Vegetation, soil and climate are the most important components of ecological systems. This long-awaited fourth edition of the well-established textbook by Heinrich Walter summarizes our knowledge of the earth's ecology and constitutes the basis for a deeper understanding of the larger interrelations on a global scale. While Walter's general concept remains unchanged, the individual chapters have been completely revised, enlarged and updated. The author's intimate knowledge of practically all classes of plants and climatic zones allows him to describe the various ecological systems in close...

By the end of the last century, the only region in all of Europe where the natural vegetation remained untouched over large expanses was Eastern Europe. Information on the vegetation of this region however, remained mostly unavailable to western scientists although the ecological approach to botanical research originated in Eastern Europe. Heinrich Walter was born in Russia, studied Natural Sciences - with emphasis on botany - in Odessa and is familiar with all relevant Russian literature on ecology. This volume thus offers scientists worldwide a unique and comprehensive survey of all...

Changing desert areas for land use implies a lot of ecological problems. These and related ones are dealt with in this book covering various interdisciplinary and international aspects. Large areas in arid and semi-arid regions are already polluted in various ways. One of the biggest problems is the anthropogenic salinization by inadequate means of agriculture and irrigation. Additionally, most arid areas in the world are dramatically overgrazed. Methods and practices of a sustainable land use in deserts are urgently needed in many arid regions. This book gives a broad survey on some of the...