The Jepson Desert Manual

The Jepson Desert Manual
Author: Jepson Herbarium
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 678
Release: 2002-03-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780520227750

"This impressive, streamlined new field guide to plants of California deserts is based on The Jepson Manual and is truly a handbook to be carried in the field. It offers new introductory discussions, many new illustrations, revised user-friendly keys, updated distribution information, flowering times. . . and handsome color photos of many species. This marvelous book demonstrates that our deserts are not barren wastes but treasure houses filled with an abundance of floristic riches."—Robert Ornduff, author of Introduction to California Plant Life "This is a marvelously useful guide to the plants of California’s deserts, clearly-written and well-organized. An invaluable companion to those who delight in the unusual and beautiful plants of these scenic areas."—Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden "This much-needed volume incorporates new information about the status and range of many California desert plants. This book will facilitate access to information about our deserts, and will lead to increased respect and attention to them. We warmly welcome it."—Jake Sigg, President, California Native Plant Society

Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems

Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems
Author: Thomas A. Waldrop
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9780160943959

Prescribed burning is an important tool throughout Southern forests, grasslands, and croplands. The need to control fire became evident to allow forests to regenerate. This manual is intended to help resource managers to plan and execute prescribed burns in Southern forests and grasslands. A new appreciation and interest has developed in recent years for using prescribed fire in grasslands, especially hardwood forests, and on steep mountain slopes. Proper planning and execution of prescribed fires are necessary to reduce detrimental effects, such as the impacts on air and downstream water quality. Check out these related products: Trees at Work: Economic Accounting for Forest Ecosystem Services in the U.S. South can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/trees-work-economic-accounting-forest-ecosystem-services-us-south Soil Survey Manual 2017 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/soil-survey-manual-march-2017 Quantifying the Role of the National Forest System Lands in Providing Surface Drinking Water Supply for the Southern United States is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/quantifying-role-national-forest-system-lands-providing-surface-drinking-water-supply Fire Management Today print subscription is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/fire-management-today Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Fire and Nonnative Invasive Plants can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/wildland-fire-ecosystems-fire-and-nonnative-invasive-plants

Plant Life of Kentucky

Plant Life of Kentucky
Author: Ronald L. Jones
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 856
Release: 2005-03-25
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0813137209

Plant Life of Kentucky is the first comprehensive guide to all the ferns, flowering herbs, and woody plants of the state. This long-awaited work provides identification keys for Kentucky's 2,600 native and naturalized vascular plants, with notes on wildlife/human uses, poisonous plants, and medicinal herbs. The common name, flowering period, habitat, distribution, rarity, and wetland status are given for each species, and about 80 percent are illustrated with line drawings. The inclusion of 250 additional species from outside the state (these species are "to be expected" in Kentucky) broadens the regional coverage, and most plants occurring from northern Alabama to southern Ohio to the Mississippi River (an area of wide similarity in flora) are examined, including nearly all the plants of western and central Tennessee. The author also describes prehistoric and historical changes in the flora, natural regions and plant communities, significant botanists, current threats to plant life, and a plan for future studies. Plant Life of Kentucky is intended as a research tool for professionals in biology and related fields, and as a resource for students, amateur naturalists, and others interested in understanding and preserving our rich botanical heritage.

Forest and Rangeland Soils of the United States Under Changing Conditions

Forest and Rangeland Soils of the United States Under Changing Conditions
Author: Richard V. Pouyat
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-09-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030452166

This open access book synthesizes leading-edge science and management information about forest and rangeland soils of the United States. It offers ways to better understand changing conditions and their impacts on soils, and explores directions that positively affect the future of forest and rangeland soil health. This book outlines soil processes and identifies the research needed to manage forest and rangeland soils in the United States. Chapters give an overview of the state of forest and rangeland soils research in the Nation, including multi-decadal programs (chapter 1), then summarizes various human-caused and natural impacts and their effects on soil carbon, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and biological diversity (chapters 2–5). Other chapters look at the effects of changing conditions on forest soils in wetland and urban settings (chapters 6–7). Impacts include: climate change, severe wildfires, invasive species, pests and diseases, pollution, and land use change. Chapter 8 considers approaches to maintaining or regaining forest and rangeland soil health in the face of these varied impacts. Mapping, monitoring, and data sharing are discussed in chapter 9 as ways to leverage scientific and human resources to address soil health at scales from the landscape to the individual parcel (monitoring networks, data sharing Web sites, and educational soils-centered programs are tabulated in appendix B). Chapter 10 highlights opportunities for deepening our understanding of soils and for sustaining long-term ecosystem health and appendix C summarizes research needs. Nine regional summaries (appendix A) offer a more detailed look at forest and rangeland soils in the United States and its Affiliates.

Root Ecology

Root Ecology
Author: Hans de Kroon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2003-05-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9783540001850

In the course of evolution, a great variety of root systems have learned to overcome the many physical, biochemical and biological problems brought about by soil. This development has made them a fascinating object of scientific study. This volume gives an overview of how roots have adapted to the soil environment and which roles they play in the soil ecosystem. The text describes the form and function of roots, their temporal and spatial distribution, and their turnover rate in various ecosystems. Subsequently, a physiological background is provided for basic functions, such as carbon acquisition, water and solute movement, and for their responses to three major abiotic stresses, i.e. hard soil structure, drought and flooding. The volume concludes with the interactions of roots with other organisms of the complex soil ecosystem, including symbiosis, competition, and the function of roots as a food source.

Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky

Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky
Author: Thomas G. Barnes
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2014-11-04
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0813160499

Since Kentucky is situated at a biological crossroads in eastern North America, citizens and visitors to this beautiful state are likely to be greeted by an astonishing variety of wildflowers. This non-technical guide—featuring more than five hundred dazzling full-color photographs by award-winning photographer Thomas G. Barnes—is the state's indispensable guide to the most common species in the Commonwealth. With this book, readers will learn to identify and appreciate Kentucky wildflowers and ferns by matching photographs and leaf line drawings to the more than six hundred and fifty species of flowers covered in the book. Extremely practical and simple to use, the guide's color photographs and line drawings appear with plant descriptions for easy identification, and plants are grouped by flower color and blooming season. Each species listing includes the plant's common and scientific name, plant family, habitat, frequency, and distribution throughout Kentucky, with similar species listed in the notes. There is no other volume that covers the flora of Kentucky with such ease of identification. The first new statewide guide to appear in thirty years, with its combination of high quality photographs, illustrations, portability, and easy organization of information, Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky is an essential addition to the library or field pack of the wildflower enthusiast, naturalist, and anyone else who loves the outdoors.

Wetlands

Wetlands
Author: Committee on Characterization of Wetlands
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 1995-09-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309587220

"Wetlands" has become a hot word in the current environmental debate. But what does it signify? In 1991, proposed changes in the legal definities of wetlands stirred controversy and focused attention on the scientific and economic aspects of their management. This volume explores how to define wetlands. The committee--whose members were drawn from academia, government, business, and the environmental community--builds a rational, scientific basis for delineating wetlands in the landscape and offers recommendations for further action. Wetlands also discusses the diverse hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands, and makes recommendations concerning so-called controversial areas such as permafrost wetlands, riparian ecosystems, irregularly flooded sites, and agricultural wetlands. It presents criteria for identifying wetlands and explores the problems of applying those criteria when there are seasonal changes in water levels. This comprehensive and practical volume will be of interest to environmental scientists and advocates, hydrologists, policymakers, regulators, faculty, researchers, and students of environmental studies.

Ecological Regions of North America

Ecological Regions of North America
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 92
Release: 1997
Genre: Biogeography
ISBN:

This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.