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Now available for your classroom

by Paul Keddy with Cambridge University Press

Current plant ecology texts each have disadvantages.  You may be tired of geographical biases, lack of basic botany, too little (or too much) theory, outdated examples, omission of important topics, limited referencing, or the excesses of personality-driven science. This new text book offers an alternative -- a fresh, balanced, contemporary, comprehensive approach to the study of plants and their communities.

• Comprehensive -- 12 chapters, 364 figures, 80 tables, more than 1000 references.
• Global scope -- World-wide examples including South American tepuis, South African fynbos, North American pine savannas, and New Zealand beech forests.
• Rich natural history -- Copiously illustrated to enhance appreciation of plants as organisms. Carnivorous plants. Parasitic plants. Epiphytic plants. Aquatic plants. Arctic plants. Succulents. Endolithic lichens. Myrmecochorous plants. Orchids.
• Processes emphasized -- Resource acquisition. Plants and climate. Stress and disturbance gradients. Fire ecology. Competition, predation, and mutualism. Plant diversification and evolution. Alternation of generations. Ice Ages. Gradients.
• Fresh examples -- Spruce budworm cycles in Acadian forests. Floodplain disturbance in the Amazon basin. Tortoise grazing in the Galapagos. Roman deforestation in the Mediterranean. Nutrient gradients in New Zealand forests.
• Models -- Trade-offs in sexual and asexual reproduction. Matrix models for population dynamics. CSR and r-K continua in life history strategies. Trends during succession. Plant-herbivore interactions. Thresholds in ecosystem collapse.
• Conservation -- Applied examples throughout; unified treatment in a final chapter. Biological hotspots. Ecosystems at risk. Design of reserve systems. Mechanisms of global warming. Overgrazing. Logging. Ecological footprints. Ecosystem restoration.
• Expansive referencing -- More than 1000 references. Includes classic historical papers, little-known examples that illustrate important general principles, and emerging topics in plant ecology. Each chapter ends with at least ten key readings.