This volume commemorates the Golden Jubilee Year of the establishment of Kirorimal College. This prestigious institution was honoured by the gracious presence of the First President of India, Dr. Rajindra Prasad who laid the foundation of the college building.This commemorative volume focuses attention on the growing awareness about plant ecology and environment biology. The different contributions present an up-to-date, detailed and balanced overview of the current knowledge within specific topics.Man has interacted with nature in various ways since the dawn of civilization. Primitive societies ensured that a proper balance was maintained. The situation has changed by the various developmental activities of man. We are losing our natural resources, biodiversity, genetic diversity, and are unable to manage nature. The consequences are becoming apparent in the form of drought, floods, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, climate change, melting of snow, rising of water levels in coastal areas, desertification, etc. These concern ecologists/ environmentalists and should receive adequate attention by students who study ecology.In this volume, emphasis has been laid on areas such as Climate Change, Environmental Laws, Biodiversity Act, Intellectual Property Rights, Mineral Industry and Environment, Remote Sensing, GIS and the environment, Diversity and Distribution of wild relatives of crop plants, Sustainable agriculture, Management of Protected Areas, Wetland ecosystems, and Coastal Erosion.The volume is meant to serve as useful reference book for graduate and post-graduate students.

In this book, plant biology is considered from the perspective of plants and their surrounding environment, including both biotic and abiotic interactions. The intended audience is undergraduate students in the middle or final phases of their programs of study. Topics are developed to provide a rudimentary understanding of how plant-environment interactions span multiple spatiotemporal scales, and how this rudimentary knowledge can be applied to understand the causes of ecosystem vulnerabilities in the face of global climate change and expansion of natural resource use by human societies. In all chapters connections are made from smaller to larger scales of ecological organization, providing a foundation for understanding plant ecology. Where relevant, environmental threats to ecological systems are identified and future research needs are discussed. As future generations take on the responsibility for managing ecosystem goods and services, one of the most effective resources that can be passed on is accumulated knowledge of how organisms, populations, species, communities and ecosystems function and interact across scales of organization. This book is intended to provide some of that knowledge, and hopefully provide those generations with the ability to avoid some of the catastrophic environmental mistakes that prior generations have made.

The book “Ecological and Environmental Science: A Research Perspective” is a compilation of authors' original research papers, scientific articles, review articles, popular articles, general articles, and short notes on forest ecology, wetland ecology, plant ecology, bird ecology, and animal ecology. The book is a perfect amalgamation of burgeoning and thrust topics spanning biodiversity, and conservation and management of floral and faunal elements including ecology and biodiversity of phytoplankton, zooplankton, aquatic macrophytes, mangroves, terrestrial plants, animals (butterflies, reptiles, mammals) and birds. It covers ecological and environmental factors affecting abiotic and biotic components prevailed in forest, desert, grassland and wetland habitats and ecosystems. The present book highlights field studies and laboratory investigations carried out by the authors during their research journey of 22 years (1998-2020). It discusses phenology, ethnobotanical, ethnomedicinal and aesthetic values of plants, resource use patterns by local inhabitants, socio-cultural aspects, livelihood dependency, rare and endangered plants, animals and birds, anthropogenic pressures, conservation and management strategies of endemic, exotic, and invasive species, and so on. The book covers unique and promising research topics e.g. hydrochemistry, geochemistry, biomonitoring of heavy metals in aquatic and terrestrial plants, metal remediation, environmental modeling, environmental archaeology, environmental bioindicators, environmental forensics, etc. The authors believes that this book is a perfect blend of their research work on two integral branches of biology i.e. ecology and environmental science, which will undoubtedly enrich and enhance the knowledge and awareness of laymen and scientific community world over especially in the field of ecology and biodiversity of plants, animals, and birds, associated with physical, chemical, biological, ecological and environmental factors. The present book would certainly be useful and handy as a ready-reference material for students, academicians, researchers, scientists, ecological and environmental consultants, restoration specialists, practitioners, conservationists, and biodiversity managers at regional, national and global platform.

This volume presents an overview of current accomplishments and future directions in ecological theory. The twenty-three chapters cover a broad range of important topics, from the physiology and behavior of individuals or groups of organisms, through population dynamics and community structure, to the ecology of ecosystems and the geochemical cycles of the entire biosphere. The authors focus on ways in which theory, whether expressed mathematically or verbally, can contribute to defining and solving fundamental problems in ecology. A second aim is to highlight areas where dialogue between theorists and empiricists is likely to be especially rewarding. The authors are R. M. Anderson, C. W. Clark, M. L. Cody, J. E. Cohen, P. R. Ehrlich, M. W. Feldman, M. E. Gilpin, L. J. Gross, M. P. Hassell, H. S. Horn, P. Kareiva, M.A.R. Koehl, S. A. Levin, R. M. May, L. D. Mueller, R. V. O'Neill, S. W. Pacala, S. L. Pimm, T. M. Powell, H. R. Pulliam, J. Roughgarden, W. H. Schlesinger, H. H. Shugart, S. M. Stanley, J. H. Steele, D. Tilman, J. Travis, and D. L. Urban. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/vandermaarelfranklin/vegetationecology. Vegetation Ecology, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive, integrated account of plant communities and their environments. Written by leading experts in their field from four continents, the second edition of this book: covers the composition, structure, ecology, dynamics, diversity, biotic interactions and distribution of plant communities, with an emphasis on functional adaptations; reviews modern developments in vegetation ecology in a historical perspective; presents a coherent view on vegetation ecology while integrating population ecology, dispersal biology, soil biology, ecosystem ecology and global change studies; tackles applied aspects of vegetation ecology, including management of communities and invasive species; includes new chapters addressing the classification and mapping of vegetation, and the significance of plant functional types Vegetation Ecology, 2nd Edition is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduates and researchers and teachers in plant ecology, geography, forestry and nature conservation. Vegetation Ecology takes an integrated, multidisciplinary approach and will be welcomed as an essential reference for plant ecologists the world over.

Originally published in 1990, continued requests for copies of Perspectives on Plant Competition by James B. Grace and David Tilman have demonstrated its utility to practitioners and especially to students. The dynamics and outcomes of plant interactions are of increasingly great interest and importance to ecologists and environmental biologists. Ever since the effects of global environmental change have emerged as a major issue, ecologists have increasingly focused their work on predicting the responses of natural systems to environmental changes. This has forced us to confront both the unknowns and the complexity of species interactions. Simply put, it is now clear that, without a better understanding of the mechanisms of plant interactions, we will not be able to predict the responses of communities and ecosystems to elevated nitrogen deposition, to changes in species composition and diversity, to elevated atmospheric CO2, to climate change, or to invasive exotic species. Work on plant interactions has continued unabated of course since the original printing of Perspectives on Plant Competition but the title is generally held to have had a positive effect on subsequent work on plant interactions, both by showcasing the variety of ways in which competition can be approached and by substantially reducing some of the confusion about issues that existed before its publication. It still has an important role to play in guiding future research on plant interactions. Perhaps an additional, continuing value is in the example it serves for the maturation of an important ecological topic. The lasting message of this book is that one cannot fully understand an idea without understanding the perspective upon which it is based, including the systems that have inspired the idea and the finer details of the research goals of those involved. Plant competition will continue to be a multifaceted topic. This book will continue to provide useful guidance for the further exploration of such interactions. "This is certainly a required book for those working on plant competition, and an important reference for ecologists and biologists in general. In many ways, it will be a landmark, providing a snapshot of research at a critical time in the development of this field." Science 249, 1054 "I strongly recommend this well-edited, thoughtful book to all students of population biology and community ecology." Bioscience 41, 178 Jim Grace obtained his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1980. He subsequently served on the faculty at the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University. He joined the US Geological Survey - National Wetlands Research Center in 1992 and currently holds an Adjunct Professorship in Biology at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. His basic research specialization is in plant ecology, with an emphasis on species interactions, biodiversity, invasive species, and conservation biology. He has been elected to the positions of chair and vice-chair of the Ecological Section of the Botanical Society of America. David Tilman is an experimental and theoretical ecologist interested in biodiversity, in the controls of ecosystem composition, stability and productivity, and in the long-term implications for society of human impacts on global ecosystems. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1976. He immediately came to the University of Minnesota where he now is Regents Professor, holds the McKnight University Presidential Chair in Ecology and is Director of Cedar Creek Natural History Area. He has written two books, edited three books, and published more than 160 scientific papers. In 2001, he was designated the most highly cited environmental scientist of the decade (1990-2000) by the Institute for Scientific Information.