The World Atlas of Trees and Forests: Exploring Earth's Forest Ecosystems

by Herman Shugart, Peter White, Sassan Saatchi, Jérôme Chave

Overview

A marvelously illustrated look at the world’s diverse forests and their ecosystems

The earth’s forests are havens of nature supporting a diversity of life. Shaped by climate and geography, these vast and dynamic wooded spaces offer unique ecosystems that shelter complex and interdependent webs of flora, fungi, and animals. The World Atlas of Trees and Forests offers a beautiful introduction to what forests are, how they work, how they grow, and how we map, assess, and conserve them.

• Provides the most wide-ranging coverage of the world’s forests available
• Takes readers beneath the breathtaking variety of wooded canopies that span the globe
• Profiles a wealth of tree species, with enlightening and entertaining natural-history highlights along the way
• Features stunning color photos, maps, and graphics
• Draws on the latest cutting-edge research and technology, including satellite imagery

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691226743
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	253,274
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 12.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Herman Shugart is the W. W. Corcoran Professor of Natural History (Emeritus) at the University of Virginia. His books include How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature. Peter White is Professor of Biology (Emeritus) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Sassan Saatchi is senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and adjunct professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Jérôme Chave is director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse, France.

Editorial Reviews

"Winner of the Dartmouth Medal for Outstanding Reference Work, American Library Association"

"Winner of the PROSE Award in Environmental Science, Association of American Publishers"

From the Publisher

01/27/2023

This beautiful introduction to the sister sciences of trees as individual plants (dendrology) and as forest ecosystems uses photos, diagrams, and maps extensively and to complementary effect. Not an atlas in the cartographic sense—most maps are global charts of the extent of different types of forests—it nonetheless guides the reader's exploration. Initial chapters focus on the science of trees and forests: what makes a plant a tree, and what natural forces determine how they grow, spread, and change over time and space? Then each classification of forest, determined largely by water, wind, light and soil conditions, is considered in separate chapters, which juxtaposes forests across continents when evolution or climate create similar conditions around the world. The past and future of forests are also considered, including pressures brought by human civilization and development. Extensive cross-referencing makes it is an easy book to browse without a linear reading order. A short but useful glossary, lists of additional readings and websites, and an index conclude the volume. VERDICT A visually pleasing volume to browse for anyone curious about the hidden forces that determine the location, appearance, and functioning of forests in their backyard or around the globe.—Wade Lee-Smith

Library Journal