Hawaiian Plant Life
Hawaiian Plant Life

Author: Robert J. Gustafson

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2014-10-31

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0824846699

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Hawaiian Plant Life has been written with both the layperson and professional interested in Hawai‘i’s natural history and flora in mind. In addition to significant text describing landforms and vegetation, the evolution of Hawaiian flora, and the conservation of native species, the book includes almost 875 color photographs illustrating nearly two-thirds of native Hawaiian plant species as well as a concise description of each genus and species shown. The work can be used either as a stand-alone reference or as a companion to the two-volume Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai‘i. Learning more about threatened and endangered plants is essential to conserving them, and there is no more endangered flora in the world today than that of the Hawaiian Islands. Striking species complexes such as the silverswords and the remarkable lobeliads represent unique stories of adaptive radiation that make the Hawai‘i a living laboratory for evolution. Public appreciation for Hawaiian biodiversity requires outreach and education that will determine the future conservation of this rich heritage, and Hawaiian Plant Life has been designed to help fill that need.

Extinct Birds of Hawaiʻi
Extinct Birds of Hawaiʻi

Author: Michael Walther

Publisher: Mutual Publishing

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781939487612

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Extinct Birds of Hawai'i captures the vanishing world of unique bird species that has slipped away in the Islands mostly due to human frivolity and unconcern. Richly illustrated, including paintings by Julian P. Hume (many painted specifically for this volume), it enables us to enjoy vicariously avian life unique to Hawai'i that exists no longer. Extinct Birds of Hawai'i also sends a powerful message: Although Hawai'i is well-known for its unique scenic beauty and its fascinating native flora, fauna, bird and marine life, it is also called the extinction capital of the world. The Islands' seventy-seven bird species and sub-species extinctions account for approximately fifteen percent of global bird extinctions during the last seven-hundred years. On some islands over eighty percent of the original land bird species are now extinct. With the many agents of extinction still operating in the Islands' forests, Hawai'i's remaining native land birds are at a high risk of being lost forever. Many birdwatchers, nature lovers, and eco-tourists are unaware of the tremendous loss of species that has occurred in this remote archipelago. Extinct Birds of Hawai'i shows the bird life that has been lost and calls attention to the urgent need for preservation action.

Seabirds of Hawaii
Seabirds of Hawaii

Author: Craig S. Harrison

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1501745883

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Hawaii is known throughout the world for its uniquely hospitable climate and people. Because of its geographical isolation and tropical-subtropical location, it harbors numerous animals that are unknown elsewhere in the United States. Unfortunately, Hawaii is special in another respect: it is the endangered species capital of the world. Many of its birds are in jeopardy of extinction. This book, the first to portray a tropical seabird community, treats the 22 species of seabirds of the Hawaiian archipelago from a conservationist point of view. Craig S. Harrison first establishes the setting, describing Hawaii's birth from undersea volcanoes, its marine biology, and the effects of Polynesians and Westerners on its pristine island ecosystem. He summarizes current knowledge of albatrosses, shearwaters, petrels, frigatebirds, boobies, tropicbirds, terns, and noddies, explaining their similarities and differences with respect to nesting, food habits, migration at sea, and adaptation to a tropical environment.