Grasses occupy a greater area of the world's land surface than any other plant family, occurring in almost every terrestrial environment and providing a vital source of food for humans and animals. This volume presents the most recent information on their population biology, bringing together contributions from researchers studying both applied and fundamental aspects of this important group of plants. This volume considers demographic, physiological, ecological and molecular approaches to understanding grass populations in relation to reproduction and to aspects of life history patterns such...

A synthesis of how grass populations interact with their environment and undergo evolutionary changes over time.

Endophytic fungi are common and diverse in plants. Yet the nature of their interactions with host plants, and how these interactions cascade upward to communities and ecosystems, is largely unknown. In the first book of its kind, Gregory P. Cheplick and Stanley H. Faeth synthesize existing studies of endophyte-grass symbioses within the context of modern ecological and evolutionary concepts. The authors cover a broad range of topics including the effects of endophytes on herbivory, host growth, physiology, reproduction, and competitive ability in a variety of grasses and environments. Clearly...

Plant evolutionary ecology is a rapidly growing discipline which emphasizes that populations adapt and evolve not in isolation, but in relation to other species and abiotic environmental features such as climate. Although it departs from traditional evolutionary and ecological fields of study, the field is connected to branches of ecology, genetics, botany, conservation, and to a number of other fields of applied science, primarily through shared concepts and techniques. However, most books regarding evolutionary ecology focus on animals, creating a substantial need for scholarly literature...