Plant Diversity of Forests

Abstract

Changes in biological diversity of natural ecosystems have in the second half of 20th century become a global problem due to intensive human activities. Therefore, higher attention has been paid to these problems. The year 1992 can be considered as the pivotal year in this field since in this year the Convention on Biological Diversity was approved on the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. This document defines biological diversity - biodiversity as „the variety and variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part“. This definition covers three fundamental components of diversity: genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity (Duelli, 1997, as cited in Larsson, 2001; Merganič & Šmelko, 2004). However, also this widely accepteddefinition like many others fails to mention ecological processes, such as natural disturbances,and nutrient cycles, etc., that are crucial to maintaining biodiversity (Noss, 1990). Thecomplexity of the understanding of the term biodiversity was well documented by Kaennel(1998). Therefore, Noss (1990) suggested that for the assessment of the overall status ofbiodiversity more useful than a definition would be its characterisation that identifies its majorcomponents at several levels of organisation. Franklin et al. (1981 as cited in Noss, 1990)recognised three primary attributes of ecosystems: composition, structure, and function.