Natural grasslands, pastures and meadows are among the vegetation types
most frequently investigated with phytosociological methods. This was
one of the reasons why volume 13, Application of vegetation science to
grassland husbandry and agriculture, edited by W. Krause, appeared as
one of the first volumes of this handbook. It appeared under the chief
editorship of Prof. R. Tiixen and in his time main emphasis of the
handbook was placed on Ziirich-Montpellier methods and the European
vegetation. When we redesigned the handbook we felt the need to include
other methods and aims of grassland analyses as well as a more global
coverage of grasslands. Especially the natural dry and semidry areas of
the world needed to be covered. was very fortunate in getting Prof.
Tueller of the University of Reno I Nevada as an editor for this volume.
He and the colleagues he motivated to compile volume 14 on Application
of vegetation science to rangeland analysis and management have created
a truly global coverage of the topics interesting for vegetation
analyses in natural grasslands. Since volume 13 covered the problems of
anthropogenically created grasslands, this topic was not expressly
treated in order to avoid duplication. For the same reason no specific
attempt was made to get more papers from Europe and the temperate forest
region in general. The cooperation with Dr. Tueller has been very
rewarding for me.
