Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Crawley MJ. (ed). 1997. Plant Ecology. 2nd edition. Blackwell Science. pp xvii + 717.ISBN 0 632 03639 7. £29.50.

The aim of this book is to provide both information and stimulation in the area of plant ecology. In so doing it goes beyond the traditional textbook on the subject. Each of the 19 chapters deals with a specific area of the subject roughly dividing the book into four parts. The first set of chapters describes the physiological side of ecology with topics such as photosynthesis, plat-water relations, nutrients etc. This leads to the second set dealing with population structure. Alongside more traditional areas like plant population dynamics and plant-herbivore dynamics there are three chapters dealing with seed dispersal and one on herbivory giving a greater range than is often seen. Thirdly, community studies focus on structure, dynamics and webs. This leaves a fourth applied-ecosystem part which looks at pollution, climate change and biodiversity. A particularly pleasing aspect is that the huge reference list is combined not divided between chapters which makes searching, retrieval and analysis so much easier. There is much to commend in this book. It is clearly not aimed at the beginner - to appreciate fully the ideas put forward here one requires at least some basic grounding in ecology. Once this is achieved however, one is faced with a book which both informs and challenges (and is also very humourous in places). It puts forward not just the prevailing view but highlights differences, research opportunities etc. It stimulates the mind which is sadly becoming rarer these days.