This is a remarkable work in many ways, bringing together global experts to produce a state-of-the-art volume on the world's tundra ecosystems. It considers the majority of the world's regions that are without trees because of high altitude and/or latitude. In his introduction, Wielgolaski discusses the various classification schemes but does not arrive at a more consistent definition. Following this introduction, he presents a very short chapter on adaptation in plants, which is followed by a somewhat longer introduction to the adaptations of insects and other terrestrial arthropods to the alpine environment, by Sømme. The following 11 chapters, totaling 318 pages, consider a significant proportion of the world's high-mountain ecosystems and are followed by a further 7 chapters (414 pages) that present high-latitude ecosystems, some of which are partly or mainly mountainous.

The regions covered in the 11 chapters are Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Central Himalaya, the high mountains of the former USSR, and tropical and southern Africa, the alpine zones of North America and New Zealand, and the South American páramo. The editor states in his preface that it was not easy to find authors for some alpine areas, principally because of the lack of research in them. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that some areas where some considerable research has been conducted are not included—notably Australia, the Iberian peninsula (Pyrenees), Japan, Malaysia (Kinabalu), and Papua New Guinea—and the chapter on the Andes focuses on the Venezuelan páramos, and particularly their fauna, largely neglecting research done in other parts of Latin America. A similar comment can be made for the chapter on the Himalaya, which addresses only vegetation in the central part of the chain.

Within the 11 chapters on alpine ecosystems, there is considerable variation in the presentation; in some chapters, the general physical context—topography, geology, soils, climate—is presented, while in others, the authors go straight to detailed descriptions of vegetation and fauna. These inconsistencies may result, to some extent, from lack of information or long-term records, but this is not always the case and presumably derives from the lack of a consistent brief to the authors from the editor and/or the research interests of the authors. Similarly, inconsistencies can be seen in the chapters on high-latitude ecosystems, of which one, on the arctic ecosystems of North America (by Bliss), could be a book in its own right.

With regard to the interests of many of the readers of this journal, it is also notable that the role of human beings in influencing the ecology of these ecosystems is only briefly mentioned in some chapters in spite of the extensive use of many alpine ecosystems by people and their grazing animals.

The editor is to be commended on the significant effort involved in coordinating the production of this monumental work, which has excellent systematic and general indexes. However, to justify its price, which puts it beyond the purchasing power of almost all scientists and very many libraries, a greater investment would have been worthwhile in ensuring both greater consistency across the chapters, perhaps involving authors from different disciplines on the preparation of each chapter, and a more comprehensive geographical overview that would truly justify the inclusion of the book in a series entitled “Ecosystems of the World.”