Ecotones are dynamic over-lapping boundary areas where major terrestrial biomes meet. As past studies have shown, and as the chapters in this book will illustrate, their structure, size, and scope have changed considerably over the millennia, expanding and shrinking as climate and/or other driving conditions, also changed. Today, however, many of them are changing at a rate not seen for a long time, perhaps largely due to climate change and other human-induced factors. Indeed ecotones are more sensitive to climate change than the biomes on either side, and thus may serve as critical early indicators of future climate change. As ecotones change, they also redefine the limits of the biomes on either side by altering their distributions of species because, in addition to their own endemic species, any ecotone will also have species from both adjoining biomes. Consequently, they may also be places of high levels of species interaction, serving as active evolutionary laboratories, which generate new species that then migrate back into adjacent biomes.

Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland explores how these ecotones have changed in the past, how they are changing today, and how they are likely to change in the future. The book includes chapters from around the world with a special focus on South American and Neotropical ecotones.

1.Introduction.- Section I: Temperate forest-grassland ecotones: prairies, steppes, and pampas.- 2. Woodland-grassland ecotonal shifts in environmental mosaics: lessons learnt from the environmental history of the Carpathian Basin (Central Europe) during the Holocene and the last ice age based on investigation of paleobotanical and mollusk remains.- 3. Ecotones as complex arenas of disturbance, climate and human impacts: the trans-Andean forest-steppe ecotone of northern Patagonia.- 4. Woody-Herbaceous-Livestock Species Interaction.- 5. Woody plant invasions in Pampa grasslands – a biogeographical and community assembly perspective.- Section II: Tropical forest-grassland ecotones: old fields, savannas, and llanos.- 6. Post-agricultural ecotones in Puerto Rico.- 7. South Brazilian forest-grassland ecotones: Dynamics affected by climate, disturbance and woody species traits.- 8.Long-term perspectives on Tropical forest-savanna dynamics in lowland Bolivia from the last ice age until the present.- 9.Using palaeoecological data to define main vegetation dynamics along the savanna-forest ecotone in Colombia: implications for accurate assessment of human impacts.- Section III: Boral and cloud forest-grassland ecotones: páramo and alpine grasslands.- 10. The dynamic history of the upper forest line ecotone in the northern Andes.- 11. Climatic drivers of tree growth and recent recruitment at the Pyrenean alpine tree line ecotone.- 12. The alpine treeline ecotone in the southernmost Swedish Scandes – dynamism on different scales.-13.How climate and fire disturbances influence contrasted dynamics of Picea glauca ecotones at alpine tree lines in Atlantic and continental eastern North Ameria.-Conclusions, synthesis, and future directions

Ecotones are dynamic over-lapping boundary areas where major terrestrial

biomes meet. As past studies have shown, and as the chapters in this book will

illustrate, their structure, size, and scope have changed considerably over the

millennia, expanding and shrinking as climate and/or other driving conditions

have also changed. Today, however, many of them are changing at a rate not

seen for a long time, perhaps largely due to climate change and other humaninduced

factors. Indeed, ecotones are more sensitive to climate change than the

biomes on either side, and thus may serve as critical early indicators of future

climate change. As ecotones change, they also redefine the limits of the biomes

on either side by altering their distributions of species because, in addition to

their own endemic species, any ecotone will also have species from both

adjoining biomes. Consequently, they may also be places of high levels of

species interaction, serving as active evolutionary laboratories, which generate

new species that then migrate back into adjacent biomes.

Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland explores how these ecotones have

changed in the past, how they are changing today, and how they are likely to

change in the future. The book includes chapters from around the world with a

special focus on South American and Neotropical ecotones.

About the Editor

Randall W. Myster received his Ph.D from Rutgers University working with S. T. A.

Pickett on post-agriculture succession in New Jersey, USA. Dr. Myster´s first

academic position was at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) where he conducted

tropical plant research in landslides and pastures, and also after banana, coffee

and sugarcane cultivation. He served as a CO-PI for 12 years on their LTER

grants. He left there for another position in Oklahoma where he conducted the

research in the Cross Timbers ecotone reported here. He continues to receive

support from UPR for work in Ecuador and Peru where he currently samples and

maintains a LTER set and also investigates flooded forests in the Western

Amazon. He teaches at Oklahoma State University-OKC.