The Hudson Bay Lowland is the Earth's largest more or less continuous temperate wetland landscape. This book documents 816 native and 95 non-native vascular plants in the context of the distinct geological history and ecology of the area. It includes text and annotated checklist that are complemented by distribution maps and colour illustrations.
In the past two decades there has been considerable work on global climatic change and its effect on the ecosphere, as well as on local and global environmental changes triggered by human activities. From the tropics to the Arctic, peatlands have developed under various geological conditions, and they provide good records of global and local changes since the Late Pleistocene.The objectives of the book are to analyze topics such as geological evolution of major peatlands basins; peatlands as self sustaining ecosystems; chemical environment of peatlands: water and peat chemistry; peatlands as archives of environmental changes; influence of peatlands on atmosphere: circular complex interactions; remote sensing studies of peatlands; peatlands as a resource; peatlands degradation, restoration, plus more.* Presents an interdisciplinary approach, with an emphasis on Earth Science, and addresses the need for intergration between subdisciplines and the developing of new approaches* Synthesizes the evolutionary, ecological, and chemical characteristics of major peatlands, as well as focuses on the environmental changes, from climate changes to surface ares changes due to human activities* Covers topical studies of worldwide interest and provides examples from many different countries
This volume presents the views of leading experts on each of the world's largest wetland systems. This international team of authors share their understanding of the ecological dynamics of large wetlands and their significance, and emphasise their need of conservation.
620 Wild Plants of North America describes, in beautiful detail, the characteristic features of 89 families of vascular plants--including trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, grasses, sedges, horsetails, and club-mosses--using labeled ink drawings, text and range maps.
The expansion of the British Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries created the greatest mass migration in human history, in which the Irish and Scots played a central, complex, and controversial role. The essays in this volume explore the diverse encounters Irish and Scottish migrants had with Indigenous peoples in North America and Australasia. The Irish and Scots were among the most active and enthusiastic participants in what one contributor describes as "the greatest single period of land theft, cultural pillage, and casual genocide in world history." At the same time, some settlers attempted to understand Indigenous society rather than destroy it, while others incorporated a romanticized view of Natives into a radical critique of European society, and others still empathized with Natives as fellow victims of imperialism. These essays investigate the extent to which the condition of being Irish and Scottish affected settlers' attitudes to Indigenous peoples, and examine the political, social, religious, cultural, and economic dimensions of their interactions. Presenting a variety of viewpoints, the editors reach the provocative conclusion that the Scottish and Irish origins of settlers were less important in determining attitudes and behaviour than were the specific circumstances in which those settlers found themselves at different times and places in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Contributors include Donald Harman Akenson (Queen's), John Eastlake (College Cork), Marjory Harper (Aberdeen), Andrew Hinson (Toronto), Michele Holmgren (Mount Royal), Kevin Hutchings (Northern British Columbia), Anne Lederman (Royal Conservatory of Music), Patricia A. McCormack (Alberta), Mark G. McGowan (Toronto), Ann McGrath (Australian National), Cian T. McMahon (Nevada), Graeme Morton (Guelph), Michael Newton (Xavier), Pádraig Ó Siadhail (Saint Mary's), Brad Patterson (Victoria University of Wellington), Beverly Soloway (Lakehead), and David A. Wilson (Toronto).
North America's Great Lakes country has experienced centuries of upheaval. Its landscapes are utterly changed from what they were five hundred years ago. The region's superabundant fish and wildlife and its magnificent forests and prairies astonished European newcomers who called it an earthly paradise but then ushered in an era of disease, warfare, resource depletion, and land development that transformed it forever. The Once and Future Great Lakes Country is a history of environmental change in the Great Lakes region, looking as far back as the last ice age, and also reflecting on modern trajectories of change, many of them positive. John Riley chronicles how the region serves as a continental crossroads, one that experienced massive declines in its wildlife and native plants in the centuries after European contact, and has begun to see increased nature protection and re-wilding in recent decades. Yet climate change, globalization, invasive species, and urban sprawl are today exerting new pressures on the region’s ecology. Covering a vast geography encompassing two Canadian provinces and nine American states, The Once and Future Great Lakes Country provides both a detailed ecological history and a broad panorama of this vast region. It blends the voices of early visitors with the hopes of citizens now.
