ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the principles of landscape ecology to describe the overall plant community structure of the mountain landscape of the north-eastern United States and the adjacent Canadian provinces. It then discusses the dynamics of forest communities, with an emphasis on the ecological processes that control the development, maintenance, and biodiversity of forests, and some thoughts on how these may be affected by resort development. While climate, geology, and other abiotic influences may constrain the development of communities and landscapes, individual organisms and populations interact with the environment and with each other to influence the trajectory and details of ecosystem development. The dominant ecological processes of competition, disturbance, and secondary succession can continue to function as long as forest cover is continuous over large areas. Alpine communities are usually characterized as fragile because they are slow to recover from disturbance, yet alpine plants are able to live in some of the most extreme growing conditions on the planet.
