Physical Geography of North America - Hardcover

9780195111071: Physical Geography of North America

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195111079 ISBN 13: 9780195111071

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001

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.

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About the Author:

Antony Orme, Professor of Geography and Dean of Social Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles.

Review:

"Rather than the traditional division between North and South America at the isthmus of Panama, the series recognizes Mesoamerica as a third region of the Western Hemisphere. Therefore specialists here examine the extra-tropical landscape stretching from the Tropic of Cancer north to the
Arctic Ocean. The first section looks at landscape evolution, climate, wetland hydrology, plant and animal ecology, and other physical factors. The regional environments described include the boreal forest, the Great Lakes, and ocean coasts and continental margins. A final section considers
agriculture, urbanization, environmental management, and other human impacts."--SciTech Book News

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