Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States

By Bruce A. Stein

Book Overview

From the lush forests of Appalachia to the frozen tundra of Alaska, and from the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest to the subtropical rainforests of Hawaii, the United States harbors a remarkable array of ecosystems. These ecosystems in turn sustain an exceptional variety of plant and animal
life. For species such as salamanders and freshwater turtles, the United States ranks as the global center of diversity. Among the nation's other unique biological features are California's coast redwoods, the world's tallest trees, and Nevada's Devils Hole pupfish, which survives in a single
ten-by-seventy-foot desert pool, the smallest range of any vertebrate animal.
Precious Heritage draws together for the first time a quarter century of information on U.S. biodiversity developed by natural heritage programs from across the country. This richly illustrated volume not only documents those aspects of U.S. biodiversity that are particularly noteworthy, but also
considers how our species and ecosystems are faring, what is threatening them, and what is needed to protect the nation's remaining natural inheritance. Above all, Precious Heritage is a celebration of the extraordinary biological diversity of the United States.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195125193
• ISBN13: 9780195125191
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 4.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.9" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

Biodiversity

The word biodiversity often conjures up visions of tropical rain forests, and for good reason. They contain more species than anywhere else in the world. But, as this lavishly illustrated and well written book attests there is a great deal of biodiversity in the U.S. In fact, U.S. is the richest country in terms of numbers of species for several groups inclulding freshwater mussels and crayfishes. The authors take us through the groups of plants and animals in the U.S. with a combination of natural history descriptions, photographs, maps, and when appropriate, data summaries. The maps are really noteworthy, because they add a great deal to the book both visually and in terms of understanding the patterns. The book is well worthy the cost just for the photos and maps. Later chapters address the patterns of rarity, threats, and protection strategies. In terms of style and content, it rests between David Wilcove's, The Condor's Shadow and Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America: A Conservation Assessment by Taylor Ricketts et al. Precious Heritage belongs on the bookshelves of everyone interested in and concerned about biodiversity in the U.S.

Excellent for both environemtnalist and professionals

This book should be on the shelf of environmentalist interested in biodiversity as well as professional conservation biologists. The authors provide a well written introduction to our understanding of biodiversity and the ways that we measure it. They also provide overviews of the geographic trends in biodiversity, the current threats to this diversity, and offer a perspective on the ways that we proactively maintain this "precious heritage". The book also provides a perspective that allows professional conservation biologists to see their work in a large scale biogeographic framework, and provides some of the data needed to allow scientists to move from writing epitaphs for dying species to proactively conserving diversity.