Mountain Ecosystems: Studies in Treeline Ecology

Except for water edges, cold climate treelines are the only land cover boundaries that have a global distribution. They are obvious even to the layperson, and they have fascinated biologists and geographers since the early days. High‐elevation treelines separate the montane forest and the treeless alpine region. This transition zone is commonly not sharp and is controlled by a multitude of environmental influences. This collection of case studies from around the world, edited in honor of treeline ecology pioneer F.‐K. Holtmeier, illuminates an impressively broad spectrum of phenomena associated with treelines. This broad spectrum, though, is also a limitation: The volume has no logical structure, and chapters neither build upon each other nor cover subjects by distinct thematic fields.