Book excerpt: "Featuring hundreds of new illustrations, a new chapter (23) on terrestrial algae, and through classification updates, Algae, Second Edition is the indispensable guide for studying algae. With an emphasis on algae ecology and molecular biology, the authors focus on what readers really want to know about algae - why they are so diverse; how they are related; how to distinguish the major types; their roles in food webs; how we utilize them, and more. This text also provides broad coverage of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial algae."--Jacket.