Tropical Alpine Environments: Plant Form and Function

Plants growing in tropical alpine environments (at altitudes above the closed canopy forest and below the limit of plant life) have evolved distinct forms to cope with a hostile environment characterized by cold, drought and fire. Unlike temperate alpine environments, where there are distinct seasons of favourable and unfavourable conditions for growth, tropical alpine habitats present summer conditions every day and winter conditions every night. Using examples from all over the tropics, this fascinating account reviews, for the first time, the unique form and functional relationships of tropical alpine plants examining both their physiological ecology and population biology. It will appeal to anyone interested in tropical vegetation and plant physiological adaptations to hostile environment, as well as to researchers in biogeography and ecology.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors; Preface; 1. Introduction to tropical alpine vegetation A. P. Smith; 2. Tropical alpine climates P. W. Rundel; 3. Páramo microclimate and leaf thermal balance of Andean giant rosette plants F. C. Meinzer, G. Goldstein and F. Rada; 4. Comparative water relations of tropical alpine plants F. C. Meinzer, G. Goldstein and P. W. Rundel; 5. Cold tolerance in tropical alpine plants E. Beck; 6. Anatomy of tropical alpine plants S. Carlquist; 7. Environmental biology of a tropical treeline species, polylepis sericea G. Goldstein, F. C. Meinzer and F. Rada; 8. Morphological and physiological radiation in páramo draba W. A. Pfitsch; 9. Sediment-based carbon nutrition in tropical alpine isoetes J. E. Keeley, D. A. DeMason, R. Gonzalez and K. R. Markham; 10. Functional significance of inflorescence pubescence in tropical alpine species of Puya G. A. Miller; 11. Turnover and conservation of nutrients in the pachycaul senecio keniodendron E. Beck; 12. Soil nutrient dynamics in East African alpine ecosystems H. Rehder; 13. An overview of the reproductive biology of espeletia (Asteraceae) in the Venezuelan Andes P. E. Berry and R. Calvo; 14. Population biology of Mount Kenya lobelias T. P. Young; 15. Population biology of Senecio kenodendron (Asteraceae), an Afroalpine giant rosette plant A. P. Smith and T. P. Young; 16. Population dynamics and flowering in a Hawaiian alpine rosette plant, Argyroxiphium sandiwicense P. W. Rundel and M. S. Witter; 17. Plant form and function in alpine New Guinea R. J. Hnatiuk; 18. Alpine herbivory on Mount Kenya T. P. Young and A. P. Smith; 19. Biotic interactions in Hawaiian high elevation ecosystems L. L. Loope and A. C. Medeiros; 20. Tropical alpine ecology: progress and priorities P. W. Rundel, F. C. Meinzer and A. P. Smith; Index.