Abstract
THE first edition of this text-book was published in 1929 with 520 pages. The short preface to the new edition, dated January 1938, points out in concise phrases some of the more important advances in plant ecology made in less than a decade. The wide acceptance of succession as a basic principle in the study of vegetation has led to a better understanding of invasion, ecesis, and the stabilization of climax vegetation. The use of plant species and plant communities as indicators, the changed concept of xerophytism, and improved methods of studying the environmental factors are among the advances which are enabling the ecologist to grasp the complex interactions of plant life. Particularly important to the plant ecologist are the new conceptions of the vast importance of climate and vegetation in soil development. On the applied side, too, plant ecological studies are making great advances. Erosion, largely due to man's misuse of the natural plant cover, has been realized as a problem of national and international importance.
Plant Ecology
By Prof. John E. Weaver Frederic E. Clements. Second edition. (McGraw-Hill Publications in the Botanical Sciences.) Pp. xxii+601. (London and New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., 1938.) 30s.
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TURRILL, W. Plant Ecology. Nature 142, 1056 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/1421056a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1421056a0