Overview

Water makes the river what and where it is. All life needs water. People often talk about the earth's life being carbon-based (mostly). True, but even more it is water-based! Most life forms are composed of at least 80% water. In addition, aquatic plants and animals live part or all of their lives within, on, or by the water. Long-term, of course, there must be change with climate change, for example, when most of Britain was covered by ice some 10,000 years ago, the vegetation under that ice was not what is there today. No vegetation is therefore, in the exact sense, stable. But what about lesser time periods-5, 15, 50, 150 years ago? For how long has the vegetation remained stable? Unfortunately there is a lack of recorded history so this small book will summarize some of what is available, but its main aim is to inform, encourage, and pave the way for new interest. It is worth noting that THE HABITAT CHOOSES THE SPECIES. It is easy to think the plant chooses, in reality the plant's choice is very limited. This book is a demonstration, for students and naturalists alike, of changes and the sensitivity of river communities to their environment, and indeed of the speed of their response.

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9781916209664

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"""In order to bring a detailed understanding of the nature and problems of stream and rivers to a wider audience, Sylvia Haslam, doyenne of ecological studies of river environments and their vegetation, and author of a number of ground-breaking books on these topics, has teamed up with artist Tina Bone to produce a series of small A5 books that address individual topics or case studies. These concentrate on the vegetation of ditches, streams and rivers, as the essential indicators of their ecology and health. Despite their small format, these books are in no way designed for children, although a keen teenager with a hunger for natural history in the field could find much to learn from them. These books aim to produce a serious but accessible course in river management, not just for the keen naturalist, but also for the conservation volunteer, the farmer with watercourses on his land and even the professional land manager. The approach is very different from that of the popular, natural history books of Collins New Naturalist Series or Bloomsbury's British Wildlife Collection. The emphasis here is on inspiring and encouraging people to go out specifically to study streams and rivers, to learn to identify aquatic plants and recognise them as indicators of different environments, vegetational communities and water conditions, also to recognise changes and threats to their local rivers and the appearance of introduced or invasive species, or even detect protected freshwater plants. The authors were motivated by the apparent absence of ""'easy-read' books focusing on the river itself and the vegetation belonging to it, and creating the habitat for all else."" Each book has a superabundance of illustrations, some in colour, some in black and white. Their hallmarks are the artistic skill of Tina Bone, and the botanical expertise of Sylvia Haslam based on a lifelong career embracing many listed publications."" Cam Valley Forum, Cambridge."

Author Information

Tina Bone has worked as a self-employed Desktop Publisher for many years until she changed career to work as a Professional Artist and Book Publisher from March 2005. Tina is producing all the artwork for the River Friend Series, line art, colour artwork and photographs, co-authoring, and preparing each book for publication. Botanist and river culture, specialist, and the early historical, geological information in this series of books is taken from her previous publications, the most important of which are listed on the River Friend Website Tina Bone has worked as a self-employed Desktop Publisher for many years until she changed career to work as a Professional Artist and Book Publisher from March 2005. Tina is producing all the artwork for the River Friend Series, line art, colour artwork and photographs, co-authoring, and preparing each book for publication.

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