This book represents the first attempt to recognize and describe warm-temperate deciduous forests as a consistent forest type. Forest composition, structure and environmental relations are treated in this book in various ways, some emphasizing bioclimatic relationships, some following traditional phytosociological analysis, plus some other methodologies. Some chapters on more specialized aspects are also included, in particular on various aspects of two prototype warm-temperate deciduous tree species, namely downy oak (Quercus pubescens) from southern Europe and Chinese cork oak (Quercus variabilis) from East Asia. The book begins with a general overview chapter on the concept of warm-temperate deciduousness, and there is an attempt at the end to quantify the climatic limits of potential temperate forest regions and to map them accordingly, around the entire Northern Hemisphere.

InhaltsangabeIntroduction.- Warm-temperate Deciduous Forests: Concepts and Global Overview.- Character of Warm-temperate Forests in Asia.- Chorology and Phytosociology of Quercus petraea in Trentino-Alto Adige.- Warm-temperate Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America.- Quantitative Delimitation of Warm-temperate Deciduous Forest Areas.