The publishers recommend this book to students, life scientists, and people interested in desert biology. We can support this recommendation. The book is published within the 'Tropical Ecology Series', therefore the authors in most cases refer to examples and conditions of hot deserts. The temperate deserts are mentioned only very briefly. It would have been better to discuss also the ecology of organisms of these deserts in comparison with the material, given in the book. This lack does not detract much from the value of the comprehensive book, which can be read with good advantage.
It is divided into 10 chapters with reference to the desert environment and principles of adaptation, escape from the desert environment, morphological adaptations, physiological and behavioural adaptations, reproduction, structure of some typical desert communities, functional aspects of desert communities evolutionary ecology of deserts, and man and the desert.
Zoological subjects and aspects prevail in every chapter. More emphasis on plants in some chapters would have increased the usefulness of the book.
Somewhat misleading is the heading 'Structure of some typical desert communities'. This chapter includes a very short review of some important desert areas of the world, but plant communities and groups of typical animals are not treated. Even names of plants or animals are hardly given.
Some comparisons with other main types of vegetation in the world or between different types in the same area in connection with different ecological factors, especially rainfall, are helpful for the understanding of the extreme ecological conditions in desert areas. Instructive is also the chapter on the activity of man in the desert, wich includes aspects of nature conservation and tourism.
The book is well illustrated with photos, diagrams, and tables, and contains an extensive bibliography, which includes not only English language literature.