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BOOKREVIEWS

R.

Primack

&

R.

Corlett:

TROPICAL

RAIN

FORESTS:

AN

ECOLOGICAL

AND

B I O G E O G R A P H I C A L COMPARISON; Blacln,,ell Science Ltd., Oxford, 2005, 319 pp., 120 Figs. Price GBP 39.99, ISBN 0-632-04513-2 Tropical rain forests - due to varying environmental lhctors, geo-historical evolution and species composition of their biota - create a problem for any author or editor trying to summarize the available knowledge about this extremely diversified biome. Pioneers of the first biogeographical and ecological textbooks kept generalizing the available data by collecting outstanding or extreme features differing from other woodlands. Fifty years ago, P.W. Richards' famous book (first edition in 1952) was a great success and aroused much attention among the scientific community; the biome of tropical rain forest became a true paradigm in ecology. After halfa century, methodological innovations in field biology and ecology, accessibility of remote areas and enhanced mobility of scientists have greatly multiplied the state of knowledge on this biome. The two well-informed authors of this book try to reflect this huge amount of data. While the knowledge of plants in rain forests steadily increases, the bulk of new information refers also to animals and their interaction with the environment. Accordingly, zoologically oriented ecologists tend to join the botanists and foresters in compilations of a more adequate image of the entire ecosystem. R. Primack and R. Corlett reflected this new state of research: their new book deals with the participating biota more proportionally, understandably, and a little bit more in favour of animals. Another distinction of the reviewed book is its comparative emphasis on differences among the main world's tropical regions. This is a noteworthy approach that enables a proper recognition of priorities in conservation matters. Generally, many teachers and less specialized travellers will appreciate the indication of the evolution-derived specialities they may encounter during their occasional excursions in particular countries. The book consists of eight chapters, a list of references, and an index of subjects. All chapters are adequately supported by tables and figures, the latter represented by drawings, diagrams and black-and-white photographs. In addition, the book contains 30 colour plates that emphasize the optical variety of the rain forest, a feature of great ecosystemic importance. All photos are excellent images supplied by photographers from many tropical areas. At least one name should be mentioned here: Tim Laman who provided amazing shots of animals, including gliding vertebrates from the forest interior in Borneo. On the whole, the quality of illustrations and the refined lay-out of the book are very positive features furnished by the above named publishers. A very condensed biogeographical and geohistorical account of rain forest environments in Chapter 1 distinguishes the characteristic differences of three main regions: Neotropics, African tropics and the Asian-Pacific region. Chapter 2 refers to vascular plants designated as "building blocks" of the biome. One half of the chapter (20 pages) deals with general botanical information: the other half consists of subchapters separately dealing with Asia, Africa and the Americas. A generalized image of the aboveground structure, species richness and floristic composition is a suitable resource for any comparative biogeographical work. I have only two comments: The species number (p. 34) of really everwet sites within a tract of rain forest are actually less diversified than the moderately wet matrix or drier patches. With regard to the structure of the rain forest, one would expect a brief paragraph on both the above- and underground root systems. Indeed, aerial roots and buttresses of trees are the most characteristic structure encountered in the forest interior and presented in all pictorial volumes. An instructive text and illustrations describe the differences in the composition of primate communities of the world's rain forest regions (Chapter 3). Primates are fascinating creatures for ecologists and the general public, and many zoo managers will welcome the condensed treatment of habits and behaviour of these popular mammals within their native homes. According to the authors, each continent represents a separate set of evolutionary radiations and ecological adaptations to particular rain forest environments. In an undisturbed ecosystem, primates are very abundant and play a key role as major consumers of leaves, fruits and insects, and dispersers of seed. Chapter 4 continues with the description of carnivorous and herbivorous mammals, whose attractive species are a suitable subject for the research of food chains and frequently for motion pictures actors to show the rain forest interior. Primack and Corlett offer a comprehensive summary of all groups of carnivores (dogs, cats, weasels, bears and civets) and plant-eating mammals foraging in the understorey of rain forests.

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The largest section of the book (Chapter 5) deals with birds, a conspicuous group of forest dwellers that consumes fruits, disperses seeds, pollinates the flowers, and preys upon insects and small vertebrates living in the upper tree layers and crowns. The reviewer is sure that this text will interest not only tropical ecologists, but many ornithologists and birdwatcbers, too. The diversity, activity and, indeed, the beauty of tropical birds is widely acknowledged, however, learning more about the coexistence and competition of populations inhabiting rain forests in various areas of the Tropics brings great satisfaction. Chapter 6 focuses on the upper space of the forest structure. Entitled "'Fruit bats and gliding animals in the tree canopy", this section deals with bats and the so-called "flying" squirrels, lemurs, lizards, geckos, frogs and snakes. We appreciate in addition numerous details about the odd behaviour of these animals, a small yet very stimulating subchapter analyzing the abundance of gliding vertebrates in forests of Southeast Asia. The diversity of rain forests' invertebrate fauna is enormous and, without a doubt, creates a problem for authors compiling a synthesis of the rain forest ecosystems. Primack and Corlett resolved this puzzle in Chapter 7 by concentrating on insects, and in the next step, by selecting butterflies, ants, termites, wasps and bees as model groups of animals playing an effective role in the rain forest's metabolism. Geographical distribution and behavioural peculiarities in four butterfly families (Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae and Lycaenidae) are described in separate subchapters. Any ecologist not specialized in social insects will appreciate a thorough synthesis dealing with army ants, leaf-cutter ants, canopy ants; their decisive role in ecosystem functioning is clearly illustrated. Similarly, readers and students interested in social insects will be stimulated by the comparative life histories of termites, wasps and bees. Condensed information on the current status and conservation of rain forests is a welcome subject covered in Chapter 8. Major factors, such as clearance for agriculture, logging, cultivation of cash crops, hunting, fire and invasive aliens are summarized and illustrated by examples from different tropical regions. Some environmentalists and conservationists may find this section rather disappointing, because for clearly identified countries transparent data about actual losses of area and the speed of clearance are still not available. However, everyone who has ever tried to obtain relevant data will understand the gaps and obstacles. Space and time barriers in the present-day "global village" have become shorter, and "exotic" tropical rain forests appear very attractive for all educated people. We take it for granted that Primack and Corlett's book will serve as a very suitable guide for understanding this awesome biome. Jan Jenik

Department of Botany. Faculty of Science. Charles University, Ben~tsk~k2, CZ-128 01 Praha 2. Czech Republic

R.M. Cowling, D.M. Richardson & S.M. Pierce (eds.): VEGETATION OF SOUTHERN AFRICA;

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Port Melbourne, 2003, 615 pp.. 255 Figs. Price GBP 45.-, USD 70.-, ISBN 0-521-54801-2 Let us admit that the geographical pattern of life zones in southern Africa is a nightmare for many university teachers and their students in ecology and physical geography. The widely available Vegetation Map of Africa (ed. F. White, UNESCO, 1983), compiled at the scale 1:5,000,000, and most of the general descriptions and textbooks show a diversified pattern of subtropical and temperate biome types, which (1) lack a latitudinal or longitudinal zonation usually reflected in other continents, and (2) adopt fairly bizarre names, such as "karoo", "fynbos" or "veld'. These names seem to be incompatible with generalized terms recognized among the Earth's terrestrial biomes. At long last, we have a new and very useful monograph edited by R.M. Cowling, D.M. Richardson and S.M. Pierce, experienced botanists and conservationists from the Institute for Plant Conservation, University of Cape, South Africa. Though first published in 1977, the recently published paperback offers its fundamental knowledge to a large community of scientists and teachers. Compiled by 48 authors, the 23 chapters of this book are arranged in three sections: (1) Physiography and History, (2) Biomes, and (3) Ecological Themes. The texts, classified references to literature, and many original data suggest that the authors have been active in regional institutions, and have used much of the available local journals and various reports, abstracts, thesis, surveys, etc. Though the majority of data derives from various resources of South Africa, the territory described in the book covers the whole southern African subcontinent. For an external reader, the book thus serves as an excellent introduction to the geographical and ecological studies performed in southern Africa. In addition to the regular chapters, the book contains a glossary, subject

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index, and index of all biota named in the text and figures. The book is richly illustrated by drawings, diagrams and black-and-white photos. It would be unfair to expect glossy colour pictures in a paperback concentrating on strict scientific data and definitions. Indeed, the colourful wealth and beauty of the southern African plants and vegetation types are widely published in many pictorial publications. Experts and teachers interested in the overall pattern and problems of the biosphere will welcome the first section. Obviously, to understand the peculiarities of this subcontinent, one should comprehend the historical evolution of this wedge of land, its climate influenced by two oceans, and its flora separated from the other continents after the break-up of Gondwanaland. All these aspects are described in a detailed way and illustrated by respective charts and figures. Everyone will find some particular details that to date have not been treated in average textbooks of geography. For example, the book provides a remarkable explanation of the contrasting influence of the warm Mozambique Current to the east, and cold ocean waters upwelling along the western sea shore. Botanists will be pleased by the well-documented pattern of five phytogeographical regions, which reflect the much discussed correspondence between life forms, climate and soils. The majority of plant ecological details are displayed in the largest section called "Biomes". In the last decades of the 20th century, multidisciplinary research has been organized in South Africa under the auspices of the National Programme for Ecosystem Research established within the governmental Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (well-known CSIR). This research has produced a vast amount of results at both subcontinental and regional scale. Seven broad ecological units, i.e., fynbos, succulent karoo, nama-karoo, desert, grassland, savanna and forest have been studied and mapped according to an earlier classification proposed by Rutheford and Westfall in 1986. The data and views contained in respective chapters cover both environmental factors and ecosystem structures distributed over the entire subcontinent. Condensed in one volume, similar materials are not available in the current literature. Any future survey of the Earth's biomes will exploit this databank and, sooner or later, numerous questionable concepts and terms referring to vegetation of southern Africa will be corrected, and confused application of the terms savanna, ~,nbos, karoo or veld will disappear. Remarkably, the latter name is found rather unspecific by the editors, and can be only loosely applied to open country (see Glossary p. 595). The graminoid-dominated cold temperate biome is called just grassland, th~ugh here the term steppe w~u~d be m~re fitting. T w ~ types ~ f k a r ~ - su~culent k a r ~ and n a m a - k a r ~ are clearly defined. Altogether, the environmental pattern and distribution of seven major biomes are distinguished by adequate texts, maps and even by canonical correspondence analysis. The book's third section critically examines the dominant ecological factors and interactions encountered in various ecosystems of southern Africa. The following topics are analyzed: interaction of graminoid and woody plants, impact of herbivores, effects of fire, patterns of plant use, the boundaries in grassland and savanna biomes, invasion of alien plants and history of conservation. The description of some unique features and processes in the southern African biomes will please many teachers and editors searching for innovative details for their textbooks. For example, according to multiple ecophysiological experiments the coexistence of monocotyledonous graminoids and dicotyledonous trees and shrubs cannot be explained by the earlier hypothesis of H. Walter (widely spread in European textbooks), based on the distribution of water in the soil profile and layering of the active root system; recent research in African mixed biomes suggests that the pattern of graminoid and woody components is a result of a dynamic process shifting the different patches over the matrix of savanna landscape. Distribution and abundance of fires, the key factor in the southern African landscape, is also described with many new data and conclusions. In a region inhabited by unique endemic flora and having an endemic ecosystem, the threat of invasive alien plants has been fully recognized and, accordingly, numerous studies and control measures have been adopted. In the three major biomes of southern Africa, the existing nature reserves cover more than 10% of the area and about 74% of all vascular plant species are somehow protected, but as A.G. Rebelo resumes in the last chapter of the b o o k - the future of conservation in southern Africa remains uncertain due to land reforms proposing the redistribution of all the "under-utilized" land to small-scale and subsistance farmers; consequently, the cradle of numerous rarities and home of untouched ecosystems could rapidly be destroyed. For many scientists and students of botany and ecology, the southern African Welwitschia mirabilis is a symbol of prosperity and long life. We wish the reviewed book a similar status: success and many re-editions in the future. Jan Jenik

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Bookreviews

E,- D. Schulze, E. Beck & K. Miiiler-Hohenstein: PLANT ECOLOGY; Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2005, 702 pp., 506 illus., 450 in colour. Price EUR 74.95, ISBN 3-540-20833-X Plant Ecology is an important title among Springer's plant science issues. It is a very good successor to Walter Larcher's Physiological Plant Ecology editions but goes beyond the range covered there. This modern textbook presents distribution of plant species as dependent on abiotic environmental factors that are considered to set potential areas of plants. Competition is presented as another factor that sets further limits to the potential distribution areas. Plants coping with the environment hence face various types of stress. The book provides broad physiological background. The first chapter aimed at stress physiology mainly describes the processes at the level of the cell, with molecular aspects of plant performance, and adaptation and response to environmental factors being treated in a detail. Understanding physiological processes is crucial for understanding processes at higher organisation levels, i.e., at the plant and ecosystem levels. Unfortunately, many of the ecological studies lack the physiological background and I thus appreciate their inclusion in a textbook of such a large extent (250 out of 702 pages). Physiological processes are reflected at the whole plant level, as shown in the second chapter, where the authors described coping of plant individuals with particular environments. In this chapter I would appreciate more information on plastic growth response or shifts in biomass translocation under the influence of environmental factors, because these abilities enable plants to live in various sites or sustain under a changing environment. The Plant Ecology textbook also describes historic development and dynamics of phytocenoses, which provides an explanation for the current distribution of plant species and vegetation processes. Global aspects of plant ecology including the human influence on environmental processes, that should be taken into account when considering plant distribution and plant-environment interactions, are briefly mentioned at the end. I greatly appreciate the book's graphic design, including the clear structure, summary and list of recommended literature in each chapter, the two-coloured printing of the basic text, and high-quality images and charts. The textbook provides useful and comprehensive information to students and researchers as well as to practitioners dealing with plant physiology and ecology, vegetation and ecosystem science, and global change research. Hana Sk~ilovfi Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43 Pn~honice, Czech Republic

A. Averis, B. Averis, J. Birks, D. Horsfield, D. Thompson & M. Yeo: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO BRITISH UPLAND VEGETATION; Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, 2004, 454 pp. Price GBP 30.-, ISBN 1-86107-553-7

"'About a third of Great Britain is upland, which encompasses a tremendous variety of habitats and vegetation types, including heats, bogs, grasslands, woods, scrub, cliffs, screes, snow-beds and high rocky summits". This is why five years after publishing the final volume of "British Plant Communities" (BPC) edited by J.S. Rodwell the book "An illustrated guide to British upland vegetation" has already been published. According to the authors, the book's main aim has been to provide concise descriptions of all currently recognized British upland vegetation types in a single volume. Using the National Vegetation Classification as a framework, the book brings together upland types spread between the five volumes of BPC and includes recent and new information about upland vegetation not included there. The book consists of three parts. The introductory one deals with the definition of upland, characterization of its environment and general characteristics of upland vegetation. An important information on nature conservation in the British uplands and correspondence between described upland communities and habitats listed in Annex I of the Habitats Directive is provided here. The second, practical and very useful part is a key that easily leads the user to identify upland vegetation types. The authors follow principles of standard dichotomous keys for identifying plant species. First the key identifies broad formations of vegetation, and subsequently distinguishes the communities. To be easily and

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widely applicable the key is based on characteristics easily observable in the field such as vegetation structure, dominant species and next common species. The last, more extensive part contains accounts of vegetation types. Each description of a single community includes articles devoted to synonyms, a description of vegetation, differentiation from other communities, ecology, conservation interest and appropriate management. Unlike BPC the descriptions avoid floristic tables showing the pattern of frequency and abundance among plants, and terms that are frequently used in phytosociological texts, making it easily understandable and not confusing for a wide scale of users, not only specialists. Particular descriptions are short; they aim to evocate a picture of what the vegetation looks like. The article about the differentiation of a described type from similar communities that share many of the same species and the illustrations presenting typical views or habitats of described communities are very useful. This book provides a wide scale of users with a practical, useful and readable instrument that helps all those with a keen interest in the uplands. As the weight of the book is only 1.24 kg, nothing else remains than to pack it into a rucksack and try to identify some of the described vegetation types in some part of the British upland. Martin Ko~:i

Institute of Botany and Zoology. Faculty of Science, Masaryk Universi~. Kotlr~skd 2, CZ-611 37 Brno, Czech Republic

T.M. Blackburn & K.J. Gaston (eds.): MACROECOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND CONSEQUENCES;

British Ecological Socie~ and Blackwell Science, Oxford, 2003, 442 pp. Price 36.95, USD 60.-, ISBN 0-521-54932-9 When James Brown and Brian Maurer introduced the term "macroecology" in 1989, they defined this research field as the study of statistical patterns of abundance, distribution, and diversity in large spatial and temporal scales. Since then, macroecology as a research programme has attracted scholars from quite disparate disciplines, including classical biogeography, palentology, evolutionary biology or physiology, and the exact meaning of this term has become a bit fuzzy. Contemporary growth and success of macroecological thinking, not anticipated even by the fathers of this field, apparently has not been driven by the large-scale focus and statistical methodology of macroecology, but rather by the big questions macroecologists have been asking. Indeed, the explicitly stated goal of macroecology is to answer the truly fundamental ecological questions concerning the major patterns of nature surrounding us: why are some taxa more diverse than others?, why are most species rare?, why are there more species in the tropics?, why ~re more species small-bodied?, why are some species more likely to become extinct? and so on. These big questions represent the major themes around which the chapters of the volume edited by Tim Blackburn and Kevin Gaston are organized. The editors succeeded in collecting very different, and at the same time perfectly representative views on each topic, presented by experts often rooted in very disparate disciplines. These views come from more traditional approaches as historical biogeography, phylogenetics and population biology, as well as from the freshly new concepts including Stephen Hubbell's neutral theory ofbiodiversity and biogeography or the metabolic scaling theory developed by the group led by James Brown and Geoffrey West. The balanced presentation of both new and traditional ecological ideas is quite unique, and can be in this case probably attributed to the fact that the volume resulted from the very first, and thus very open international conference on macroecology (organized by the British Ecological Society at the University of Birmingham, 10-17 April 2002), attended by all major thinkers in the young discipline. Thanks to this, the reader can get not only an overview of ideas that have later become mainstream topics in contemporary macroecology, but also a picture of some relatively minor, but no less interesting opinions, which should not be forgotten. As an example, in addition to Stephen Hubhel's presentation of the neutral theory of the distribution of species abundance, there is a very clever and original attempt to reconcile the niche-division approaches to abundance distribution with those based on spatial metacommunity dynamics, written by Pablo Marquet and his colleagues. Similarly, the presentations of the ideas developed within the framework of the "metabolic theory of ecology" (chapters on plant allometric scaling written by Brian Enquist, and on universal ecological laws by James Brown and colleagues) is complemented by the piece written by Jan Kozlowski, Marek Konarzewski and Adam Gavelczyk. These authors are very critical of the whole metabolic theory, and propose an alternative, and very original explanation of scaling relationships observed in body size-metabolic rate allometry. Although the

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controversy is obviously not resolved in the book (as it has not been resolved so far), the reader will obtain a very clear picture about these hot topics and the whole discussion surrounding them. Another rather unusual feature of this book - at least in comparison to other books concerned with macroecology - is its stress on evolutionary and phylogenetic patterns. The evolution of body size distribution is treated within phylogenetic context by Andy Purvis and colleagues, whereas the chapter written by Robert Freckleton, Mark Pagel and Paul Harvey presents a new method on how to reveal adaptive radiation and niche evolution from the shape ofphylogenetic trees. David Jablonski, Kaustuv Roy and James Valentine summarize macroecological patterns and their evolutionary origins revealed by fossil records. All these contributions indicate the necessity to complement traditional statistical macroecological thinking with proper evolutionary reasoning. Another approach that clearly goes beyond the boundaries of classical macroecology is represented by three chapters dealing with the limits of species distribution, ranging from physiological and genetic explanations to spatial population processes. Again, traditional biological disciplines are used here to answer the big questions. The book therefore presents macroecology at its broadest sense, with achievements that have emerged in various biological disciplines, and which thus can be treated under this label because they greatly contributed to answers of the major ecological questions mentioned above. It is therefore an extremely useful reading not only for those interested in macroecology itself, but for everybody who wants to know which big ecological ideas are now in the air. David Storeh

Centerfor Theoretical Study, Charles University, Jilsk& 1, CZ- ] 10 OOPraha 1, Czech Republic and Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles UniversiO,, Vinidnh 7, CZ-128 44 Praha 2, C:ech Republic

R.D. Bardgett, M.B. Usher & D.W. Hopkins: BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND FUNCTION IN SOILS;

Cambridge Universi~, Press, Cambridge, 2005, 411 pp. Price GBP 38.-. USD 65.-, ISBN- 10. 0-521-60987- 9 The book presents the proceedings of a conference "Biological Diversity and Function in Soils" that in 2003 summarized the current state of knowledge about the role of diversity of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning. Ultimately, it aims to judge between the following two hypotheses: the "idiosyncracy" hypothesis that suggests the unique ecological function of each soil species and the "redundancy" hypothesis that suggests the prevailing number of soil species to be fully functionally substitutable. Despite clear analogy of this topic to the dilemma solved by many "aboveground" ecologists, its solution is much more difficult due to low background information about the soil ecosystems. It is therefore not surprising that the first half of the book introduces the central question by describing relevant aspects of soil environment and patterns and drivers of soil biodiversity. In this section the chapters of special interest include those on soil structure at the scale of microbial organisms, soil carbon as a substrate for soil organisms and what tell us molecular biology in respect of soil microbial diversity. All chapters involve critical assessment of the previous research in their field as well as the most recent results of studies using modern methodological approaches. In another noticeable chapter of this section, authors elegantly interpret results of several in-vitro competitive experiments with Pseudomonasfluorescens from a wider ecological and evolutionary perspective. However, some other chapters in this part suffer from the lack of knowledge about the reviewed topic, for example the chapter about patterns and determinants of soil diversity that actually shows very few convincing patterns. The considerable repetition of information among individual chapters is a flaw that is difficult to remove in such publications. The core topic of the book is considered in six chapters estimating the effect of diversity of different taxonomic groups of soil organisms on different ecosystem functions. Examples include the effect of diversity of microbial organisms, mycorrhizal fungi or saprotrophic fungi on soil nitrogen cycling, soil respiration or plant composition. It is encouraging that some of the studies report results from the field manipulative experiments and that all the presented studies take into account the difference between soil species diversity and composition. Still, most presented data come from ecophysiological experiments that allow only limited interpretations in the context of the stated question. Despite this limitation, the general conclusion of the book that there may frequently exist a threshold-like relationship between soil diversity and ecosystem function with a

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few key-stone species and functionally redundant remaining species sounds reasonable, it is supported by several presented experiments and is an appealing hypothesis for further testing. The final section of the book is composed of the chapters in which the results are applied in nature conservation and restoration. Although laudable, such applications will have to face the unpleasant, most general features of all soil ecosystems and their underlying processes - context dependency and small-scale heterogeneity - that were many times stressed in the preceding parts of the book. The frequently established links ofbelowground processes to functioning of ecosystems aboveground makes the book valuable for ecologists of all specializations. But these links, in my view, are not the main value of the book. Belowground, this hidden, ungraspable world should attract attention specifically for its independent nature, not in spite of it. Indeed, the world is for the most part brown and black, not green, as stated in the first chapter of the book. Stanislav B~ezina

Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-252 43 Prl}honice. Czech Republic

J.A. Wiens & M.R. Moss (eds.): ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES IN LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY;

Cambridge UniversiO, Press, Cambridge, 2005, 390 pp. Price GBP 38.-, USD 65.-, ISBN-IO: 0-521-53754-1 (paperback) The theoretical foundations and the methodological background of landscape ecology has dynamically increased during the last years. Landscape ecology, as one of the few scientific disciplines, collates information from various fields, such as theoretical ecology, human geography, land-use planning, sociology, resource management, agricultural policy, restoration ecology or environmental ethics. Through a series of personal essays, the volume addresses a wide array of past, present, and future issues in landscape ecology. Most of these contributions were originally published as a set of essays invited to the Fifth World Congress of the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE), held in Snowmass, Colorado in 1999 (WIENS & MOSS 1999). Although the original essays were particularly revised and updated and several contributions from under-represented areas were additionally added, the set of 35 essays presents not only the current status and new trends in landscape studies, but also the current needs and future perspectives. The introductory chapters define the terminology and organizational level of the fields of study. The main unifying guideline is the "good hierarchy" concept of landscape scale and level (KING 1997). Most chapters discuss the old but still actual questions including those on landscape equilibrium, disturbances, and heterogeneity. The common background of spatially oriented studies using GIS and RS technologies is evident, but moreover a satisfactory review is presented of modem "allscape" modelling and spatial prediction. This is the most unifying concept in modern landscape ecology avoiding the confusions of the spatially explicit statistics across the scales with the energo-material flows through the levels. A large set of the contributions explores the confrontation between the human impact on landscape and the anthropogenic degradation of nature. Landscape policy and planning, the so-called "cultural knowledge", are the major issues resulting in current problems with landscape instability. The emerging landscape paradigm forms interdisciplinarity with the transdisciplinarity as the new integrative ecological approach (TRESS & TRESS 2001 ). Overall, Issues and Perspectives is a comprehensive inspiring book valuable for practicing conservationists and postgraduate students. REFERENCES

KING A.W. (1997): Hierarchy theory: a guide to system structure for wildlife biologists. In: BISSONETTEJ.A. (ed.), Wildl(/'eand landcape ecology. Effects ofpattern and scale, Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 185-212. TRESS B. & TRESS G. (2001): Capitalizing on multiplicity: a transdisciplinary systems approach to landscape research. Landscape and Urban Planning 57: 143-157. WIENS J.A. & MOSS M.R. (eds.) (1999): Issues in landscape ecoloKv. International Association for Landscape Ecology, Snowmass Village. Tomfi~ Kuf:era

Institute of Systems Biology. and Ecology, Academy of Sciences of the C=eehRepublic, Na Scidkdch 7, CZ-3 70 05 Ceskd BudOjovice, Czech Republic"