During the summer of 1980, the First International symposium on Arctic and Alpine Mycology (ISAM-I) was held at the then extant Naval Arctic Research Laboratory near Barrow, Alaska, U.S.A., well within the Arctic Circle (Laursen and Ammirati, Arctic and Alpine Mycology. The First International symposium on Arcto-Alpine Mycology. Univ. Wash. Press, 1982). The facility is currently owned and operated by the Utkeagvik Inupiat community and is named the National Academic and Research Laboratory, thus retaining its acronym NARL. Twenty-five scientists participated in that historic first meeting. Their interests in the fungi spanned a vast geographic area of cold dominated habitats in both the northern and southern hemispheres that included four continents (N. and S. America, Eurasia,and Antarctica), nine countries, and numerous islands ranging from Greenland to Jan Mayen in the Svalbard group. ISAM-I helped to develop ongoing interests and initiate others. This is what ISAM-I founders hoped would happen. Asa result, the organizing committee for ISAM-II was formed. Its mandate was to: involve a maximum of one third new participants in future ISAM meetings: divide the responsibility for organizing future meetings at sites located in areas of interest to research thrusts in Arctic and alpine environments: keep the number of participants small enough to ensure manageability, taking full advantage of field collecting opportunities with minimal complications and cost.

With the publication of this special issue of Circumpolar Journal, the Arctic Centre of the University of Groningen would like to honour Piet Oosterveld as the driving force behind biological research on Edgeøya, Spitsbergen. He invested large amounts of time and energy in this research and he was an inspiration for many students.The book starts with an article about Piet Oosterveld's Arctic activities written by Louwrens Hacquebord. After some fieldwork in Iceland Piet Oosterveld's Arctic career really started with a wintering spent on Edgeøya in 1968-1969. In this book Piet Oosterveld's companion Ko de Korte reports on this wintering. Some years later Piet Oosterveld was the instigator of the Reindeer Environment Expedition to Edgeøya in 1977. The most important product of this expedition, the ecological landscape map, was never published. In our opinion this ecological landscape map merits publication and fortunately Ies Zonneveld was willing to revise the article accompanying the map which is to be found at the back of the book. In this article the results of the ecological survey are presented.The articles of Arend J. van Dijk and Hester D. Heinemeijer also deal with the ornithological and botanical results of the Reindeer Environment Expedition Svalbard.

Readers will perhaps be surprised to find a volume about fungi within a handbook of vegetation science. Although fungi traditionally feature in textbooks on botany, at least since Whittaker (1969), they have mostly been categorised as an independent kingdom of organisms or, in contrast to the animal and plant kingdom, as probionta together with algae and protozoa. More relevant for ecology than the systematic separation of fungi from plants is the different lifestyle of fungi which, in contrast to most plants, live as parasites, saprophytes or in symbiosis. Theoretical factors aside, there are also practical methodological considerations which favour the distinction between fungal and plant communities, as has been shown for example by Dörfelt (1974). Despite their special position the coenology of fungi has been dealt with in the handbook of vegetation science. It would be wrong to conclude that we underestimate the important differences between fungal and plant communities. The reasons for including the former are that mycocoenology developed from phytocoenology, the similarity of the methods and concepts still employed today and the close correlation between fungi and plants in biocoenoses.

For the seriously dedicated as well as the merely curious ’shroomer, Alaska’s Mushrooms is a wide-ranging guide to the fungi of the Last Frontier. The book, featuring detailed descriptions of 114 species, includes: color photographs; family and common names; genus and species; striking field characters; both a macro- & micro-description; habitat and role; edibility, taste, and odor; look-alikes, and comments. This comprehensive collection also provides information on mushroom seasons and habitats hints for collecting mushrooms for food and study tips on how to tell the real mushrooms from their “imposters” directions for making spore prints (an essential test for identifying mushrooms) hundreds of black-and-white line drawings a section listing all poisonous mushrooms by toxin groups a list of frequently asked questions a range map of Alaska’s biogeographic zones Alaska’s Mushrooms provides authoritative natural history, informative color photographs, and black-and-white line drawings for clear identification, and lively notes from the field. It’s a must-have for anyone who has a passion for hunting mushrooms.