Preface

Humankind, together with its global culture, economy, and society, is an important but small part of our planet's very complex and diverse ecological system known as the biosphere. Maintaining the biodiversity, vegetation, flora, and fauna of our biosphere is vital to our survival. However, it is a difficult task owing to constant changes in vegetation and ecosystems.

Vegetation dynamics is the science of natural, near-natural, and human-influenced changes in vegetation over time and space. These dynamics involve a range of processes, which can vary greatly in spatial scale, from ecophysiological phenomena to changes in communities, ecosystems, biomes, and global biogeographical patterns. The distribution, phenology, and productivity of vegetation are very sensitive to changes in climate, land use, and land cover patterns, and of course agricultural, industrial, and other human activities, all of which affect the Earth's ecosystems.

Vegetation degradation refers to a temporary or permanent loss of biodiversity, biomass, primer production, species richness, and physiognomic structure. Therefore, continuous monitoring, modeling, analysis, and scientific research of this dynamic pattern and process are important tasks from both pure and applied ecological viewpoints.

In the maintenance and conservation of our planet's biodiversity and ecosystem services, knowledge of current vegetation dynamical and biogeographical patterns as well as changes in flora and fauna have outstanding importance.

*Vegetation Dynamics, Changing Ecosystems and Human Responsibility* presents interesting information about natural and near-natural forests as well as human-influenced ecosystems in agrarian and urban habitats. It is a useful resource for those interested in vegetation research and applied plant ecology.

> **Levente Hufnagel** Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Ecotheology, John Wesley Theological College, Budapest, Hungary

> > **Mohamed A. El-Esawi** Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

Section 1 Introduction
