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The article studies the ecology of shingle beach plants. The author mentions some of the relevant papers on shingle beaches as a plant habitat, or on their vegetation. Each of the two principal factors, beach composition and shingle mobility, is continuously variable in itself as well as interacting with other factors such as local topography, climate and water supply, and the whole is influenced by time and by past history, according to the author. The author says that the material of shingle beaches consists of two components, the shingle or coarse fraction and the matrix or fine fraction.

The article reports on the acquisition of the journal "The Plant World" by the Ecological Society of America in the U.S. It says that the acquired journal bears the title "Ecology". The acquisition made the journal as the organ of the Society and will publish papers both on plant and animal ecology. Furthermore, the Plant World journal has always published several ecological papers, and its successor, the Ecology journal may now be expected to become one of the main outlets for American ecological work.

The article offers information about several conventions of the British Ecological Society in Great Britain. The symposium titled "The Water Relations of Plants," organized by the Society on April 5-8, 1961, was attended by 112 members and overseas visitors. The meeting of the Tropical Ecology Group of the Society on April 6, 1961 in the Department of Botany was attended by 55 members which was arranged by P. W. Richards. The 1961 Summer Meeting was centered on the Departments of Botany and Zoology which was participated by 35 members who joined in the excursions by several local members. Various topics are also mentioned on each of the events.

The article presents the study on edaphic ecotypes in Euphorbia thymifolia L. The three populations within the red ecotype of Euphorbia thymifolia L. have showed very diverse responses to calcium in the soil, in regard to their growth performance under competitive and non-competitive conditions. Mella soil was also found to be highly calcareous compared to Indian soil. The differences recognized in the growth and the yield of the three populations are maintained when grown on a neutral substratum.

The article offers information on the use of plant-to-neighbor distance for the detection of intraspecific competition. The plants are competing with one another may manifest two ways, including the distance between any plant and its nearest neighbor will be positively correlated with the sum of their sizes, and there may be a lower limit to the distance between any plant and its nearest neighbor. Accordingly, each successful plant may have around it its own territory within which no new colonizers can establish. It is stated that weak competition might produce result unsuccessful competitors would be stunted. Moreover, it also discusses the detection of regularity within dense clumps by the usual methods of examining pattern.

The article investigates the effect of controlled environmental conditions, such as water regime, soil type and associated species, on the distribution of closely related species. Five Rumex species were used in the study including R. crispus, R. obtusifolius, R. sanguineus, R. conglomeratus and R. hydrolapathum. Results showed that water regime and soil type have the same pattern of response for all species except for R. sanguineus. Findings showed that interspecific interference is more powerful in flower suppression than intraspecific interference.

The article offers information on the multivariate methods in plant ecology. Association-analysis in plant communities was conducted using the method developed by D. W. Goodall in 1953. Goodall developed the utility of interspecific associations for sorting quadrants into groups is based on definition of a homogeneous unit of vegetation as one in which all species-associations are indeterminate or non-significant. Details related to the ecological information obtained from two heathland communities are presented, followed by discussion on the conclusion that a method by Goodall is likely to prove a very useful tool in primary survey.

The article presents reviews of the periodical "The Journal of Animal Ecology," November 1942, Vol. 11, No. 2 issue,as well as five articles by M. C. Rayner related to the mycorrhizal relations of Pinus and the book "The Reproductive Capacity of Plants," by E. J. Salisbury. This issue of "The Journal of Animal Ecology" presents population studies related to land mammals. Rayner's studies on the other hand, deal with the associations of mycorrhiza with Pinus, specifically focusing on its species: P. sylvestris, P. laricis, P. pinaster and P. contorta. Lastly, the book by Salisbury tackles on plant biology.

The article talks about the concepts and criteria used for the recognition of biotic communities. These concepts describe the fundamental use of the ecological units established by Clements and Shelford, which are used by many American and British authors. The definitions of the concepts, including association abstract, abstract communities and associes abstract, are offered. The subdivisions of the biotic formation (biome), which includes the perennial nucleus, seasonal societies of communities, and intradiel communities, are discussed.

The article describes the relict method in dynamic ecology. It discusses ecological methods for the field and the indicator method and its applications. A relict is defined as a community or fragment of one that has survived some change, often to become an integral part of the existing vegetation. It offers information on the nature of relicts, shrinkage of climaxes and utilisation and interpretation. The two kinds of relict communities re those due to climatic pulsations and those produced by human coactions. It stresses the importance when applying the relict method to the interpretation of a particular climax to realise that the structure of the latter is a mosaic of climatic, seral and coactive effects.

The article focuses on the standardization of descriptions for plant communities. Descriptive ecology should be aimed at discovering the causal relations that determine the character and structure of the communities being studied to be able to advance knowledge. There are several schools of thought in ecology, including floristic, physiognomic, edaphic and successional, each dominated by a specific direction of approach and produced systems of classifications. Several features and characteristics should be regarded as essential to the proper diagnosis and delimitation of vegetation units.

The article discusses the climatic cycles and treegrowths in the U.S. It highlights the ecologist interest in the correlation of treegrowth rainfall. According to that author, in dry climates, the ring thickness is proportional to the amount of rainfall in the year with an accuracy of seventy percent. It says that the trees were tabulated in groups of 10 or more, but a remarkable correspondence exists between individual trees of each group. It also says that double rings in the arid regions were found to be correlated with deficient winter snowfall, so that the tree had not enough water to continue forming its summer wood, and passed to forming autumn wood before the summer rains enabled it to start a fresh zone of wide elements.

The article addresses the principles of ecology using illustrations of animals. Ecology refers to the branch of general physiology which deals with the organism as a whole, with its general life processes as distinguished from the more special physiology of organs. The reason for the difficulty in ecological work is the lack of knowledge of physiological life histories. Ecology can be divided into individual ecology or the ecology of individuals or particular species, and when several species belonging to one genus are treated it is usually called aggregated ecology.

The article discusses the ecology of lichen. It says that fungus is one component of lichen thallus, usually lived during its vegetative stages inside dead or living organic matter and thus away from the light. It also says that lichen is hydrophilous, hygrophilous and saprophytic. The article noted that lichen is composed of algae and fungus and can live in the driest, coolest and most exposed localities, where no organic matter can be detected in the substratum. Moreover, lichen have been enabled to adapt themselves very closely to the new conditions by which they are surrounded and, more than other plants, they can alter their structure and mode of living directly and individually to suit their new life.

Discusses the state of ecological studies at a crossroads amidst the population increase, too little food and space and the acceleration of this imbalance. Argument about whether we should concentrate on the expansion of exploiting renewable resources or upon decelerating the increase of man so that resources and man may balance at the maximum limit of exploitation; Notable expansion in the fields of interest of ecologists in Great Britain; Study of the structure and pattern of communities.

This article highlights the First International Congress of Ecology, which will be held on September 8-14, 1974. The event Secretariat is headquartered at the Hague, Netherlands. The congress will consist of morning and afternoon sessions as well as an evening program. Morning sessions will be held as plenary sessions, focusing on the unifying concepts in ecology such as the flow of energy and matter between trophic levels. In the afternoons, there will be a choice of three simultaneous sessions.