Description: Forces of nature and human intervention lead to innumerable local, regional and sometimes global changes in plant community patterns. Regardless of the causes and the intensity of change, ecosystems are often naturally able to recover most of their attributes through natural succession. In this thoughtful and provocative new book, Fakhri Bazzaz integrates and synthesizes information on how disturbance changes the environment, how species function, coexist, and share or compete for resources in populations and communities, and how species replace each other over successional time. It illustrates how a diverse array of plant species have been used to examine fundamental questions in plant ecology by integrating physiological, population and community ecology. Graduate students and research workers in plant ecology, global change, conservation and restoration will find the perspective and analysis offered by this book an exciting contribution to the development of our understanding of plant successional change.
Review Quotes: "Written by a senior plant ecologist, this book packs a career's worth of perspective and insight into a single volume...The book is well suited either for a stimulating graduate student seminar or for the experienced research scientist who wishes to reflect on the state of plant ecology...It would be nice to find more contributions of this sort from other senior ecologists." The Quarterly Review of Biology