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3 books match the query 'Ashton, Peter'

cover of On the Forests of Tropical Asia: Lest the Memory Fade

On the Forests of Tropical Asia

Lest the Memory Fade

Peter Ashton

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2014

Thousands of years ago, Asia was filled with forests that connected ecosystems from the foot of the Himalayas to the shores of the Pacific. Today, more than half of these woodlands are gone, mostly due to the demands of commerce and industry. And while conservation efforts are underway, more parcels disappear every year. On the Forests of Tropical Asia is a timely record of current forests and a much-needed explanation of the role humans played in the devastation and redevelopment of these forests.
On the Forests of Tropical Asia is the first book to describe the forests of the entire tropical Asian region, from Sind to New Guinea. It opens with chapters on physical geography and geological history and then moves on to address forest and tree structure and dynamics, floristics, and symbiotic organisms, as well as genetics, evolutionary history, species diversity, and human impact. A final chapter covers future policy and practice options for saving what remains. Hundreds of full-color illustrations serve as a lasting testimony to the diverse forests. Ashton combines existing research with his own experience and collaborations, creating a broad, comprehensive understanding of forest variation. By presenting a clear picture of where the forests stand today, he offers a framework for future research, policy, and conservation.
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cover of Trees and Forests of Tropical Asia: Exploring Tapovan

Trees and Forests of Tropical Asia

Exploring Tapovan

Peter Ashton and David Lee

University of Chicago Press, 2022

Informed by decades of researching tropical Asian forests, a comprehensive, up-to-date, and beautifully illustrated synthesis of the natural history of this unique place.
 
Trees and Forests of Tropical Asia invites readers on an expedition into the leafy, humid, forested landscapes of tropical Asia—the so-called tapovan, a Sanskrit word for the forest where knowledge is attained through tapasya, or inner struggle. Peter Ashton and David Lee, two of the world’s leading scholars on Asian tropical rain forests, reveal the geology and climate that have produced these unique forests, the diversity of species that inhabit them, the means by which rain forest tree species evolve to achieve unique ecological space, and the role of humans in modifying the landscapes over centuries. Following Peter Ashton’s extensive On the Forests of Tropical Asia, the first book to describe the forests of the entire tropical Asian region from India east to New Guinea, this new book provides a more condensed and updated overview of tropical Asian forests written accessibly for students as well as tropical forest biologists, ecologists, and conservation biologists.
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cover of World Checklist of Myrtaceae

World Checklist of Myrtaceae

Rafael Govaerts, Marcos Sobral, Peter Ashton, and Fred Barrie

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2008

Myrtaceae is the ninth largest flowering plant family; it is economically important in the production of timber, gums, essential oils, fruits and spices, and contains many commonly cultivated ornamentals. The family is particularly rich in large genera, often found in some of the world's most threatened ecosystems, where their fruits comprise an important part of the diet of primates and birds. The similarity of Myrtaceae species is high, and its taxonomic and nomenclatural history is complex, resulting in notorious difficulties in basic identification, inventory compilation and floristic treatment.

The World Checklist of Myrtaceae is a much needed work that lists all validly published names in the family, providing the source of their publication and indicating which names are currently accepted and which are synonyms. It will be respected as the standard nomenclatural reference for further research into this important family.
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