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Résumé :
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Based on the widest possible variety of sources, this major work provides a standardized account of the ecology of common British vascular plants. It is a unique distillation of over a hundred man-years of experience accumulated by the authors' team in the comparative ecology of temperate-zone plant species. The book appears at a time when economic and political factors are dictating the release of agricultural land for alternative uses and may be about to set into reverse the accelerating process of vegetation change and habitat loss which has occurred over the past fifty years. This volume contains the information needed for prediction and manipulation of future changes in a variety of plant habitats and is particularly relevant to efforts to arrest the decline of threatened populations and to restore or create floristically diverse communities. In recent years, ecological research on the British flora has tended to become rather specialized and fragmentary; the authors now see the need for a broader, more integrative approach. The methods they adopt allow recurrent patterns of specialization in plants to be recognized and to lead to concepts which bridge the gap between physiological ecologists and population biologists. The book explains the processes governing the distribution and status within communities of a large number of common plants, including those exploiting habitats recently disturbed or created by agriculture, industry or urban development. The principles invoked have fundamental implications for ecological theory and for the management and conservation of vegetation. This book provides an alphabetical sequence of standardized accounts for 281 species, or groups of species. Each account relies heavily on field surveys, but also contains standardized laboratory data and a distillation of published information. For each, the material is arranged in an attractive double-page format. Wherever possible, simple diagrams are used and notes are provided to aid interpretation. The book also contains summary tables describing the essential ecology and biological characteristics of all the common species of British flora.
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