ix 338 plus four pages of coloured plates. Includes index and bibliographical references.The corners are knocked and there is an ownership signature on the front end paper, else a clean, unmarked and solid copy. Overseas customers please note the book is heavy and will attract additional postage."Generations of plant scientists have been fascinated by alpine plant life - with the exposure of organisms to dramatic climatic gradients over a very short distance. This comprehensive text treats a wide range of topics: alpine climate and soils, plant distribution and the treeline phenomenon, physiological ecology of water-, nutritional- and carbon relations of alpine plants, plant stress and plant development, biomass production, and aspects of human impacts on alpine vegetation. Geographically the book covers all parts of the world including the tropics." CONTENTS: Plant ecology at high elevations The alpine life zone Alpine climate The climate plants experience Life under snow: protection and limitation Alpine soils Alpine treelines Climatic stress Water relations Mineral nu- trition Uptake and loss of carbon Carbon investments Growth dynamics Cell division and tissue formation Plant biomass production Plant reproduction Global change at high elevation References (with chapter annotation)