This type of exercise of review and analysis for one component (carbon) of a relatively simple forest type is more generally useful in focusing thought and perhaps field research; critical knowledge gaps identified for pines presumably also apply to more complex forest ecosystems. This volume also serves to illustrate the value of comparative field studies, which in this case were totally unplanned and retrospective.

H. L. Gholz and S. Linder are the authors of Ecological Bulletins, Bulletin 43, Environmental Constraints on the Structure and Productivity of Pine Forest Ecosystems, published by Wiley.