introduction to plant population ecology

• Main Author: Silvertown, Jonathan W (Author)
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: London Longman 1982; ©1982
• Subjects: Vegetation dynamics; Botany > Ecology; Plant populations
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.

 This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of plant population ecology. This relatively new approach to the study of plant ecology introduces the idea that vegetation can be analysed in terms of the plant populations of which it is composed and in terms of the births, deaths and development of individuals in these populations. This method, whilst quantitative, does not demand an advanced level of mathematics, and provides new insights into the ecology of plants and the factors which determine their size, their distribution and their abundance. After a brief introductory chapter the author devotes separate chapters to the study of: life tables; the demography of herbs, shrubs and trees; the ecology of reproduction; the regulation of populations; vegetative propagation and clonal growth; interactions in mixtures of species; and coexistence and niche separation. Throughout the book interactions between plants and animals, and evolution by natural selection are constantly recurring themes which the author uses to elaborate his study of plant ecology. Students of biology, botany, agriculture and forestry will find this book an admirable synthesis of theory and experimental results, and it will be widely welcomed for use in courses on plant ecology and population biology.