The Nature of Southeast Alaska: A Guide to Plants, Animals, and Habitats

The Nature of Southeast Alaska: A Guide to Plants, Animals, and Habitats

The Nature of Southeast Alaska: A Guide to Plants, Animals, and Habitats

The Nature of Southeast Alaska: A Guide to Plants, Animals, and Habitats

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Overview

“Unlike the standard nature guides that explain how to recognize common animals, Nature stresses the web of interrelationships that link the regional flora and fauna. This affectionate examination of some of North America’s most spectacular surviving old-growth forests will delight backpackers and armchair naturalists.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Everything you ever wanted to know about the flora and fauna of Southeast Alaska is contained in the third edition of this lively field guide to the natural world, from bears to banana slugs, mountains to murrelets. The authors, who are both Alaskan residents and biologists, combine scientific research with personal experiences to make a definitive field guide for residents of or visitors to Southeast Alaska. The unique features of the book include:
  • In-depth information about how wildlife coexists with the environment
  • Detailed discussions of mammals, birds, fish, invertebrates, fungi, and plants
  • Detailed map of wilderness areas in Southeast Alaska
  • More than 200 black-and-white illustrations
  • A bibliography, list of common and scientific names, and an index
New to this edition:
  • More than 100 new illustrations, many never before published, as well as new maps and photos
  • Major expansion of sections on geology, old-growth forests, marine mammals, and amphibians
  • Fifty-two new sidebars—written in the first person to give the text a more personal touch­—that describe recent findings or experiences.
  • Sweeping updates and elaborations to chapter narratives—often thanks to technology unknown in 1992.
In-depth guide to Southeast Alaska’s flora and fauna; more than an identification manual, Nature explores how the species and habitats encountered in the woods and waters of Southeast Alaska fit into the bigger picture.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780882409290
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Publication date: 03/03/2014
Series: Alaska Geographic
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 326
File size: 24 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard Carstensen moved to Southeast Alaska in 1977. He works as a writer, nature illustrator, map maker, wilderness guide, environmental consultant, and instructor for the Discovery Foundation, a nonprofit organization teaching natural history to youth and educators of Southeast Alaska. He divides his time between the backyards of Juneau’s schools and the remote wilderness.
Bob Armstrong has pursued a career in Alaska as a biologist, naturalist, and nature photographer since 1960. He is the author of the best-selling book Guide to the Birds of Alaska and numerous other popular and scientific books and articles on the natural history of the state. From 1960 to 1984, he was a fishery biologist and research supervisor for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, an assistant leader for the Alaska Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, and Associate Professor of Fisheries at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Armstrong retired from the State of Alaska in 1984 to pursue broader interests in natural history and nature photography.
Since 1978, Rita M. O’Clair has taught a wide variety of biology courses at the University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, where she is currently Associate Professor of Biology. She received a PhD in zoology from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1973. An honorary lifetime member of The Nature Conservancy, she belongs to numerous professional organizations. She has studied and photographed natural habitats around the world.

Read an Excerpt

The overriding and underlying theme of Southeast Alaska is water, and inescapable moisture is the unifying feature of nearly all its habitats. From whales’ permanent immersion to banana slugs’ damp haunts, all our plants and animals contend with water. Only when droughts shrivel the rest of North America do Southeast residents count their soggy blessings. Amount and distribution of water is the logical way to differentiate Southeast’s many natural habitats. These range from ocean, lakes, ponds, and rivers, to frequently submerged salt marshes and stream flood zones, to perennially saturated bogs and other freshwater wetlands, to the usually drenched rain forest and alpine tundra. After a rare two-week drought, it’s sometimes possible to sit in the forest understory without soaking our pants. Then rain resumes. Some habitats are defined by solidified water—glaciers and highcountry snowfields. The term “terrestrial” as applied to certain Southeast Alaskan habitats is somewhat generous; it actually means “occasionally free of water.” The Pacific rain forest—Southeast Alaska is a geographic unit defined by the open Pacific Ocean on the west and the boundary with Canada on the north, east, and south. In some cases the lines on maps are ecologically as well as politically significant. For example, if you climb eastward over the crest of the Coast Range into British Columbia (an expeditionary venture!), you enter more than just a different nation. Precipitation declines suddenly in the mountains’ rainshadow. Flora and fauna are dramatically different. You’ve crossed a border in every sense of the word.

Table of Contents

Preface First edition 7

Preface Third edition 8

Acknowledgments 9

The Wild Southeast 11

Habitats 17

Bedrock geology 19

Glacial history 22

Succession, habitats 24

Succession on glacial till 31

Old growth 42

High country 53

Streams, rivers, and lakes 60

Marshes and wet meadows 69

Peatlands 74

Salt marshes 80

Rocky intertidal 85

Mammals 91

Terrestrial mammals 92

Brown and black bears 101

The weasel family 107

Sitka black-tailed deer 112

Beavers, porkies, marmots 116

Red squirrels 119

Shrews, mice, and voles 122

Marine mammals 126

Birds 137

Important Bird Areas 140

Bird habitats 143

Bird sounds 145

Winter adaptations 148

Canada geese 149

Sea ducks 151

Ptarmigan 155

Bald eagles 157

Harriers, short-eared owls 159

Shorebirds 162

Murrelets 164

Rufous hummingbirds 166

Steller's jays 168

American dippers 171

Amphibians 175

Ranges and habitats 175

Western toads 179

Spotted and wood frogs 181

Rough-skinned newts 182

Fish 183

Dolly Varden char 188

Cutthroat trout 191

Coho salmon 192

Threespine sticklebacks 196

Sculpins 198

Pacific sand lance 199

Invertebrates 203

Mussels 207

Clams 209

Acorn barnacles 214

Dragons and damsels 217

Caddisflies 218

Butterflies 220

Pseudoscorpions 223

Fungi and lichens 225

Forest mushrooms 226

Fly agarics 229

Splash cups 230

Slime molds 232

Lichens 234

Beard- and witch's hair lichens 237

Plants 239

Mosses 243

Alpine adaptations 246

Plant dispersal 249

Ferns 253

Yellow skunk cabbage 254

Orchid strategies 256

Dwarf mistletoe 258

Fern-leaved goldthread 261

Poisonous plants 262

Carnivorous plants 263

Devil's club 265

Bunchberry 267

Blueberries 268

Afterword 271

Common and scientific names 275

Bibliography 283

Index 295

About the authors 309

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