Environmental Science/Climate Change & Mitigation

Biodiversity Hotspots of the World

Biodiversity Hotspot of the North American Coastal Plain Editors: Edwin L. Bridges T. Pullaiah, PhD Not for sale at this time

Prepublication Announcement Pub Date:  Hardback Price: Hard ISBN:  Pages:  Binding Type:  Series: Biodiversity Hotspots of the World

This new volume, Biodiversity Hotspot of the North American Coastal Plain, presents an examination of one of the world’s most recently recognized biodiversity hotspots. Stretching from coastal Massachusetts to northeastern Mexico, this remarkable region supports extraordinary levels of plant and animal endemism while facing accelerating habitat loss, landscape fragmentation, altered fire regimes, declining water quality, and expanding urban development.

Drawing on the expertise of leading researchers, this volume explores the geological history, climate, soils, hydrology, and vegetation that have shaped the Coastal Plain’s exceptional biological richness. It examines the diversity and biogeography of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, grasses, crustaceans, arthropods, bees, grasshoppers, amphibians, reptiles, and birds, highlighting the ecological processes that have driven speciation and regional endemism across this vast landscape.

Although no single volume can capture the full breadth of life found within the North American Coastal Plain, this collection provides an important snapshot of current knowledge and underscores the need for continued research into many understudied groups. The editors emphasize that future investigations will undoubtedly reveal even greater levels of biodiversity among freshwater organisms, mammals, fish, and numerous invertebrate taxa.

Key Features:

• Explores the geology, climate, hydrology, and ecological history of the North American Coastal Plain.
• Examines patterns of biodiversity and endemism across major plant and animal groups.
• Highlights the conservation challenges threatening one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
• Provides an up-to-date synthesis of current research while identifying priorities for future study.

Bringing together ecology, biogeography, conservation biology, and natural history, this book serves as an authoritative resource for researchers, conservation practitioners, graduate students, land managers, and policymakers interested in understanding and protecting one of North America’s most significant ecological regions.

This volume is part of the Biodiversity Hotspots of the World, which highlights the 36 hotspot regions of the world, regions that have been designated as reaping maximum benefit from preservation efforts. This series is our humble attempt to document these hotspots as a conservation and preservation measure.

CONTENTS:
Preface

1. The North American Coastal Plain Biodiversity Hotspot: Climate, Geology, Soils, Hydrology, and Geomorphology
Edwin L. Bridges

2. Vascular Plant Diversity and Biogeography of the North American Coastal Plain
Edwin L. Bridges and Alan S. Weakley

3. Diversity and Distribution Patterns in the Grasses and Allies (Order Poales) of the North American Coastal Plain
Scott G. Ward and Edwin L. Bridges

4. Vegetation Types Associated with High Endemism and Biodiversity in the North American Coastal Plain Biodiversity Hotspot
Edwin L. Bridges

5. Bryophytes (Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts) of the North American Coastal Plain: Patterns of Diversity and Endemism
Brandon D. Corder

6. Lichens of the North American Coastal Plain
Laurel Kaminsky, Seth Raynor, Malcolm Hodges, Roger Rosentreter, Ann DeBolt, and Erin Manzitto-Tripp

7. Freshwater Crustacean Biodiversity of the NACP
Ann Dunn

8. Arthropod Biodiversity in the North American Coastal Plain
Brandon Woo

9. Diversity of the Bee Fauna (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of the North American Coastal Plain
John B. Pascarella

10. Grasshopper Endemism and Regionalization in the North American Coastal Plain
JoVonn G. Hill

11. Amphibian Diversity of the North American Coastal Plain
D. Bruce Means

12. An Analysis of Reptile Diversity on the North American Coastal Plain
Rodrigo Macip-Ríos, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Parker Gibbons, Kristy L. Cummings, and Whit Gibbons

13. Avian Diversity of the North American Coastal Plain
Bill Pranty and Amy Davis

Index

About the Authors / Editors:
Editors: Edwin L. Bridges
Independent Botanical Consultant, USA
Edwin L. Bridges is a botanical and ecological consultant specializing in providing independent research and educational services to government agencies and nonprofit institutions. He has been conducting botanical and ecological research for over 50 years, specializing in sites throughout the North American Coastal Plain. He is a co-author of the Atlas of the Flora of Florida and the Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS), and a contributor to the Flora of Florida and Flora of North America series. His dozens of research publications over the past 40 years have focused on descriptions of new vascular plant species, taxonomic revisions, plant community ecology studies, historical ecology, and soil-vegetation correlations, mostly within the North American Coastal Plain (NACP). He has worked with biological survey, land management, and conservation agencies in nearly every state within the NACP, and his publications document rare plants, newly described species, and community ecology in the NACP states of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. He maintains a large and active online educational and research presence through the FSUS project, iNaturalist, and several large and active Facebook groups focused on documenting native biodiversity of the NACP and is a strong proponent of citizen science to continue biodiversity research. He was the plant systematist and herbarium curator for Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, wetland ecology educator for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, botanist/ecologist for the Tennessee Department of Conservation, and a research associate as the University of Texas.

T. Pullaiah, PhD
Former Professor, Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University in Andhra Pradesh, India

T. Pullaiah, PhD, is former Professor in the Department of Botany at Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Andhra Pradesh, India, where he taught for more than 35 years. He held several leadership positions, including Dean of the Faculty of Biosciences and Head of the Departments of Botany and Biotechnology. He also served as President of the Indian Botanical Society and the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy and was a fellow of the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. His honors include the Panchanan Maheshwari Gold Medal, Prof. P. C. Trivedi Medal, Dr. G. Panigrahi Memorial Lecture Award, Prof. Y. D. Tyagi Gold Medal, and Best Teacher Award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Under his guidance, 54 students earned doctoral degrees. He has authored 80 books, edited 55 volumes, and published more than 340 research papers. His books include Mangroves: Biodiversity, Livelihoods and Conservation, Ethnobotany of India, Global Biodiversity, Apomixis in Angiosperms, Red Sanders: Silviculture and Conservation, Flora of Andhra Pradesh, and Encyclopaedia of World Medicinal Plants. He was also a member of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Professor Pullaiah received his PhD from Andhra University, India, attended Moscow State University, Russia, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow from 1976 to 1978.

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