Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America: Geology, Soils, and Vegetation

Geoecology is a fruitful interdisciplinary field, relating rocks to soils to plant and animal communities and studying the interactions between them. Modern geoecology especially concentrates on showing how geology and soils affect the structure, composition, and distribution of plant communities in a certain research area. This book applies the principles of geoecology to Western North America, and to a specific kind of rock, the fascinating serpentine belts that run along the continental margins of the West Coast from Alaska to Baja. The authors come from different disciplines: Alexander is a soil scientist, Coleman a geologist, Harrison a biological researcher, and Keeler-Wolfe a vegetation ecologist. It begins with an overview of the geology of this rock and this region, covering mineralogy, petrology, and stratigraphy of West Coast serpentine. It will continue with serpentine soils and their development and distribution, and serpentine effects on plants and vegetation and animals. The serpentine geoecology of the different regions of Western North America, concentrating on California, will conclude the study. So, this academic book should appeal to plant ecologists, soil scientists, researchers in geoecology, and students in advanced courses in soil science.