Bücher der Reihe Tertiary Level Biology

The study of solute transport in plants dates back to the beginnings of experimental plant physiology, but has its origins in the much earlier interests of humankind in agriculture.

In the preface to the first edition ofthis book, we expressed a conviction that there was a need for a short book that highlighted important advances in the new discipline of plant molecular biology.

Mammalian sociobiology is a rapidly advancing field which has made enormous strides in the last ten years. While I am fully aware that human beings are mammals, any detailed consideration of human social behaviour lies outside the scope of this book.

In the decade since the first edition of this book was published advances have been made in our knowledge of the fresh waters of the world, espe cially in understanding many of the processes involved in their functioning as systems and in countering the problems created by human activities.

Organized under broad ecological headings, this book provides a selection of present knowledge of mammal ecology with examples selected from a wide range of species and from all parts of the world.

There has therefore always been an awareness of the need for a good understanding of how microorganisms react in the environ ment, and this has been heightened from time to time as detrimental microbial activities become evident under certain conditions.

Secondly, modern quantitative computational ab initio methods can be synergetically combined with various experimen tal techniques thus enabling precise numerical characterization of molecular properties better than ever anticipated earlier.

Writing a textbook on microbial genetics in about 200 pages was un doubtedly a difficult task, but I have been encouraged by the response from both students and lecturers to the first edition.

The Progress in Medical Radiation Physics series presents in-depth reviews of many of the significant developments resulting from the application of physics to medicine.

Photosynthesis--the capture of light energy by living organisms -is a simple enough concept, but its investigation draws on the resources of disciplines from all fields of science. I have assumed that the reader is pursuing a course with a content of biochemistry, microbiology and plant science, or has access to basic texts.

This book is directed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students-and their teachers-who are involved in those areas of cell biology which require a basic knowledge of cytoskeletal structure, parti cularly with respect to cell motility.

Problems have been perceived, hypotheses have been formulated to explain them, facts have been amassed to test the hypotheses, more problems have been perceived, more hypotheses formu lated, and so on.

The germination of seeds is a magical event, in which a pinch of dust-like material may give rise to all the power and the beauty of the growing plant. Plant physiologists attempt to understand the relation ship between plant form and function and to explain, in physical and chemical terms, plant growth and development.

The authors have adopted a habitat-organismal approach because they believe that a knowledge of biota and major features of their environment is the best key to an understanding of both larger and smaller scale processes.

In the decade since the first edition of this book was published advances have been made in our knowledge of the fresh waters of the world, espe cially in understanding many of the processes involved in their functioning as systems and in countering the problems created by human activities.

For the inhabitants of many of the world's major cities and towns, estuaries provide their nearest glimpse of a natural habitat; In spite of these problems, life in estuaries can be very abundant because estuarine mud is a rich food supply which can support a large number of animals with a large total weight and a high annual production.