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| View Larger Image | Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America: Geology, Soils, and Vegetation | Hardcoverby Earl B. Alexander (Author), Robert G. Coleman (Author), Todd Keeler-Wolfe (Author), Susan P. Harrison (Author)
| List Price: | $150.00 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Oxford University Press, USA | | Edition: | illustrated editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 528 Pages | | Publication Date: | November 02, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 839,383th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Geoecology is a fruitful interdisciplinary field, relating rocks to soils to plant and animal communities and studying the interactions between them. Modern geoecology especially concentrates on showing how geology and soils affect the structure, composition, and distribution of plant communities in a certain research area. This book applies the principles of geoecology to Western North America, and to a specific kind of rock, the fascinating serpentine belts that run along the continental margins of the West Coast from Alaska to Baja. The authors come from different disciplines: Alexander is a soil scientist, Coleman a geologist, Harrison a biological researcher, and Keeler-Wolfe a vegetation ecologist. It begins with an overview of the geology of this rock and this region, covering mineralogy, petrology, and stratigraphy of West Coast serpentine. It will continue with serpentine soils and their development and distribution, and serpentine effects on plants and vegetation and animals. The serpentine geoecology of the different regions of Western North America, concentrating on California, will conclude the study. So, this academic book should appeal to plant ecologists, soil scientists, researchers in geoecology, and students in advanced courses in soil science. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 1 review)
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The Enigma of Serpentine Endemism by James Safranek (Steinbeck Country)  4 Stars
October 07, 2008
Kruckeberg's CALIFORNIA SERPENTINES was my first intro to CA's kooky serpentine habitats, especially those I've witnessed in my own region at Table Mountain, Coyote Ridge and New Idria. For an extended treatment of the soils, geology and domains of western North America's unique serpentine geoecology, I can recommend this work to plant ecologists, biogeographers, and soil scientists.
If you like checkerspot butterflies you'll appreciate the importance of protecting serpentine terrane for this species, a topic which is admirably covered here by one of the co-authors.
For more on their biology, see Ehrlich's ON THE WINGS OF CHECKERSPOTS.
Get a copy of SERPENTINE GEOECOLOGY for around $7 before they're gone.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| California Serpentines: Flora, Vegetation, Geology, Soils, and Management Problems (University of California Publications in Botany)
by Arthur R. Kruckeberg (Author)
This is the first comprehensive treatment of an important segment of the flora of California: native plants that have varying degrees of fidelity to serpentine rock and soil that make up over 1100 square miles in the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. Many of California's unique endemic plants are found nowhere else but on serpentine; over 200 species, subspecies, and varieties of native plants are restricted to some degree to serpentine. The author describes the geology, soils, and mineral...
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| Introduction to California Soils and Plants: Serpentine, Vernal Pools, and Other Geobotanical Wonders (California Natural History Guides)
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Carnivorous pitcher plants, pygmy conifers, and the Tiburon jewel flower, restricted to a small patch of serpentine soil on Tiburon Peninsula in Marin County, are just a few of California's many amazing endemic plants--species that are unique to particular locales. California boasts an abundance of endemic plants precisely because it also boasts the richest geologic diversity of any place in North America, perhaps in the world. In lively prose, Arthur Kruckeberg gives a geologic travelogue of...
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| A Natural History of Conifers
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A compelling account of the extraordinary relatives of ordinary garden conifers.
Leading expert Aljos Farjon provides a compelling narrative that observes conifers from the standpoint of the curious naturalist. It starts with the basic question of what conifers are and continues to explore their evolution, taxonomy, ecology, distribution, human uses, and issues of conservation. As the story unfolds many popular misconceptions are dispelled, such as the false notion that all conifers...
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| The Evolution of Plants
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This is a broad but provocative examination of the evolution of plants from the earliest forms of life to the development of our present flora. Taking a fresh, modern approach to a subject often treated very stuffily, the book incorporates many recent studies on the morphological evolution of plants, enlivens the subject with current research on ancient DNA and other biomolecular markers, and places plant evolution in the context of climate change and mass extinction. It is written to be...
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| Geology and Plant Life: The Effects of Landforms and Rock Types on Plants
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Before any other influences began to fashion life and its lavish diversity, geological events created the initial environments--both physical and chemical--for the evolutionary drama that followed. Drawing on case histories from around the world, Arthur Kruckeberg demonstrates the role of landforms and rock types in producing the unique geographical distributions of plants and in stimulating evolutionary diversification. His examples range throughout the rich and heterogeneous tapestry of...
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