Plant community ecology: Papers in honor of Robert H. Whittaker

R. K. Peet Dep. of Botany, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. 27514, USA Robert Whittaker's contributions to ecology were many and remarkably varied. His publication record will long stand as a monument to his greatness, and whatever we do to honor him will likely be rather small in comparison. Less well known were his personal interactions and the impact they had on the development of ecology as well as individual scientists. Over the years he touched many of us and we felt not just a professional but also a deep personal loss in his passing. After his death I was contacted by numerous colleagues who wondered what they might do to honor him. Whittaker had long served on the editorial board of Vegetatio, which prompted Eddy van der Maarel to suggest that a series of papers in the journal might be a fitting memorial, and so this project was conceived. Whittaker was a master of synthesis and during his career he published numerous review papers which showed clearly how his work related to and built on that of others. For this reason it seemed inappropriate and redundant to solicit papers reviewing areas to which Whittaker made important contributions. Instead, I chose to solicit research papers illustrating current applications of approaches Whittaker developed and showing a few of the recent advances which have grown directly from his pioneering work.

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1. Introduction.- 2. Robert H. Whittaker 19201980: The man and his work. (48:97122).- I Community analysis.- 3. New approaches to direct gradient analysis using environmental scalars and statistical curve-fitting procedures. (55: 1127).- 4. An analysis of species response curves and of competition from field data: some results from heath vegetation. (48: 175185).- 5. Species performances and vegetation boundaries along an environmental gradient. (52: 141150).- 6. On choosing a resemblance measure for non-linear predictive ordination. (54: 2735).- II Compositional gradients.- 7. Xeric Mediterranean-type shrubland associations of Alta and Baja California and the community/continuum debate. (52: 319).- 8. A numerical analysis of the regional and local variation in North American tall-grass prairie vegetation: structure and composition. (57: 6578).- 9. Distributions of C4 plants along environmental gradients in southeastern Arizona. (52: 2134).- 10. Gradient analysis of the vegetation of the Byron-Bergen swamp, a rich fen in Western New York. (53: 8591).- 11. Vegetation patterns related to environmental factors in a Negev Desert watershed. (54: 153165).- III Community dynamics.- 12. Disturbance and vegetation response in relation to environmental gradients in the Great Smoky Mountains. (55: 129139).- 13. Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains: Community types and dynamics. (58: 328).- 14. Patterns of tree replacement: canopy effects on understory pattern in hemlock northern hardwood forests. (56: 87107).- IV Species diversity.- 15. Measuring compositional change along gradients. (54: 129141).- 16. A new approach to the minimal area of a plant community. (50: 7176).- 17. Plant species richness at the 0.1 hectare scalein Australian vegetation compared to other continents. (52: 129140).- 18. Diversity relations in Cape shrublands and other vegetation in the southeastern Cape, South Africa. (54: 103127).- 19. Coexistence of plant species with similar niches. (58: 2955).- 20. Composition and species diversity of pine - wiregrass savannas of the Green Swamp, North Carolina. (55: 163179).- 21. Diversity models applied to chalk grasslands. (57: 103114).