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.