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The English translation makes this unique book, now in its fourth edition (originally published in 1988), available to a wider audience. This book contains a considerable amount of ecological information and discusses many principles relevant not only to plant ecologists in continental Europe, but to ecologists and palaeoecologists in the British Isles and North America. Besides providing valuable syntheses of the major plant communities, the author details the ecology and environmental requirements of all the vegetation types and discusses the climatic tolerances and ecological physiology of many of the major species.

The account is based upon a lifetime of thorough field work and experimental investigation. One of the major messages to be gleaned from the book concerns the long-lasting and considerable effects of human activity upon the vegetation, and the book therefore has much to teach about the impact of agriculture and industrial pollution and highlights the need to plan carefully for the conservation of our rich natural and semi-natural environment.