| BEN |
| BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS |
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| ISSN 1188-603X |
| No. 241 February 19, 2000 | aceska@freenet.victoria.tc.ca | Victoria, B.C. |
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As reported in the last issue of The Bryological Times, the International Association of Bryologists has decided to begin a compilation of bryological theses from around the world. Many of these theses offer valuable information, but are never officially published. It has been decided that The New York Botanical Garden Library will act as a repository for the theses since its complete catalog is online at http://www.nybg.org/bsci/libr/Catalog.html, and it offers interlibrary loan service for those wishing to borrow the theses. Each thesis received will be abstracted in a regular column in The Bryological Times, with the first column appearing in the centennial issue of the newsletter. Additionally, basic bibliographic data as well as information on how to contact the author is included. Theses for any degree, in any language, on any aspect of bryology are included. Both students and their advisors are encouraged to send a single bound copy of each bryological thesis for inclusion.
For those students for which sending a copy of their thesis would be a financial hardship, IAB offers small grants to cover the reproduction and binding costs. Requests for financial assistance should be sent to Dr. Dale Vitt (e-mail address: dale.vitt@ualberta.ca), Secretary-Treasurer of IAB. Requests should include title of thesis, degree for which thesis was written, number of pages, language of thesis, and the amount of money needed to produce a single copy.
Theses should be sent to Bill Buck at the address below. Thank you for your cooperation. Copies of older theses, especially those never published, are also welcome, not just recent ones.
This book is a compendium of twenty-six papers describing the physical characteristics, flora and vegetation of savannas, barrens and rock outcrops across North America. The scope of habitats included is very broad, ranging from Florida scrublands on dry sandy ridges to serpentine habitats, oak savanna, alvars, lower boreal aspen parkland and subalpine lichen woodland. The contributions are organized into four regional sections: eastern/southeastern, central/midwestern, western/southwestern and northern.
The individual contributions provide thorough overviews of the habitats in question, with descriptions of the physical settings, historical attributes of the habitats (such as presettlement vegetation and fire regimes), the flora and the vegetation. The topic of endemism in these habitats is a common thread throughout the entire volume, as the communities in question tend to stand out for their concentrations of endemic vascular plant species. In addition, important causal relationships are discussed in connection with their causal relationships with the vegetation. Vegetation descriptions offer cursory overviews, and the plant composition tables are abbreviated.
The only contribution from the Pacific Northwest is a concise discussion by Dr. Kruckeberg of serpentine barrens from California to British Columbia, in which he summarizes what is known about these habitats, drawing from his own vast work over the past fifty years on Pacific serpentine barrens. He discusses the tendency of endemism on serpentine, listing known endemic species in our region and the probable causes of endemism.
Unfortunately, the book contains no summary of other Pacific Northwest barren and savanna vegetation types, such as the Garry oak (Quercus garryana) meadow ecosystems and the species-rich "bedrock meadow" vegetation in the interior, with its abundance of endemic Lomatium species. However, this may in part attributable to the fact that, at least in the latter case, there is not much research to summarize at this time.
The volume is a first of its kind in North America, with an evidently comprehensive summary of the present state of knowledge on these as yet comparatively poorly-known plant communities. The bibliogaphies provided with the various contributions will be a valuable resource to future students of these habitats. The book is a must for anyone working working on bedrock or savanna plant communities and is a significant new contribution to the repertoire of North American vegetation references.
A list of the contributions and further discussion can be found at the Cambridge University Press website, http://www.cup.org/ or http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/ - click on catalogue and query for the title.
We are pleased to announce the launching of a new peer-reviewed scientific journal: Community Ecology to be published starting in 2000, following the merger of two well-established ecological periodicals, Coenoses and Abstracta Botanica.
The journal is being launched in an effort to create a common global forum for community ecologists. The scope of the journal includes, but is not restricted to, the following subject areas:
Experimentally-based field studies of plant, animal and/or microbial communities, in terrestrial, marine or freshwater systems, are welcome.
For more information on submission of manuscripts and on subscriptions, please visit: