Research Catalog

Title

Cottonwood and the river of time : on trees, evolution, and society / Reinhard F. Stettler.

Author

Stettler, R. F. (Reinhard Friedrich), 1929-

Publication

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 301 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

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.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Poplar > Adaptation
• Poplar > Evolution
• Poplar > Genetics
• Trees > Evolution
• Trees > Economic aspects
• Human-plant relationships

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-288) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

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.

ISBN

• 9780295988801 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 0295988800 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2008050753

OCLC

• 268797301
• SCSB-9983189

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library