Preface; 1. Plants create the biosphere; 2. The search for global patterns; 3. Resources; 4. Competition; 5. Disturbance; 6. Herbivores; 7. Positive interactions; 8. Time; 9. Populations; 10. Stress; 11. Gradients and plant communities; 12. Diversity; 13. Conservation and management; Questions for review; References; Glossary; Index.
This book presents a global and interdisciplinary approach to plant ecology, guiding students through essential concepts with real-world examples.
Paul A. Keddy has taught plant ecology for more than thirty years. He is often a conference keynote speaker, and delights in bringing science alive for his audience. Dr Keddy's research explores environmental factors that control plant communities and their manipulation to maintain and restore biodiversity. His awards include a National Wetlands Award for Science Research, the Lawson Medal and Gleason Prize for Competition, and his first edition of Wetland Ecology (Cambridge, 2000) won the Society of Wetland Scientists' Merit Award. He has also advised organizations including World Wildlife Fund, Earthjustice, and The Nature Conservancy.
'Keddy's Plant Ecology is a refreshing synthesis of the core
concepts of the discipline. It is a remarkably readable book that
is brimming with vivid stories about the central role of plants in
the biosphere. This milestone in the canon of ecological literature
pays homage to the previous generations of plant ecologists that
built the field as we know it. The organisation is unconventional
yet intuitive, the prose is animated yet enlightening, and the
revised figures are both colourful and instructive. I highly
recommend this book to anyone who wants to acquire a broad
understanding of plant ecology.' Daniel Laughlin, The University of
Waikato, New Zealand
'In the early pages of this distinctive and engaging book Paul
Keddy explains the underrated foundational role of plants in the
origin of life on Earth. This is followed in masterfully discerning
style over several chapters by arguments and evidence in which he
champions the plant ecologists who are advancing specific sets of
plant functional traits as the basis of vegetation patterns and as
key factors in ecosystem structure and dynamics and responses to
climate and management. Finally in conclusion, Keddy identifies and
reproaches Man as the remorseless destroyer of our plant heritage
and casts a critical eye at current efforts at conservation and
restoration.' Philip Grime, Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab,
University of Sheffield
'The new volume by Paul A. Keddy … provides a comprehensive
overview of major concepts and hypotheses in ecology in general and
plant ecology in particular. Because of the presentation of the
basic concepts, this textbook could easily function as a teaching
tool for general ecology, using plants as a focus group, with
leaving only some subfields, such as behavioral ecology, untouched.
As a volume for a plant ecology class, it provides everything that
biology or ecology students can wish for, most importantly a very
solid conceptual framework for the organization of knowledge on the
subject.' André Kessler, The Quarterly Review of Biology
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