The Physical Geography of North America

by Orme, Antony

• ISBN13: 9780195111071
• ISBN10: 0195111079
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume is the second in the UK-originated series, Antony Orme and Andrew Goudie, eds., Physical Environments of the World , following The Physical Geography of Africa (Feb. 1996). The aim of the series is to present a "relatively durable statement of physical conditions on the continents" written by a team of specialists. In common with the other volumes in the series the book is divided into three parts: (I) systematic coverage of the main components of the physical environment, (II) regional treatment based on the biome concept, and (III) human responses to the physical landscape. The book is intended to fill a void in recent geographic literature by providing an interpretive work that integrates knowledge "across the environment" while placing recent discoveries in a human context. Using tectonism as an example, Orme writes that this topic "will not be viewed as an end in itself, but as a series of processes and crustal adjustments that have significant implication for climate change and plant and animal migrations." The contributing authors are among the most active and best in their fields in the United States and Canada.

Table of Contents

Contributors
I. Systematic Framework
Tectonism, Climate, and Landscape	3	(33)
Antony R. Orme
The Pleistocene Legacy: Glaciation	36	(19)
John Menzies
The Pleistocene Legacy: Beyond the Ice Front	55	(31)
Antony R. Orme
The Holocene Environment	86	(12)
Louis A. Scuderi
Dynamic and Synoptic Climatology	98	(14)
Roger G. Barry
Climatic Regionalization	112	(18)
John E. Oliver
Surface Water Hydrology	130	(16)
John Pitlick
Wetlands: A Hydrological Perspective	146	(32)
Ming-ko Woo
Weathering and Soils	178	(21)
John C. Dixon
Rivers	199	(18)
Ellen E. Wohl
Plant and Animal Ecology	217	(18)
Albert J. Parker
Kathleen C. Parker
Thomas R. Vale
Ecoregions	235	(14)
Robert G. Bailey
II. Regional Environments
The Far North: A Geographical Perspective on Permafrost Environments	249	(21)
Frederick E. Nelson
Kenneth M. Hinkel
The Boreal Forest	270	(21)
Glen M. MacDonald
Appalachia and the Eastern Cordillera	291	(16)
David Shankman
L. Allan James
The Great Lakes	307	(28)
Randall J. Schaetzl
Scott A. Isard
The Central Lowlands and Great Plains	335	(28)
Vance T. Holliday
James C. Knox
Garry L. Running IV
Rolfe D. Mandel
C. Reid Ferring
The Western Cordillera	363	(17)
George P. Malanson
David R. Butler
Desert Environments	380	(22)
Julie E. Laity
The Mediterranean Environment of Greater California	402	(23)
Amalie Jo Orme
Ocean Coasts and Continental Margins	425	(34)
Antony R. Orme
III. Nature in the Human Context
Human Imprints on the Primeval Landscape	459	(23)
Antony R. Orme
Agriculture, Erosion, and Sediment Yields	482	(19)
James C. Knox
Urbanization and Environment	501	(15)
Jon Harbor
Budhendra Bhaduri
Matt Grove
Martha Herzog
Shankar Jaganayapathy
Marie Minner
John Teufert
Environmental Management and Conservation	516	(21)
Mark A. Blumler
Index	537