Introduction To Earth Soil And Land In California

Following his acclaimed guides to air, fire, and water, David Carle now offers a fascinating exploration of one more primary element of the natural world—the land beneath our feet. From earthworms and earthquakes to Earth Day, this concise, engaging guide is a multifaceted primer on the literal foundation of California’s environment. Carle tells how soil ecosystems function, discusses what lives in the soil, and examines various soil types. He then turns to the relationship between humans and the land, and investigates the various uses and abuses that land in California endures: large scale agriculture, mining, and development, as well as fires, floods, and erosion. The guide also details the history of land use in the state, making it an essential resource for understanding our total reliance on soil, the marvelous substrate that is the basis of life. • Covers the entire state, including California’s wildlands, farmland, cities, and landfills • Assesses California’s ecological footprint on planet Earth • Discusses many different life forms found in soil, including bacteria, fungi, insects, and mammals • Features 92 color photographs and 18 maps A book in the Californians and Their Environment subseries, dedicated to understanding human influences on the state's ecology and natural resources

"David Carle has produced another gem of a book that should be in easy reach of every lover of California. Introductions to Earth, Soil, and Land in California is a portable encyclopedia-fun to read and filled with photos and facts."-Peter Moyle, auhtor of Inland Fishes of California --

Now in its fourth edition, Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography examines this unique state’s incredibly diverse landscapes, and how geography and geographic change influences everything from the state’s natural systems and cycles, to its agriculture and more advanced industries, to human migration, cultures, and urban planning. Exploring California through a geographic lens reveals how the field has evolved to cross traditional boundaries, connect local and global issues, and provide the insights that lead to practical solutions to problems new and old. Challenging the reader to look beyond stereotypes and assumptions, this book encourages active participation in planning the state’s dynamic future. And this project makes teaching and learning about the geography of California more convenient, exciting, and rewarding for instructors and students. Going beyond a scientific analysis of natural features and environmental processes, this book illustrates how social, political, and economic divides can be bridged through the study of geography and the connections it brings to light. From geology, weather and climate, biogeography, and hydrology, we cover the state’s physical geography. And from demography and migration, to cultures and economies, to rural and urban geography, we monitor the state’s human geography pulse and then make the vital connections. California continues to lead the nation in population, economics (5th largest in the world), agriculture, natural and cultural diversity, and a host of other categories. This powerful state has earned this powerful publication. This timely and versatile book will prove useful to Californians in business, education, government, and to concerned citizens and curious readers seeking to learn more about the Golden State.

Between 1934 and 1941, the City of Los Angeles sent 2,000 men to work on aqueducts and an 11-mile tunnel beneath volcanic craters in the Mono Lake Basin of the Eastern Sierra. MONO tells the story of fish biologist Justin Hearth, as he surveys the waters of the Mono Lake watershed, falls in love with that landscape, and also with Alisa Stohler. Her family had been forced from a farm in the Owens Valley in 1930 and is now caught up in changes brought by the distant city's unending thirst for growth. This story explores the minds and hearts of a generation shaped by the Great Depression and facing the threat of world war. MONO confronts the question, "What were they thinking back then, as choices were made that endangered Mono Lake and its tributary streams?"

"I thought I was in the forever business. National and state parks are supposed to preserve special places for all time. A certain job security had always gone along with that idea if you were a park ranger. But I've learned to never say forever." Jack Morgan had been a park ranger at Saline Lake until the National Monument was shut down by a Congress determined to push back against environmentalism. Leading a search for a 17-year old boy hiking alone in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Jack uncovers connections with a dead man on the shore of Saline Lake, bludgeoned with a birdwatcher's spotting scope. Tensions build in the local community as Jack's knowledge of the landscape reveals a murderous plot that may end his own life, fueled by the inflammatory rhetoric of "People First!" radicals.

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2016: “Intelligent and impassioned, Citizen Scientist is essential reading for anyone interested in the natural world.” Award-winning writer Mary Ellen Hannibal has long reported on scientists’ efforts to protect vanishing species, but it was only through citizen science that she found she could take action herself. As she wades into tide pools, spots hawks, and scours mountains, she discovers the power of the heroic volunteers who are helping scientists measure—and even slow—today’s unprecedented mass extinction. Citizen science may be the future of large-scale field research—and our planet’s last, best hope.

The first process-based textbook on how soils form and function in biogeochemical cycles, for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.