Download or read book The Tropical Deciduous Forest of Alamos written by Robert H. Robichaux and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Only a day's drive south of the U.S.-Mexico border, a tropical deciduous forest opens up a world of exotic trees and birds that most people associate with tropical forests of more southerly latitudes. Like many such forests around the world, this diverse ecosystem is highly threatened, especially by large-scale agricultural interests that are razing it in order to plant grass for cattle. This book introduces the tropical deciduous forest of the Alamos region of Sonora, describing its biodiversity and the current threats to its existence. The book's contributors present the most up-to-date scientific knowledge of this threatened ecosystem. They review the natural history and ecology of its flora and fauna and explore how native peoples use the forest's many resources. Included in the book's coverage is a comprehensive plant list for the Río Cuchujaqui area that well illustrates the diversity of the forest. Other contributions examine tree species used by Mayo Indians and the numerous varieties of domesticated plants that have been developed over the centuries by the Mayos and other indigenous peoples. Also examined are the diversity and distribution of reptiles, amphibians, mammals, and birds in the region. The Tropical Deciduous Forest of Alamos provides critical information about a globally important biome. It complements other studies of similar forests and allows a better understanding of a diverse but vanishing ecosystem.
Download or read book Gentry s Rio Mayo Plants written by Paul S. Martin and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Río Mayo region of northwestern Mexico is a major geographic area whose natural history remains poorly known to outsiders. Lying in a region where desert and tropical, northern and southern, and continental and coastal species converge, it boasts an abundance of flora first documented by Howard Scott Gentry in 1942 in a book now widely regarded as a classic of botanical literature. This new book updates and amends Gentry's Río Mayo Plants. Undertaken with Gentry's support and participation before his death in 1993, it reproduces the original text, which appears here with annotations, and contains information on over 2,800 taxa—more than twice the 1,200 species first described by Gentry. The annotated list of plants includes information on distribution, habitat, appearance, common names, and indigenous uses. A new introduction provides historical background and a review of geography and vegetation. It also describes changes to the land and river wrought by agricultural development, expanded grazing, and lumbering. Throughout the text, the authors have endeavored to provide information on Río Mayo vegetation while emphasizing local knowledge and use of plants, to preserve Gentry's field-oriented focus, and to present botanical information with Gentry's exuberance and style. Río Mayo Plants has long stood as a book that displays a scientist's love of the English language, his fondness for native peoples, and his eye for beauty in nature. This updating of that work fills a gap in the botanical literature of this portion of North America and will be useful not only for botanists but also for biogeographers, taxonomists, land managers, and conservationists.
Download or read book Tropical Forest Biomes written by Barbara A. Holzman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Biomes of the World series covers the lush, beautiful - and rapidly shrinking - tropical forest biomes. The volume covers the two major tropic forest biomes, tropical rainforests and tropical seasonal forests.
Download or read book The Sonoran Desert Tortoise written by Thomas R. Van Devender and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2019-04-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most recognizable animals of the Southwest, the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) makes its home in both the Sonoran and Mohave Deserts, as well as in tropical areas to the south in Mexico. Called by Tohono O'odham people "komik'c-ed," or "shell with living thing inside," it is one of the few desert creatures kept as a domestic pet—as well as one of the most studied reptiles in the world. Most of our knowledge of desert tortoises comes from studies of Mohave Desert populations in California and Nevada. However, the ecology, physiology, and behavior of these northern populations are quite different from those of their southern, Sonoran Desert, and tropical cousins, which have been studied much less. Differences in climate and habitat have shaped the evolution of three races of desert tortoises as they have adapted to changes in heat, rainfall, and sources of food and shelter as the deserts developed in the last ten million years. This book presents the first comprehensive summary of the natural history, biology, and conservation of the Sonoran and Sinaloan desert tortoises, reviewing the current state of knowledge of these creatures with appropriate comparisons to Mohave tortoises. It condenses a vast amount of information on population ecology, activity, and behavior based on decades of studying tortoise populations in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and also includes important material on the care and protection of tortoises. Thirty-two contributors address such topics as tortoise fossil records, DNA analysis, and the mystery of secretive hatchlings and juveniles. Tortoise health is discussed in chapters on the care of captives, and original data are presented on the diets of wild and captive tortoises, the nutrient content of plant foods, and blood parameters of healthy tortoises. Coverage of conservation issues includes husbandry methods for captive tortoises, an overview of protective measures, and an evaluation of threats to tortoises from introduced grass and wildfires. A final chapter on cultural knowledge presents stories and songs from indigenous peoples and explores their understanding of tortoises. As the only comprehensive book on the desert tortoise, this volume gathers a vast amount of information for scientists, veterinarians, and resource managers while also remaining useful to general readers who keep desert tortoises as backyard pets. It will stand as an enduring reference on this endearing creature for years to come.
Download or read book Neotropical Savannas and Seasonally Dry Forests written by R. Toby Pennington and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2006-05-25 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More often than not, when people think of a neotropical forest, what comes to mind is a rain forest, rather than a dry forest. Just as typically, when they imagine a savanna, they visualize the African plains, rather than those dry woodlands and grasslands found in the Neotropics. These same preconceptions can be found among scientists, as these ne
Download or read book Mayo Ethnobotany written by David Yetman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-01-02 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second half of the book is an annotated list of plants presenting the authors' findings on plant use in Mayo culture; it includes an unprecedented lexicon of Mayo plant terminology.".
Download or read book Farming across Borders written by Timothy P. Bowman and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming across Borders uses agricultural history to connect the regional experiences of the American West, northern Mexico, western Canada, and the North American side of the Pacific Rim, now writ large into a broad history of the North American West. Case studies of commodity production and distribution, trans-border agricultural labor, and environmental change unite to reveal new perspectives on a historiography traditionally limited to a regional approach. Sterling Evans has curated nineteen essays to explore the contours of “big” agricultural history. Crops and commodities discussed include wheat, cattle, citrus, pecans, chiles, tomatoes, sugar beets, hops, henequen, and more. Toiling over such crops, of course, were the people of the North American West, and as such, the contributing authors investigate the role of agricultural labor, from braceros and Hutterites to women working in the sorghum fields and countless other groups in between. As Evans concludes, “society as a whole (no matter in what country) often ignores the role of agriculture in the past and the present.” Farming across Borders takes an important step toward cultivating awareness and understanding of the agricultural, economic, and environmental connections that loom over the North American West regardless of lines on a map. In the words of one essay, “we are tied together . . . in a hundred different ways.”
Download or read book Biodiversity Ecosystems and Conservation in Northern Mexico written by Jean-Luc E. Cartron and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2005-08-25 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encompassing tropical and temperate forests, arid lands, and the Gulf of California, northern Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. Representing the collaborative efforts of ecologists in the U.S.
Download or read book A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert written by Steven J. Phillips and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert provides the most complete collection of Sonoran Desert natural history information ever compiled and is a perfect introduction to this biologically rich desert of North America."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Sonora written by David Yetman and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This informal account of the people, culture, land, and history of Sonora, Mexico, is now available in paperback.
Download or read book Columnar Cacti and Their Mutualists written by Theodore H. Fleming and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although cacti such as the saguaro and organ pipe have come to define the Sonoran Desert for many people, they represent some 170 species of columnar cacti found in many parts of the Americas. These giant plants are so dominant in some ecosystems that many species of animals rely on them for food and shelter. They are pollinated by bats in central Mexico and Venezuela, by birds and bees in northern Mexico and Peru. This book summarizes our knowledge about the ecology, evolution, and conservation of columnar cacti and their vertebrate mutualists to show that the very survival of these cacti depends on animals who pollinate them and disperse their seeds. Contributors from the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia explore aspects of geology and evolution that have forged this relationship, review findings in anatomy and physiology, and discuss recent research in population and community ecology as well as conservation issues. Ranging from the Sonoran Desert to the northern Andes, these studies reflect progress in understanding how abiotic and biotic factors interact to influence the evolution, distribution, and abundance of cacti and mutualists alike. In addition, this book examines the ways in which humans, through the process of domestication, have modified these plants for economic benefit. The contributors also review phylogenetic relationships between cacti and nectar-feeding bats in an effort to understand how bat-plant interactions have influenced the evolution of diversity and ecological specialization of both. Because of the number of migratory pollinators feeding on columnar cacti, the authors make conservation recommendations aimed at preserving fully functional ecosystems in arid portions of the New World tropics and subtropics. Columnar Cacti and Their Mutualists provided a benchmark for both conservation efforts and future research.
Download or read book Deciduous Forests written by Jeanne Nagle and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2009-01-15 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the plants, animals, people, and climate that are a part of the ecosystem in a deciduous forest, and explains what threatens this biome.
Download or read book The Birds of Sonora written by Stephen M. Russell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birders who come to the American Southwest often keep an eye out for Mexican species that stray across the border. Many neotropical migrants of western North America winter in Sonora, and a host of hummingbirds make their home south of the border as well. This eagerly awaited volume by two respected authorities covers more than 500 species of birds and contains a vast amount of information not available elsewhere. The Birds of Sonora describes all the species known from that state and includes information on distribution, seasonal patterns of occurrence, abundance, and habitats. The first book of its kind in more than half a century to treat birds of this Mexican state immediately south of Arizona, it also contains details of nesting activity for breeding species, provides insight into factors influencing distribution, and notes historical changes in status. Each account is accompanied by a range map depicting the bird's range in Sonora—valuable information not available from any other source and useful to anyone interested in the distribution and ecology of North American birds. Drawings by internationally known wildlife artist Ray Harm enhance many of the entries. Because other books on Mexican birds don't treat Sonora in detail, The Birds of Sonora is an indispensable resource for birders, and its background descriptions of Sonoran geography, climate, and habitats also make it a key reference for conservation and land use planning. A useful companion to field guides, it is a narrative account that puts readers in touch with birds of this important biogeographic area.
Download or read book Biomes of Earth written by Susan L. Woodward and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 2003-12-30 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handy one-volume resource explores all of Earth's major biomes--both natural and human-created--and their characteristic plants and animals.
Download or read book The Trees of Sonora Mexico written by Tucson Richard Stephen Felger Executive Director Drylands Institute, AZ and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001-03-31 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive treatment of the trees and tree-like plants of Sonora, a remarkably diverse and biologically important region, ranging from some of the driest and hottest areas in North America to cool, temperate woodlands and the northernmost tropical regions in the New World. The majority of the trees in this semi-arid region are at their northern limits in the Americas in this state and many range to South America. Thus, this book will be important to biologists in regions well outside of the area covered. Felger is the recognized expert in the area, and the book contains an enormous body of information nowhere else obtainable. The introductory chapter contains biotic and climatic information and an analysis of the geographical distributions of the trees of a state that is poorly known biologically. Two hundred eighty-five species of native and naturalized trees are covered, featuring extensive identification keys and illustrations, most of them newly produced for this book. The descriptive species accounts include common names, indigenous names, and synonyms, detailed botanical descriptions, ecological and geographic data, geographic ranges, natural history, economic uses, and, in many cases, other information such as horticultural uses and conservation status.
Download or read book General Technical Report RMRS written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Biology of Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizards written by Daniel D. Beck and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2005-07-25 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No two lizard species have spawned as much folklore, wonder, and myth as the Gila Monster, Heloderma suspectum, and the Beaded Lizard, H. horridum—the sole survivors of an ancient group of predacious lizards called the Monstersauria. More like snakes on legs, monstersaurs are a walking contradiction: they are venomous yet don't appear to use their venom for subduing prey; their mottled patterns mingle with the broken shadows and textures of their desert and tropical dry forest habitats, yet their bright open mouths hiss a bold warning that a nasty bite awaits those who advance further. And while Gila Monster venom produces excruciating pain, it also contains a peptide that has become a promising new drug for treating type-2 diabetes. Perhaps the ultimate paradox is that monstersaurs are among the most famous of lizards, yet until quite recently they have remained among the least studied. With numerous illustrations, stunning color photographs, and an up-to-date synthesis of their biology, this book explains why the Monstersauria seems poised to change the way we think about lizards. Daniel D. Beck—who has been investigating Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizards for over 22 years—teams up here with award-winning wildlife photographer Tom Wiewandt to produce a comprehensive summary of this small but remarkable family of lizards.
