Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
as changes in temperature of less than 1°C to produce signifi cant alterations
in the Earth's life-sustaining plant communities. Furthermore, once an eco-
system has been signifi cantly altered, especially its local climate through
changes in moisture generated by transpiration and its soil characteristics
through erosion, recovery will likely be measured in geologic time rather
than in human generations without enormous cost, extensive technologi-
cal know-how, political leadership, and public determination. No catastro-
phe since the asteroid impact has reduced biodiversity so extensively, so
indiscriminately, and so rapidly as recent human activity, and, uniquely, no
previous agent has had the capacity to judge its own impact, plan for the
consequences, and the option to reduce its effects.
If we can adequately distill information into knowledge and let time and
experience convert it into wisdom, compilations like this will have been
worthwhile. To echo the renowned photographer Robert B. Haas, whose
glorious images in works like Through the Eyes of the Condor (2007) provide
continuing inspiration: “The quest may never be over, but it will never be
pointless.”
: :
REFERENCES
: :
Burnham, R. J., and A. Graham. 1999. The history of neotropical vegetation: New develop-
ments and status. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard . 86:546-89.
Clapperton, C. M. 1993. Quaternary geology and geomorphology of South America. Elsevier Sci-
ence Publishers, Amsterdam.
Clemens, W. A., and L. G. Nelms. 1993. Paleoecological implications of Alaskan terrestrial
vertebrate fauna in latest Cretaceous time at high paleolatitudes. Geology 21:503-6.
Flannery, T. 2005. The weather makers: How man is changing the climate and what it means for
life on Earth . Atlantic Monthly Press, New York.
Graham, A., K. M. Gregory-Wodzicki, and K. L. Wright. 2001. Studies in neotropical paleo-
botany. Part 15, A Mio-Pliocene palynofl ora from the Eastern Cordillera, Bolivia: Implica-
tions for the uplift history of the Central Andes. Am. J. Bot . 88:1545-57.
Haas, R. B. 2007. Through the eyes of the condor: An aerial vision of Latin America . National
Geographic Society, Washington, D.C.
Heusser, C. J. 2003. Ice age Southern Andes: A chronicle of paleoecological events . Elsevier Sci-
ence Publishers, Amsterdam.
Hooghiemstra, H. 1984. Vegetation and climatic history of the High Plain of Bogotá, Co-
lombia: A continuous record of the last 3.5 million years. The Quaternary of Colombia / El
Cuaternario de Colombia 10:1-368. [Reprinted from Dissertationes botanicae , vol. 79
(J. Cramer, Vaduz, Germany).]
Search WWH ::




Custom Search