Plant Breeding for Abiotic Stress Tolerance is edited and written by Brazilian research scientists, and occasionally this shows in their use of English. The book's perspectives are the problems faced in Brazil as a result of bringing marginal land into cultivation and the likely consequences of climate change. Two introductory chapters set the scene in terms of the challenges for plant breeding and the concepts of stress-tolerance and resource-use efficiency. Next is the longest chapter, on the physiology of abiotic stresses, with an emphasis on satisfactory plant growth and crop yield in tropical environments. This is followed by individual chapters on breeding for nitrogen-, phosphorus- and water-use efficiency and tolerance of salinity, aluminium and heat-stress. The final chapter is on breeding Eucalyptus species for water deficiency conditions in Brazil, as an example of abiotic stress tolerance in a perennial forest crop. Each chapter on breeding has a similar format with up-to-date information and references on the seriousness of stress, how to induce it for scientific study and how to select for tolerance, germplasm availability, genetics and breeding methods, and the use of biotechnology. The book contains valuable information on the mechanisms of tolerance and useful ideas on how to breed for tolerance, with examples of the progress achieved to date. Some of the transgenic approaches look particularly promising, but will need to be confirmed under field conditions. However, the book's shortness and Brazilian focus mean that it cannot be considered a fully comprehensive review of the subject.