Beech Forests

There are some good reasons to start a global study of beech forests. One reason may be the importance of beech for man. In many places and in many ages, beech has played an important role in people's lives (Table 1). Already in old ages beech was useful for nuts, fuelwood and bokiz, beechwood tablets carved with runes, from which probably our word 'book' is derived. Beech still plays an important role in people's lives. Another reason for a global study of beech forests is that it lifts us above the detailed but fragmented image of a local study. My study of beech forests started out of love for these often beautiful forests, and, gradually, a small project grew into a world wide study. Table 1. Beech names. Scientific name Name Language Meaning - origin beech English bhagos (Indo-European) Fagus sylvatica do Buche, Rotbuche Gennan beuk do Dutch do bok Swedish do bog Danish do Mtre, fayard French hetre = hester (Gennanic), indicating young beeches do haya Spanish do faig Cathalan do faggio Italian do fagus Latin phagos = glutton (Greek), referring to edible nuts do fagul Romanian do buk Czech F. sylvatica subsp. orientalis kayin Turkish Fagus crenata buna Japanese unknown do sobaguri Japanese noodle chestnut (old), indicating hairy cupule penduncles F agus japonica inubuna Japanese inferior beech Fagus spp.

Klappentext
This volume compares the beech forests of eastern Asia, North America and Europe. Beech forests are important in each of these three regions. No other book covers beech on this scale. The author has personally studied beech forests in each region, and his large body of data is the starting point for comparison. For such a world-wide comparison to be justified, factors that have most strongly influenced the beech forests should be known. First, use and management of beech forests are compared. They have influenced beech forests for millennia and have been very different in each region. Next, in a historical comparison spread and speciation since the early Tertiary are analysed. Today's beech forests cover a wide range of climates and soils; they occur in cool temperate regions as well as on tropical mountains. The final part compares the trees and forests themselves: growth and form of trees, species composition and populations, forest structure and forest dynamics.

Zusammenfassung
` A rare book lying at the interface between ecology and palaeoecology that deserves a place in the forests section of your library.'
The Holocene, 8:4 (1998)


Inhalt
Use and Management.- History: Spread and Speciation.- The Environment of Fagus Species: Climate and Soil.- Growth and Form: Beech versus Other Dominant Tree Species.- Beech Forests: Woody Species Composition, Populations, Spatial Aspects.- Canopy-Dynamics in Beech Forests.- Synthesis and Conclusion.- References.

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