Ecology Of Plants: An Introduction To The Study Of Plant Communities

This work studies in detail the various plant-communities and analyses how plants or plant-communities adjust their forms and modes of behaviour to different actually operating factors, such as the amounts of available water, heat, light, nutriment etc. After an introduction to ecological plant-geography and ecological botany, the external factors affecting the plant’s economy and their impact upon the structure of the plant, its life duration and the topographical distribution of species, has been discussed in Section I of the volume. Further, the various plant-communities have been divided into 13 ecological classes on the basis of edaphic and climatic distinctions and have been treated in general in sections II and III, followed by their specific treatment in Sections IV to SVI. Before coming to a close, the book has another useful section that deals with the struggle between plant-communities, an extensive bibliography and also a comprehensive index that makes references hunting easier. Already translated into various languages, this pioneering work on ecological plant-geography should be a great attraction for every study and scholar of botany. Contents Introduction: Floristic and oecological plant-geography, Growth-forms, Plant-communities, Plan of this book; Section I: Oecological Factors and Their Action; Light, Heat, Atmospheric humidity and precipitations, Movements of the air, Nature of the nutrient substratum, Structure of the soil, Air in the soil, Water in the soil, Temperature of soil, Depth of the soil, the upper layers of the soil and the subsoil, Nutriment in soil, Kinds of soil, Are the chemical or the physical characters of soil the more important?, The effect of a non-living covering over vegetation, Effect of a living vegetable covering on soil, The activity of animals and plants in soil, Exposure, orographic and other factors; Section II: Communal Life of Organisms; Reciprocal relations among organisms, Interference by man, Symbiosis of plants with animals, Symbiosis of plants with one another, mutualism, Commensalism, plant-communities; Section III: Adaptations of Aquatic and Terrestrial Plants Oecological Classification; Aquatic and terrestrial plants, Adaptations of water-plants (Hydrophytes), Adaptations of land-plants, Regulation of transpiration in land-plant, Absorption of water by land-plants, Storage of water by land-plants water-reservoirs, Other structural characters and growth-forms of land-plants, and especially of xerophytes, Oecological classification, Physiognomy of vegetation, formations associations varieties of associations; Section IV: Hydrophytes Formations of Aquatic Plants; Oecological factors, Formations of aquatic plants, Plankton-formation, Cryoplankton, vegetation of ice and snow, Hydrocharid-formation of pleuston, Lithophilous benthos, Benthos of loose soil; Section V: Helophytes Marsh-Plants; Adaptations formations, Reed-swamp of reed-formation, Bush-swamp and forest-swamp of fresh water; Section VI: Oxylophytes Formations on Sour (Acid) Soil; Xeromorphy formations, Low-moor formation, Grass-heath, tussock formation, High-moor formation, Moss-tundra or moss-heath, Lichen-tundra of lichen-heath, Dwarf-shrub heath, Bush and forest on acid humus soil; Section VII: Halophytes Formations on Saline Soil; Introductory general remarks on halophytes, Adaptations of halophytes, Lothophilous halophytes, Psammophilous halophytes, Pelophilous halophytes, Salt-swamp and salt-desert, Littoral swamp-forest, Mangrove; Section VIII: Lithophytes, Formations on Rocks; Rocky country, Lithophytes, Chasmophytes, Formations on shingle and rubble, Section IX: Psychrophytes, Formations on Cold Soil; Climatic conditions in subglacial fell-fields, Adaptation of species in subglacial fell-fields, Subglacial fell-field formations; Section X: Psammophytes, Formations on Sand and Gravel; Oecological factors, formations, Shifting or white, sand dunes, Stationary or grey, sand-dune, sand-fields, dune-heath, dune-bushland, dune-forest, other examples of psammophilous vegetation; Section XI: Eremophytes Formations on Desert and Steppe; Oecological factors, formations, Desert, Shrub-steppe, Grass-steppe, Sibljak; Section XII: Chersophytes, Formations on Waste Land; Waste herbage, Bushland on dry soil; Section XIII: Psilophytes, Savannah-Formations; Savannah-formations, Thorny savannah, True savannah, Savannah-forest; Section XIV: Sclerophyllous Formations, Bush and Forest; Sclerophyllous vegetation and formations, Garigue, Tomillares, Maqui: sclerophyllous scrub, Sclerophyllous forest; Section XV: Coinferous Formations, Forest; Evergreen coniferae; Section XVI: Mesophytes; Mesophytic vegetation and formations, Arctic and alpine mat-grassland and mat-herbage, Meadow, Pasture on cultivated soil, Mesophytic bushland, Deciduous dicotylous forest, Evergreen dicotylous forest; Section XVII: Struggle Between Plant Communities; Conditions of the struggle, The peopling of new soil, Changes in vegetation induced by slow changes in soil fully occupied by plants, Change of vegetation without change of climate or of soil, The weapons of species, Rare species, Origin of species.