Originating in a symposium held at the U. of Liverpool, England in September 1989, this volume draws together microbiologists, ecologists, botanists, and zoologists into a more coherent discussion on the earliest stages of community development. New techniques allow observation and experimentation at the microbial level, and the ecological opportunities offered by the Mount St. Helens eruption have been exploited to shed more light on the processes of primary succession. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.