United States
£ GBP
Provides an ecological framework for the plants and their environments in the coast and foothill regions of Southern California, an area that boasts an extremely rich flora. It introduces California's plant communities, their ecological dynamics, and the key plants that grow in them. Coastal beach and dune habitats, coastal and interior sage scrub, chaparral, woodlands, grasslands, riparian woodlands, and wetlands all contribute unique plant assemblages to Southern California. In addition to discussing each of these areas in depth, this book also emphasizes ecological factors such as drought, seasonal temperatures, and fire that determine which plants can thrive in each community. It covers such important topics as non - native invasive plants and other issues involved with preserving biodiversity in the ecologically rich yet heavily populated and increasingly threatened area.
1. Biogeography of Southern California 2. Coastal Habitats: Beaches, Dunes, Bluffs, and Terraces 3. Coastal and Interior Sage Scrub 4. Chaparral 5. Chaparral and Fire 6. Woodlands 7. Grasslands 8. Riparlan Woodlands 9. Wetlands 10. Channel Islands 11. Invasive Species 12. Preserving Biodiversity Where to Experience Southern California Plant Communities References and Further Reading Additional Captions Index About the Authors
Philip W. Rundel, Professor of Biology at the University of California at Los Angeles, is coauthor of Ecological Communities and Processes in the Mojave Desert Ecosystem (1996), among other books. He has written extensively on the ecology of Southern California. Robert Gustafson is the retired collections manager of the Botany Department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His photographs illustrate Plants and Flowers of Hawaii (1987).
