Production ecology and nutrient budgets; Faecal analysis and exclosure studies; Water relations and stress; Mineral nutrition; Site and soils; Chemical analysis; Plant population biology; Description and analysis of vegetation; Site history.

Methods in Comparative Plant Ecology: A laboratory manual is a sister book to the widely acclaimed Comparative Plant Ecology by Grime, Hodgson and Hunt. It contains details on some 90 critical concise diagnostic techniques by over 40 expert contributors. In one volume it provides an authoritative bench-top guide to diagnostic techniques in experimental plant ecology.

A user-friendly introduction to the methodology of plant population ecology research.

Physiological plant ecology is primarily concerned with the function and performance of plants in their environment. Within this broad focus, attempts are made on one hand to understand the underlying physiological, biochemical and molecular attributes of plants with respect to performance under the constraints imposed by the environment. On the other hand physiological ecology is also concerned with a more synthetic view which attempts to under stand the distribution and success of plants measured in terms of the factors that promote long-term survival and reproduction in the environment. These concerns are not mutually exclusive but rather represent a continuum of research approaches. Osmond et al. (1980) have elegantly pointed this out in a space-time scale showing that the concerns of physiological ecology range from biochemical and organelle-scale events with time constants of a second or minutes to succession and evolutionary-scale events involving communities and ecosystems and thousands, if not millions, of years. The focus of physiological ecology is typically at the single leaf or root system level extending up to the whole plant. The time scale is on the order of minutes to a year. The activities of individual physiological ecologists extend in one direction or the other, but few if any are directly concerned with the whole space-time scale. In their work, however, they must be cognizant both of the underlying mechanisms as well as the consequences to ecological and evolutionary processes.

Autecological methods; Taxonomic studies in ecology; The plant community; Root environment; Shoot environment; Nutritional requirements.

This book promises to give a new stimulus to the teaching of elementary botany, for it breaks away from the traditional method and approaches the subject from a new angle. The treatment throughout in this book is eminently clear and the suggestion for&practical work&excellent. Contents: Part I: Introductory, Part II: Structure, Distribution and Development of Vegetation, Part III: Methods of studying Vegetation, Part IV: The Habitat, Part V: Ecological Work in Schools.