A Field Guide To California And Pacific Northwest Forests
400
A Field Guide To California And Pacific Northwest Forests
400eBook
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Overview
This comprehensive field guide includes all the flora and fauna you're most likely to see in the forests of California and the Pacific Northwest. With 53 color plates and 80 color photos illustrating trees, birds, mammals, wildflowers, mushrooms, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, moths, and other insects.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780547992426 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 11/15/1998 |
| Series: | Peterson Field Guides |
| Sold by: | HARPERCOLLINS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Sales rank: | 747,802 |
| File size: | 124 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
JOHN KRICHER is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Wheaton College, Norton, MA, where for 48 years he taught ecology, ornithology, and vertebrate evolution. He is a Fellow in the American Ornithologists Union and is past president of the Association of Field Ornithologists, the Wilson Ornithological Society, and the Nuttall Ornithological Club. He has served on the board of the American Birding Association.
Gordon Morrison is a well-known naturalist whose work has been praised by Roger Tory Peterson as "Marvelous, beautiful, excellent . . . Morrison’s work is so inspiring that I wish such clear material was available when I was slowly learning ecology. . . . We owe a debt of gratitude to Gordon for his interpretive skills as an artist. He is a superb teacher who uses visual methods." Robert Bateman likened his work to that of Albrecht Durer and Andrew Wyeth. Gordon Morrison makes his home in Massachusetts.
Read an Excerpt
Deserts Three deserts in North America receive virtually all their precipitation in the form of rain, never snow, and are thus called “hot deserts”: the Sonoran Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Mojave Desert (described briefly in Chapter 6, “California Forests”). Many of these desert areas receive under 10 inches of precipitation a year. Thus the species that live here must be able to survive on little water. Hot deserts typically contain many succulent species, which store water in their thick, fleshy leaves and stems. Cactus plants are common here, as well as a diverse array of yuccas and agaves. The Mojave Desert is dominated primarily by one species of yucca, the Joshuatree. Some hot deserts have areas where trees manage to survive, especially the various mesquites and paloverdes. Most hot deserts receive enough water to support some woody shrubs, especially Creosote Bush. Deserts vary with latitude. Those sufficiently far north receive some winter snow and are called “cold deserts.” Lying between the Coast Ranges and the Rockies is the Great Basin Desert, the “big brown area” that air travelers see clearly from 30,000 feet. This vast desert exists because moisture is so efficiently blocked by the surrounding mountain ranges that very little is left to fall in most of eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. The Great Basin Desert is a “cold desert” — though tourists traveling through Nevada in the middle of summer might disagree. These deserts tend to be composed of scattered but hardy shrubs such as Big Sagebrush.
Table of Contents
Editor’s Note v Acknowledgments vii Preface ix 1. How To Use This Book 1 2. Forest Ecology 15 Essay: Plant-Herbivore Wars 37 3. Life Zones 50 4. Widespread Western Mammals and Birds 60 Essay: Elk and Sexual Selection 61 Essay: Pale Rump Patches 66 Essay: Antlers and Horns 68 Essay: The Selfish Herd and the Solitary Hunter 75 Essay: Old World and New World Vultures: A Convergence 78 Plate 1. Widespread Western Mammals 92 Plate 2. Widespread Birds of Open Areas 94 Plate 3. Widespread Forest Birds 96 5. Sierra Nevada Forests 98 Mid-elevation Pine Forest 103 Giant Sequoia Grove 111 Essay: Why So Many Kinds of Chipmunks? 121 Montane Fir Forest 124 Essay: Bird Space 131 Subalpine Forest 132 Sagebrush-Pinyon Forest 144 Essay: From Sierra to Cordillera 149 Plate 4. Sierra Nevada Mid-elevation Pine Forest 152 Plate 5. Giant Sequoia Grove 154 Plate 6. Sierra Nevada/Montane Fir Forests 156 Plate 7. Sierra Nevada Subalpine Forest 158 Plate 8. Animals of Timberline-Alpine Tundra 160 6. California Forests 162 California Oak-Pine Woodland and Savanna 164 Essay: California’s Cooperative Woodpecker 174 California Chaparral 176 California Coastal Forest and Scrub 185 Essay: California’s Unique Flora 197 California Riparian Forest 199 Redwood Forest 207 Southern California Desert Scrub 214 Essay: Ancient Western Forests and the Sands of Time 218 Mojave Desert Joshuatree Forest 221 Plate 9. California Oak-Pine Woodland and Savanna 224 Plate 10. California Chaparral 226 Plate 11. California Coastal Forest and Scrub 228 Plate 12. California Riparian Forest 230 Plate 13. Redwood Forest 232 7. Pacific Northwest Forests 234 Northwest Oak-Pine Forest 237 Temperate Rain Forest 243 Essay: Temperate Rain Forest, Tropical Rain Forest, and Biodiversity 260 Douglas-fir Forest 261 Essay: The Logging Controversy 270 Northwest Riparian Forest 276 Subalpine Evergreen Forest 285 Northwest Subalpine Meadows 293 Essay: Succession on Mount St. Helens 301 Plate 14. Northwest Oak-Pine Forest 304 Plate 15. Temperate Rain Forest I 306 Plate 16. Temperate Rain Forest II 308 Plate 17. Douglas-fir Forest 310 Plate 18. Northwest Riparian Forest I 312 Plate 19. Northwest Riparian Forest II 314 Plate 20. Subalpine Evergreen Forest 316 Plate 21. Northwest Subalpine Meadows 318 8. Boreal Forests of Canada and Alaska 320 Boreal Spruce-Fir Forest 322 Boreal Bog 331 Timberline-Arctic Tundra 336 Plate 22. Boreal Spruce-Fir Forest I 342 Plate 23. Boreal Spruce-Fir Forest II 344References 349 Index 352