Category: Geography: Biology

Copyright/published Year: 1984 by Little, Brown

ISBN: 0316057487

Binding: hardcover

Description: The Living Planet is the story of the Earth's surface and ì its colonization by animals and plants. Changes proceed ì continuously. Vocanoes erupt, island are formed and disappear. ì Rivers clog and change their courses. Lakes fill with sediment ì and become swamps, and eventually plains. As continents drift ì over the face of the globe, moving toward the equator or up to ì the poles, so jungle may turn to tundra, and grasslands bake into ì desert.

In The Living Planet David Attenborough explores the ì strategies different species use to survive environmental change. ì He visits Nepal and the Himalayas and the depths of the deep ì ocean. With techniques borrowed from mountaineering he climbs to ì the upper-most branches of the Amazon jungle canopy, in search ì for just a small handfull of the hundreds of thousands of ì individual creatures that may occupy a single hectare of forest. ì The picture that emerges is one of every conceivable relationship ì of interdependence between plants, animals, and their ì environments. If a habitat undergoes change how do species adapt? ì As lake regions drain to marsh, what is required of the ì occupants? How do they survive? This is what David Attenborough ì shows us. Species' adaptations are often extraordinary: fish that ì walk or lay eggs on leaves in mid-air; snakes that fly; ì flightless birds that graze like deer; and bears that grow hair ì on the soles of their feet.

Finally, Attenborough takes us to the most confused and ì indecipherable of all world habitats; the city of man. Here in ì the articial environment man has created for his own habitations, ì adaptation continues to be the key to survival.

Condition Information

This is a used book and is in Good condition.

Additional condition description

Companion to PBS Special Premium. Jacket has tears and chips. Previous owner embossed bookmark on bottom of Half-Title page. Clean and unmarked. Sound square binding.