Ecology and the Environment

In this book, plant biology is considered from the perspective of plants and their surrounding environment, including both biotic and abiotic interactions. The intended audience is undergraduate students in the middle or final phases of their programs of study. Topics are developed to provide a rudimentary understanding of how plant-environment interactions span multiple spatiotemporal scales, and how this rudimentary knowledge can be applied to understand the causes of ecosystem vulnerabilities in the face of global climate change and expansion of natural resource use by human societies. In all chapters connections are made from smaller to larger scales of ecological organization, providing a foundation for understanding plant ecology. Where relevant, environmental threats to ecological systems are identified and future research needs are discussed. As future generations take on the responsibility for managing ecosystem goods and services, one of the most effective resources that can be passed on is accumulated knowledge of how organisms, populations, species, communities and ecosystems function and interact across scales of organization. This book is intended to provide some of that knowledge, and hopefully provide those generations with the ability to avoid some of the catastrophic environmental mistakes that prior generations have made.

Plant–Environment Interactions Across Multiple Scales.- Plant Biodiversity and Population Dynamics.-  Assembly of Plant Communities.- Plant Pollination and Dispersal.- Plant Phenotypic Expression in Variable Environments.- Evolutionary Ecology of Chemically Mediated Plant-Insect Interactions.- Plant-Microbe Interactions.- Patterns and Controls of Terrestrial Primary Production in a Changing World.-  Ecology of Tropical Rain Forests.- Ecology of Temperate Forests.- Plants in Deserts.- Plants in Alpine Environments.- Plants in Arctic Environments.- Grassland Ecology.- Coastal Wetland Ecology and Challenges for Environmental Management.- Near-Coastal Seagrass Ecosystems.- Ecology of Marine Phytoplankton.-  Plants in Changing Environmental Conditions of the Anthropocene.- Plant Influences on Atmospheric Chemistry.- Biofuel Development from Cellulosic.-  Plant Ecology and Sustainability Science.

Russell K. Monson, PhD
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA