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Book Cover
E-book
Author Stettler, R. F. (Reinhard Friedrich), 1929-

Title Cottonwood and the river of time : on trees, evolution, and society / Reinhard F. Stettler
Published Seattle : University of Washington Press, ©2009

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 301 pages)
Series Book collections on Project MUSE
Contents 1: The tree and the river -- The tree -- The river -- Regeneration -- Water and nutrient relations -- Perpetuate and proliferate! -- 2: Variation and variability -- Clones -- Why sex? -- Password? -- Natural hybridization -- 3: From species to population to genes -- Common gardens -- Transplanted trees -- Getting closer to the genes -- Migrant trees -- Adaptation and its limits -- 4: Trees and society -- Changing rivers -- changing landscapes -- The dawn of agriculture -- The farmer's trees -- From farmers' trees to tree farms -- Poplar -- a model tree -- Tree genomics and beyond -- Between old growth and plantations -- The essence of trees -- Outlook
Summary "Cottonwood and the River of Time looks at some of the approaches scientists have used to unravel the puzzles of the natural world. With a lifetime of work in forestry and genetics to guide him, Reinhard Stettler celebrates both what has been learned and what still remains a mystery as he examines not only cottonwoods but also trees more generally, their evolution, and their relationship to society. Cottonwoods flourish on the verge of streams and rivers. Their life cycle is closely attuned to the river's natural dynamics. An ever-changing floodplain keeps generating new opportunities for these pioneers to settle and prepare the ground for new species. Perpetual change is the story of cottonwoods-but in a broader sense, the story of all trees and all kinds of life. Through the long parade of generations as rivers meander and glaciers advance and retreat, trees have adapted and persisted, some for thousands of years. How do they do this? And more urgently, what can we learn from the study of trees to help preserve and manage our forests for an uncertain future? In his search for answers, Stettler moves from the floodplain of a West Cascade river, where seedlings compete for a foothold, to mountain slopes, where aspens reveal their genetic differences in colorful displays; from the workshops of Renaissance artists who painted their masterpieces on popular to labs where geneticists have recently succeeded in sequencing a cottonwood's genome; from the intensively cultivated tree plantations along the Columbia to old-growth forests challenged by global warming."--Back cover
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
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Subject Poplar -- Adaptation
Poplar -- Evolution
Poplar -- Genetics.
Trees -- Evolution
Trees -- Economic aspects
Human-plant relationships.
NATURE -- Plants -- General.
NATURE -- Plants -- Trees.
Human-plant relationships
Poplar -- Genetics
Trees -- Economic aspects
Anpassung -- Bäume.
Bäume -- Anpassung (Biol.)
Pappel.
Bäume -- Evolution.
Evolution -- Bäume.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2021694498
ISBN 9780295800196
0295800194