Summary: | "Plants at the limits of their distribution are likely to be particularly affected by climate change. Biogeography, demography, reproductive biology, physiology and genetics all provide explanations as to why limits occur where they do. This book brings together these different avenues of enquiry in a form that is suited to students, researchers, and anyone with an interest in the impact of climate change. Margins are by their very nature environmentally unstable - does it therefore follow that plant populations adapted for life in such areas will prove to be pre-adapted to withstand the changes that may be brought about by a warmer world? This and other questions are explored concerning the changes that are already taking place on this planet. Numerous illustrations are included to remind us that knowledge of the existence of plants in their natural environment is essential to our understanding of their function and ecology in a changing world."--Jacket.
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