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“An impressive compendium of the state’s landforms, habitats, species, and conservation issues.”—Sierra
“One suspects that Allan Schoenherr’s book will be regarded as the publishing equivalent of the Sierra Nevada mountains—unique, conspicuous, a major landmark.”—Santa Cruz Sentinel
“Allan Schoenherr’s accomplishment takes us back to heroic times when individuals dared to write multivolume encyclopedias alone, discovered the ‘laws’ of plant and animal distribution for an entire continent, or compiled keys, drawings, and descriptions for more than 5000 species in an area as large and complex as California. This is a good picture of California as it exists now, balanced between what it was and, with restoration, what it could.”—Environmental History
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1 • CALIFORNIA’S NATURAL REGIONS
2 • BASIC ECOLOGY
3 • BASIC GEOLOGY
4 • SIERRA NEVADA
5 • MOUNTAINTOPS
6 • PACIFIC NORTHWEST
7 • COAST RANGES
8 • CISMONTANE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: MAINLAND AND ISLANDS
9 • CALIFORNIA’S DESERTS
10 • THE GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY
11 • INLAND WATERS AND ESTUARIES
Epilogue
Noteworthy Publications
Index
About the author
Allan A. Schoenherr is Professor Emeritus at Fullerton College, where for decades he taught courses on ecology, zoology, and the natural history of California. He also taught ecology and natural history courses at the University of California, Irvine; California State University at Fullerton; and the Semester at Sea program. He is the coauthor of Natural History of the Islands of California and Wild and Beautiful: A Natural History of Open Spaces in Orange County and is coeditor of Terrestrial Vegetation of California, Third Edition.
Summary
In this comprehensive and abundantly illustrated book, Allan A. Schoenherr describes the natural history of California—a state with a greater range of landforms, a greater variety of habitats, and more kinds of plants and animals than any area of equivalent size in all of North America. A Natural History of California focuses on each distinctive region, addressing its climate, rocks, soil, plants, and animals.
The second edition of this classic work features updated species names and taxa, new details about parks reclassified by federal and state agencies, new stories about modern human and animal interaction, and a new epilogue on the impacts of climate change.
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"...if you are an explorer or even would-be explorer of California’s multivariate landscapes, you should find space for Natural History of California on your reference shelf."
