Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity
Explores the Southeast’s imperiled river systems and solutions for preserving them in the face of habitat loss, climate change, and extinction
 
Southern Rivers, by award-winning nature writer and biologist R. Scot Duncan, is a thoroughly crafted exploration of the perilous state of the Southeast’s rivers and the urgent need to safeguard their vitality. The region’s rivers are the epicenter of North American freshwater biodiversity and are the top global hotspot for important aquatic animals including mussels, turtles, snails, crayfish, and fish, many of which have made important contributions to southern life and culture.

Centuries of commercial development have impaired the region’s river systems, sacrificing biodiversity and compromising the rivers’ ability to provide resources essential to human life: drinking water, waste disposal, irrigation, navigation, recreation, power production, and more. Now, increased heat and drought caused by climate change are lowering water levels. As such threats increase, it may seem necessary to choose between nature conservation and human needs, but Duncan persuasively demonstrates that this is a false choice. Conservation enhances human life.

In the same engaging voice of an expert friend that won over thousands of readers of his earlier book, Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity, Duncan explains the task of managing southeastern rivers and how river water quality affects the daily lives of the millions who hold these historic waterways dear. He shows how managing rivers wisely can meet the needs of biodiversity and humanity both. With Americans increasingly anxious about the onset of climate change and the accelerating extinction crisis, Southern Rivers illuminates actionable solutions.
 
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Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity
Explores the Southeast’s imperiled river systems and solutions for preserving them in the face of habitat loss, climate change, and extinction
 
Southern Rivers, by award-winning nature writer and biologist R. Scot Duncan, is a thoroughly crafted exploration of the perilous state of the Southeast’s rivers and the urgent need to safeguard their vitality. The region’s rivers are the epicenter of North American freshwater biodiversity and are the top global hotspot for important aquatic animals including mussels, turtles, snails, crayfish, and fish, many of which have made important contributions to southern life and culture.

Centuries of commercial development have impaired the region’s river systems, sacrificing biodiversity and compromising the rivers’ ability to provide resources essential to human life: drinking water, waste disposal, irrigation, navigation, recreation, power production, and more. Now, increased heat and drought caused by climate change are lowering water levels. As such threats increase, it may seem necessary to choose between nature conservation and human needs, but Duncan persuasively demonstrates that this is a false choice. Conservation enhances human life.

In the same engaging voice of an expert friend that won over thousands of readers of his earlier book, Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity, Duncan explains the task of managing southeastern rivers and how river water quality affects the daily lives of the millions who hold these historic waterways dear. He shows how managing rivers wisely can meet the needs of biodiversity and humanity both. With Americans increasingly anxious about the onset of climate change and the accelerating extinction crisis, Southern Rivers illuminates actionable solutions.
 
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Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity

Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity

by R. Scot Duncan
Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity

Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity

by R. Scot Duncan

eBook

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Overview

Explores the Southeast’s imperiled river systems and solutions for preserving them in the face of habitat loss, climate change, and extinction
 
Southern Rivers, by award-winning nature writer and biologist R. Scot Duncan, is a thoroughly crafted exploration of the perilous state of the Southeast’s rivers and the urgent need to safeguard their vitality. The region’s rivers are the epicenter of North American freshwater biodiversity and are the top global hotspot for important aquatic animals including mussels, turtles, snails, crayfish, and fish, many of which have made important contributions to southern life and culture.

Centuries of commercial development have impaired the region’s river systems, sacrificing biodiversity and compromising the rivers’ ability to provide resources essential to human life: drinking water, waste disposal, irrigation, navigation, recreation, power production, and more. Now, increased heat and drought caused by climate change are lowering water levels. As such threats increase, it may seem necessary to choose between nature conservation and human needs, but Duncan persuasively demonstrates that this is a false choice. Conservation enhances human life.

In the same engaging voice of an expert friend that won over thousands of readers of his earlier book, Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity, Duncan explains the task of managing southeastern rivers and how river water quality affects the daily lives of the millions who hold these historic waterways dear. He shows how managing rivers wisely can meet the needs of biodiversity and humanity both. With Americans increasingly anxious about the onset of climate change and the accelerating extinction crisis, Southern Rivers illuminates actionable solutions.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780817394844
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication date: 03/15/2024
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 508
File size: 29 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

R. Scot Duncan is a biologist and executive director of Alabama Audubon. He is author of Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity, winner of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s 2014 Phil Reed Environmental Writing Award, and the Southeastern Library Association’s 2013 Overall Excellence: Hard Cover Award.
 

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Acknowledgments Part I 1. The Point 2. Welcome to the Anthropocene 3. Brimming with Species 4. A Simple Dock 5. Three Questions Part II 6. Uncle Dallas and the Sturgeon 7. Ancient Witnesses 8. Industrialization 9. Jubilee 10. Warts and All 11. Unsung Heroes 12. Death by Mud 13. A Golden Age Begins 14. How to Drown a River 15. Unlikely Survivor 16. Case Closed? 17. Hitchhiking Elephantears 18. Pearls and Caviar Part III 19. Sacrifice Zone 20. Coal’s Curse 21. Toxic Chemistry 22. Quitting Coal 23. Hothouse Earth 24. A Thirsty Future 25. Rising Waters 26. Salty Floods Part IV 27. Ecological Free Fall 28. Ivan’s Wisdom 29. Armor, Adapt, Retreat 30. Working with Nature 31. Drought 32. Reservoir Reservations 33. Water from the Rock and Sea 34. The Source Within 35. Mussel Power 36. Back from the Brink 37. Restoration Blueprint 38. Let ’Em Flow 39. Struggling Sturgeon 40. A Shad Story 41. Safe, Timely, and Effective 42. American Eel, Superhero 43. Halfway Solutions 44. A New Era Begins 45. The Road to Removal 46. The Future of Hydropower 47. Escaping the Flood Trap 48. Lake Life Part VI 49. Where Do We Go from Here? 50. Homecoming Notes Bibliography Further Readings Index
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