Silvatic Mosaics

Abstract

In the preceding chapter, silvatic mosaics have been mentioned already as the living systems of which the eco-units are the subsystems. When explaining eco-units as systems in terms of their subsystems (components or compartments), it was impossible to do so without referring to the environment of these eco-units (cf. Fig. 5.75). When further considering eco-unit development and degradation, processes such as fragmentation or fusion could not be explained without at least mentioning a mosaic concept, even if it were not completely explicit. Anyhow, it has been clear that the eco-unit fragmentation concept is quite different from the “fragmented forest” of Harris (1984), who considers landscapes with forest “islands”. It has been stated above that Shugart and Seagle (1985) look at mosaics as the sum of island-like forest “patches” and consider, for the time being, that “contagion” amongst these patches is a complicating factor (Sect. 5.6.6). This “contagion”, in terms of interaction among eco-units in a mosaic, will be the main element of explanation used in the present chapter.