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B O O K R E V I E W por_124 310

Review of Plants at the margin. Ecological limits and climate
change, by R.M.M. Crawford (2008). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 478 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-62309-4.

Professor Crawford does it again! It was a great privilege to
be asked to review Professor Crawford’s latest book, Plants
at the margin, and I did so with immense pleasure. It is a
hefty tome, a full 478 pages, but is easy to read and richly
illustrated with figures, tables and maps, as well as many
photographs from Crawford’s own expeditions. Crawford
draws on his own extensive field experience, and his love
of the Arctic clearly shines through, with examples
from Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, Ellesmere Island,
Siberia and northern Scandinavia.

Many other books about plant ecology focus on plant
life in well-established, stable-state vegetation types.
Crawford’s book gives a new and refreshing slant to plant
ecology by examining situations where plants are at the
margins of their existence. Marginal areas are, by their
nature, dynamic ecosystems, and this book explores the
various difficulties and challenges for plants to survive in
changing and harsh conditions. Crawford pulls together
his own studies and those undertaken by an impressive
list of refereed authors (there are 27 pages of up-to-date
references to scientific publications). These are based on
ecological observations and studies of experimental plant
ecology and ecophysiology, in both the field and labora-
tory, together with studies from the fields of biogeography,
demography, reproductive biology and genetics. Plants at
the limits of their distribution are very likely to be affected
by climate change. This is a timely work, now that the
general public has started asking the big question, “So
what is the effect of climate change likely to be?” This book
points the reader towards finding out some of the answers.

The common features of marginal areas and the chal-
lenges they produce for plants are discussed first in the
book, before going into detail about different types of
marginal habitats. Part I focuses on the nature of marginal
areas and their effects on biodiversity. Part II examines
plant function in marginal areas: how they overcome
resource limitations and short growing seasons in order to
effectively reproduce. Part III discusses selected case his-
tories of different marginal habitats. Case histories include
examples from the Arctic, at high altitudes, in coastal
margins and at the water’s edge, and include problems of
flooding and aeration, and the special case of woody

plants. In addition, human influence has also been dis-
cussed, including settlement, agricultural and coastal
issues, soil impoverishment and impact on wetlands. The
book concludes with chapters on signs of change, vegeta-
tion responses, adaptations to climate change, fragility
versus stability and diversity of ecosystems, conservation
and regeneration, and future prospects.

Plants at the margin is a book that is suitable for students
and researchers, and for others interested in both mar-
ginal habitats and the impact of climate change. I would
highly recommend it as an undergraduate text book.
There is also an electronic version, with all the figures and
illustrations from the book made available for lecturers’
presentations, which will help to inspire and motivate
students. Professor Crawford writes: “Numerous illustra-
tions have been included as a reminder of the place of
plants in their habitats and that whatever may be learnt
from the application of sophisticated methods of investi-
gation it is the existence of the plant in its environment
that has prompted our initial curiosity” (p. xiv).

Well done Professor Crawford—another good book for
us to learn from and enjoy!

Correspondence
Elisabeth Cooper, Department of Biology, University of Tromsø, NO-9037

Tromsø, Norway. E-mail: elisabeth.cooper@uit.no

Polar Research 28 2009 310 © 2009 the author, journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd310

mailto:cooper@uit.no