A new book by Konza LTER faculty associate, David J. Gibson, draws heavily from studies at Konza that the author has been associated with over the years, including two color plates and several figures. According to the publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP), Grasses and Grassland Ecology is the only ecologically-orientated introduction to grasslands available at the moment.
Cover Grasses and Grassland Ecology
Gibson is professor of plant biology and University Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Plant Biology and the Center for Ecology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. A specialist in plant population and community ecology and grassland ecology, Gibson is also editor of the Journal of Ecology.
Since it deals specifically with grasslands, which constitute a major biome on all continents except Antarctica and also represent the most important food crops on Earth with corn, wheat, maize, rice and millet accounting for the majority of our agricultural output, OUP notes that the book "provides an ecologically orientated introduction to this influential group of plants, summarizing the most recent scientific research in ecology and agriculture in the context of the older, classic literature." Ten chapters cover the morphology, anatomy, physiology and systematics of grasses, their population, community and ecosystem ecology, their global distribution, and the effects of disturbance and grassland management.
Plate 11: North American tallgrass prairie. Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas, USA. Photograph