Earth Sciences Books

Rare, unique and irreplaceable - precious native rainforests occupy a precariously small part of Australia while retaining a remarkable level of both biological and chemical diversity unrivalled by any other ecosystem. Australia's ancient history and traditions are intimately intertwined with the...

Volcanoes are unquestionably one of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring features of the physical world. Our paradoxical fascination with them stems from their majestic beauty and powerful, sometimes deadly, destructiveness. Notwithstanding the tremendous advances in volcanology since ancient...

Effective use of today's vast geographic information (GI) resources requires more than just powerful technology for problem solving. It requires science to help us understand the way the world works, and to help us devise effective procedures for making decisions. Three previous editions have...

The Blue Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Sciences, 3rd Edition is an innovative text for the earth systems science course. It treats earth science from a systems perspective, now showing the five spheres and how they are interrelated. There are many photos and figures in the text to develop...

The Second Edition also benefits from new artwork that clearly illustrates complex concepts. New to the Second Edition: * New Chapter: 15, "Geophysical Imaging," by Frederick Cook * Within Chapters 21 and 22, four new essays on "Regional Perspectives" discuss the European Alps, the Altaids, the...

New Zealand's Native Trees is a landmark book, the kind that is published only once in a generation. It celebrates our unique and magnificent native forests, and describes and generously illustrates more than 320 species, subspecies and varieties. This edition has been completely brought up-to-date...

Urban Climates is the first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates. The book begins with an outline of what constitutes an urban ecosystem. It develops a comprehensive terminology for the subject using scale and surface classification as key constructs. It...

This book provides a clear outline of the key principles underlying property valuation and the current techniques and issues in the practice of valuation for the major sectors of the Australian real estate market. Formerly titled Valuation Principles and Practice, this entirely new third edition...

Discover the world's ocean--from tides and currents to the creatures living in it to the impact it has on our lives, whether we know it or not--in this richly illustrated overview of the life force that defines and sustains our planet, written by world-renowned oceanographer Sylvia...

One in 13 of New Zealand's native plants is now threatened with extinction. Six species are already extinct - like the moa and the huia, they are gone forever. Even the popular kakabeak (Clianthus puniceus) is in a serious plight, with just one plant left in the wild. Another 24 species are known...

Filling a niche in the geomorphology teaching market, this introductory book is built around a 12 week course in fluvial geomorphology. 'Reading the landscape' entails making sense of what a riverscape looks like, how it works, how it has evolved over time, and how alterations to one part of a...

Penguins are, perhaps, the most loved of birds. We've been fascinated by them for just about as long as we've known they existed. When penguins are on land, their actions appear to us so humorous and expressive that we can be excused for thinking we understand them perfectly, identifying with what...

• 24 great New Zealand farming stories • This book captures the essence of New Zealand as a country, illuminating some great New Zealanders along the way The modern farmer faces a constant battle for survival. Not only do farmers and their families cope with everything nature throws at them, they...

Spiders colonised the Earth long before Gondwanaland began to drift into separate continents. New Zealand spiders have links with spiders worldwide. The authors of this book have pioneered discoveries that have been found to apply to spiders in other parts of Australasia, southern America and...

An insect disguises itself as a flower or leaf. A spider lassoes its prey. A beetle persuades a bee to care for its young. This beautifully illustrated book by veteran naturalist Sir David Attenborough offers a rare glimpse into the secret life of invertebrates, the world's tiniest-and most...

Wild plants may be as simple as a weedy patch in a garden or as complex as native forest in a bushy gully. A large proportion of Auckland?s living landscape is made up of urban plants growing without intentional human aid. Every kind of plant is different, in its form, its requirements and...

Human health depends on the health of the planet. Earth's natural systems--the air, the water, the biodiversity, the climate--are our life support systems. Yet climate change, biodiversity loss, scarcity of land and freshwater, pollution and other threats are degrading these systems. The emerging...

There is something special about a hare. Many who have fallen under the spell of this elusive, beautiful and contradictory creature have longed to know more about its secretive life. But few researchers have had the patience and skill to untangle fact from fiction, to reveal the surprising evidence...

There are roughly 6,000 wild dogs left in Africa yet they have cast such a spell on top wildlife photographer and naturalist Jocelin Kagan that she is determined to help save them. If left to their own devices, they are more than capable of thriving, as this sumptuous photographic natural history...

Monitoring is integral to all aspects of policy and management for threatened biodiversity. It is fundamental to assessing the conservation status and trends of listed species and ecological communities. Monitoring data can be used to diagnose the causes of decline, to measure management...