Annals of Botany 89: 650, 2002
© 2002 Annals of Botany Company
Environmental physiology of plants. 3rd edn. Fitter AH, Hay RKM. 2001.
Environmental physiology of plants. 3rd edn.
Fitter AH, Hay RKM. 2001.
London: Academic Press. £34·95 (softback). 367 pp.
The first edition of this popular book appeared in 1981 and the second in 1987. Since 1981, priorities and perspectives in plant science have changed considerably with the advent of molecular approaches as standard tools in physiology. Nevertheless, during this time the need to understand relationships between plants and their environment has grown steadily, and there is now a great urgency underlying our attempts to understand and predict the impacts of climate change. The second edition remained the foremost compact text relevant to this topic throughout the 1990s, and consequently the new edition is likely to receive a warm welcome.
The revisions are extensive. I counted nearly 50 figures in the text taken from post-1987 literature, and there are 16 pages of completely new colour plates. The changes to subject matter within the text are also far-reaching, but fortunately the good qualities of the earlier editions are still very much in evidence. Each chapter provides not only a clear introduction for those new to the subject, but also amounts to a comprehensive review of the field with abundant references to the literature. This is always a hard balance to achieve and it is to the credit of the authors that they have done so throughout the book. The bibliography of around 800 references is a major resource in itself. In the preface the authors say ‘Our aim has not been to be comprehensive and authoritative but to develop principles and stimulate new ideas through selected examples. . .’. In fact this book is authoritative, and within the topics covered it is as comprehensive as can be expected within a single volume.
The text is divided into two sections: ‘The acquisition of resources’ and ‘Responses to environmental stress’. In the former, the chapter on mineral nutrients, and in the latter that on temperature, stand out as major achievements. Chapter 2 on energy and carbon has a welcome ecological outlook rather than the customary emphasis on photosynthetic mechanisms, and the 60-page chapter on water covers old and new concepts in considerable depth.
This is a book that can be strongly recommended both to those already well acquainted with the earlier editions, and also to those molecular biologists who are seeking a compact introduction to whole-plant physiology and to ecological perspectives. It can be very strongly endorsed for students taking advanced undergraduate or post-graduate courses.
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