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Presenting a global and interdisciplinary approach to plant ecology, this much-awaited new edition of Plants and Vegetation integrates classical themes with the latest ideas, models, and data. Keddy draws on extensive teaching experience to bring the field to life, guiding students through essential concepts with numerous real-world examples and full-colour illustrations throughout. The chapters begin by presenting the wider picture of the origin of plants and their impact on the Earth, before exploring the search for global patterns in plants and vegetation. Chapters on resources, stress, competition, herbivory, and mutualism explore causation, and a concluding chapter on conservation addresses the concern that one-third of all plant species are at risk of extinction. The scope of this edition is broadened further by a new chapter on population ecology, along with extensive examples including South African deserts, the Guyana Highlands of South America, Himalayan forests and arctic alpine environments.
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. Gradient and plant communities
12. Diversity
13. Conservation and management
Questions for review
References
Glossary
Index
"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
