Coupling of Land and Water Systems

This volume is concerned with many kinds of links between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Ecological systems on land interact with water in many ways that have been treated throughout the Ecological Studies series. Volume l's chapters 16 through 18, on Hydrologic Cycles, provide background that leads directly into the description of nutrient-hydrologic interactions in Chap- ter 1 ofthe present volume. Volume 2 treats further aspects of water in forests, grassland, and crops. Volume 3 summarizes biological and environmental aspects of the whole Indian Ocean as a marine ecosystem that is notably influenced by upwelling of water and nutrients along several of its shorelines. Volumes 4 and 5 provide a closer look at the movement of water in crops and other woody or herbaceous systems and their soils, from viewpoints ranging from that of physics to that of practical agriculture. These volumes, especially Volume 7 on the evolutionary adaptation of ecosystems to mediter- ranean types of climates, are concerned with the ecosystem's strategies of using water, which nature provides on a very seasonal basis. Volume 8 treats many aspects of seasonality in a variety of ecosystem types, including en- vironmental signals that turn growth on and off at times that are generally appropriate for organisms' survival and for effective use of landscapes by mankind.