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.

1. Introduction.- Basic Vegetation Science Contributions.- 2. Plant synecology in the service of rangeland management.- 3. Ecophysiology of range plants.- 4. Rangeland plant taxonomy.- 5. New plant development in range management.- 6. Successional concepts in relation to range condition assessment.- 7. A role for nonvascular plants in management of arid and semiarid rangelands.- 8. Seedbeds as selective factors in the species composition of rangeland communities.- 9. Modelling rangeland ecosystems for monitoring and adaptive management.- Vegetation Distribution and Organization.- 10. Vegetation-soil relationships on arid and semiarid rangelands.- 11. Vegetation attributes and their applications to the management of Australian rangelands.- 12. The ecology of shrubland/woodland for range use.- 13. Tundra vegetation as a rangeland resource.- 14. Forest rangeland relationships.- 15. Ecological principles and their application to rangeland management practice in South Africa.- 16. Range management from grassland ecology.- 17. Riparian values as a focus for range management and vegetation science.- Vegetation Science Rangeland Applications.- 18. Rangeland vegetation productivity and biomass.- 19. Rangeland vegetation - hydrologic interactions.- 20. Grazing management and vegetation response.- 21. Understanding fire ecology for range management.- 22. Reclamation of drastically disturbed rangelands.- 23. Rangeland vegetation as wildlife habitat.- 24. Revegetation of arid and semiarid rangelands.