeling tools available to this work. Concluding with a synthesis of the key questions and research gaps highlighted throughout the text, the book will be particularly useful to students and researchers involved in natural resource management, agroforestry, and applied ecology.
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Toward Agroforestry Design An Ecological Approach Advances in Agroforestry Volume 4 Series Editor: P.K.R. Nair School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A. Aims and Scope Agroforestry, the purposeful growing of trees and crops in interacting combinations, began to attain prominence in the late 1970s, when the international scientific community embraced its potentials in the tropics and recognized it as a practice in search of science. During the 1990s, the relevance of agroforestry for solving problems related to deterioration of family farms, increased soil erosion, surface and ground water pollution, and decreased biodiversity was recognized in the industrialized nations too. Thus, agroforestry is now receiving increasing attention as a sustainable land-management option the world over because of its ecological, economic, and social attributes. Consequently, the knowledge-base of agroforestry is being expanded at a rapid rate as illustrated by the increasing number and quality of scientific publications of various forms on different aspects of agroforestry. Making full and efficient use of this upsurge in scientific agroforestry is both a challenge and an opportunity to the agroforestry scientific community. In order to help prepare themselves better for facing the challenge and seizing the opportunity, agoroforestry scientists need access to synthesized information on multi-dimensional aspects of scientific agroforesty. The aim of this new book-series, Advances in Agroforestry, is to offer state-of-the art synthesis of research results and evaluations relating to different aspects of agroforestry. Its scope is broad enough to encompass any and all aspects of agroforestry research and development. Contributions are welcome as well as solicited from competent authors on any aspect of agroforestry. Volumes in the series will consist of reference books, subject-specific monographs, peer-reviewed publications out of conferences, comprehensive evaluations of specific projects, and other book-length compilations of scientific and professional merit and relevance to the science and practice of agroforestry worldwide. The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume. Shibu Jose • Andrew M. Gordon Editors Toward Agroforestry Design An Ecological Approach Shibu Jose University of Florida Gainesville, FL USA ISBN 978-1-4020-6571-2 Andrew M. Gordon University of Guelph ON, Canada e-ISBN 978-1-4020-6572-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007936553 © 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrie