The understanding of the responses of plant populations to plant community diversity is still incomplete. While the link between plant community diversity and biomass production is already well studied, the one between community diversity and plant longevity and life cycle is not. Especially longevity was deemed to be an unfeasible measurement for herbaceous plants species, because the usual methods were disproportionately time-consuming. Furthermore, researchers did not expect longevity to be of interest for herbaceous plants. This thesis shows that growth ring analysis is a suitable and fast method to analyse longevity of herbaceous plants and gives results that are scientifically relevant. Therefore, this method facilitates the understanding of plant population responses. The life cycle of populations and longevity both belong to the topic of life history schedules. Just as age and the life cycle of herbaceous species it is hardly studied. This is the knowledge gap this thesis tries to fill. Disentangling the effects of environmental influences and biodiversity on age and life cycle in natural settings is difficult and sometimes impossible, as both are highly correlated. Therefore, this was conducted in the Jena Experiment. It offers a unique framework to study the influence of plant community diversity in a controlled setting, therefore this thesis was done within this experiment. When the samples were taken, the Jena Experiment had been running for twelve years, sufficient time for the plant population dynamics to develop in herbaceous species. The longevity was determined in 1664 individuals from all available herbaceous plant species in the Jena Experiment. They were harvested including the oldest tissue, which is located depending on the growth form in the root crown or the decaying parts of the rhizome. In the lab thin sections were made, they were used to count the growth rings and so determined the age.

This book focuses on how climate affects or affected the biosphere and vice versa both in the present and in the past. The chapters describe how ecosystems from the Antarctic and Arctic, and from other latitudes, respond to global climate change. The papers highlight plant responses to atmospheric CO2 increase, to global warming and to increased ultraviolet-B radiation as a result of stratospheric ozone depletion.

Environmental conditions drive the occurrence and growth of plant populations as well as the structure and composition of plant communities. Plant responses to change in their environment are the net outcome of species-specific life histories, biotic interactions and habitat requirements. Recently global climate change has increased the need to understand the relative importance of these processes in predicting risks of extinction within existing communities and invasion by alien species. Changes in the extent and limits of a species range are a typical response to environmental change. Large-scale distribution shifts are the outcome of colonisation and extinction linked to the performance of plants in local populations. Competition and facilitation between plants act in combination with environmental factors to determine plant performance and population growth at this scale. Changes in climate or habitat variables are also likely to have direct effects of on many life-history traits in plants affecting physiology, phenology and fitness. Here historical distribution records from two time periods are used to provide a long-term perspective on distribution change. I consider the evidence for contrasting models of distribution change in the British flora and find that the spread and dispersal of most species is spatially restricted, likely as a result of habitat constraints. There is also evidence of climate effects on distribution change for many of the species studied. The roles of competition and facilitation along environmental gradients are assessed in winter annuals in sand dunes. Plant-bryophyte and plant-plant interactions are studied using removal experiments across multiple years. The results show that there may be spatio-temporal variation in the strength and direction of interactions in consecutive years. There also species and population-specific responses to experimental temperature increase in annuals, which take the form of plasticity and adaptation depending on the traits measured. Temporal variability may be equally, or more, crucial to the performance and growth of annuals than the role of spatial gradients in environmental quality.

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.

Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/vandermaarelfranklin/vegetationecology. Vegetation Ecology, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive, integrated account of plant communities and their environments. Written by leading experts in their field from four continents, the second edition of this book: covers the composition, structure, ecology, dynamics, diversity, biotic interactions and distribution of plant communities, with an emphasis on functional adaptations; reviews modern developments in vegetation ecology in a historical perspective; presents a coherent view on vegetation ecology while integrating population ecology, dispersal biology, soil biology, ecosystem ecology and global change studies; tackles applied aspects of vegetation ecology, including management of communities and invasive species; includes new chapters addressing the classification and mapping of vegetation, and the significance of plant functional types Vegetation Ecology, 2nd Edition is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduates and researchers and teachers in plant ecology, geography, forestry and nature conservation. Vegetation Ecology takes an integrated, multidisciplinary approach and will be welcomed as an essential reference for plant ecologists the world over.

Originally published in 1990, continued requests for copies of Perspectives on Plant Competition by James B. Grace and David Tilman have demonstrated its utility to practitioners and especially to students. The dynamics and outcomes of plant interactions are of increasingly great interest and importance to ecologists and environmental biologists. Ever since the effects of global environmental change have emerged as a major issue, ecologists have increasingly focused their work on predicting the responses of natural systems to environmental changes. This has forced us to confront both the unknowns and the complexity of species interactions. Simply put, it is now clear that, without a better understanding of the mechanisms of plant interactions, we will not be able to predict the responses of communities and ecosystems to elevated nitrogen deposition, to changes in species composition and diversity, to elevated atmospheric CO2, to climate change, or to invasive exotic species. Work on plant interactions has continued unabated of course since the original printing of Perspectives on Plant Competition but the title is generally held to have had a positive effect on subsequent work on plant interactions, both by showcasing the variety of ways in which competition can be approached and by substantially reducing some of the confusion about issues that existed before its publication. It still has an important role to play in guiding future research on plant interactions. Perhaps an additional, continuing value is in the example it serves for the maturation of an important ecological topic. The lasting message of this book is that one cannot fully understand an idea without understanding the perspective upon which it is based, including the systems that have inspired the idea and the finer details of the research goals of those involved. Plant competition will continue to be a multifaceted topic. This book will continue to provide useful guidance for the further exploration of such interactions. "This is certainly a required book for those working on plant competition, and an important reference for ecologists and biologists in general. In many ways, it will be a landmark, providing a snapshot of research at a critical time in the development of this field." Science 249, 1054 "I strongly recommend this well-edited, thoughtful book to all students of population biology and community ecology." Bioscience 41, 178 Jim Grace obtained his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1980. He subsequently served on the faculty at the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University. He joined the US Geological Survey - National Wetlands Research Center in 1992 and currently holds an Adjunct Professorship in Biology at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. His basic research specialization is in plant ecology, with an emphasis on species interactions, biodiversity, invasive species, and conservation biology. He has been elected to the positions of chair and vice-chair of the Ecological Section of the Botanical Society of America. David Tilman is an experimental and theoretical ecologist interested in biodiversity, in the controls of ecosystem composition, stability and productivity, and in the long-term implications for society of human impacts on global ecosystems. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1976. He immediately came to the University of Minnesota where he now is Regents Professor, holds the McKnight University Presidential Chair in Ecology and is Director of Cedar Creek Natural History Area. He has written two books, edited three books, and published more than 160 scientific papers. In 2001, he was designated the most highly cited environmental scientist of the decade (1990-2000) by the Institute for Scientific Information.