Tropical Alpine Environments

'All in all, I liked this book very much. It covers a fascinating subject in a concise and readable style. It is a significant and useful contribution to any tropical alpine specialist's bookshelf, and deserves a general readership amongst curious plant ecologists and students.' Mountain Research and Development

'... I feel sure that the teacher, researcher, specialist and general reader will find this well-presented volume a great stimulus to a new generation of young biologists who are just about to discover ecology, the tropics and high mountains.' Annal of Botany

List of contributors; Preface; 1. Introduction to tropical alpine vegetation A. P. Smith; 2. Tropical alpine climates P. W. Rundel; 3. Pramo microclimate and leaf thermal balance of Andean giant rosette plants F. C. Meinzer, G. Goldstein and F. Rada; 4. Comparative water relations of tropical alpine plants F. C. Meinzer, G. Goldstein and P. W. Rundel; 5. Cold tolerance in tropical alpine plants E. Beck; 6. Anatomy of tropical alpine plants S. Carlquist; 7. Environmental biology of a tropical treeline species, polylepis sericea G. Goldstein, F. C. Meinzer and F. Rada; 8. Morphological and physiological radiation in pramo draba W. A. Pfitsch; 9. Sediment-based carbon nutrition in tropical alpine isoetes J. E. Keeley, D. A. DeMason, R. Gonzalez and K. R. Markham; 10. Functional significance of inflorescence pubescence in tropical alpine species of Puya G. A. Miller; 11. Turnover and conservation of nutrients in the pachycaul senecio keniodendron E. Beck; 12. Soil nutrient dynamics in East African alpine ecosystems H. Rehder; 13. An overview of the reproductive biology of espeletia (Asteraceae) in the Venezuelan Andes P. E. Berry and R. Calvo; 14. Population biology of Mount Kenya lobelias T. P. Young; 15. Population biology of Senecio kenodendron (Asteraceae), an Afroalpine giant rosette plant A. P. Smith and T. P. Young; 16. Population dynamics and flowering in a Hawaiian alpine rosette plant, Argyroxiphium sandiwicense P. W. Rundel and M. S. Witter; 17. Plant form and function in alpine New Guinea R. J. Hnatiuk; 18. Alpine herbivory on Mount Kenya T. P. Young and A. P. Smith; 19. Biotic interactions in Hawaiian high elevation ecosystems L. L. Loope and A. C. Medeiros; 20. Tropical alpine ecology: progress and priorities P. W. Rundel, F. C. Meinzer and A. P. Smith; Index.