Transient Landscapes

Landscape the unique combination of landforms, plants, animals, and weather that compose any natural place is inherently transient. Each essay in Transient Landscapes introduces this idea of a constantly metamorphosing global landscape, revealing how to see the ubiquity of landscape transience, both that which results through Earth s natural environmental and climatological processes and that which comes from human intervention.The essays are grouped by type of environmental change: long-term, large-scale transformation driven by geologic forces such as tectonic uplift and volcanism; natural variability at shorter time scales, such as seasonal flooding; and modifications resulting from human activities, such as timber harvest, land drainage, and pollution. Each essay is set in a unique geographic location including such diverse places as New Zealand, Northern California, Costa Rica, and the Scottish Highlands and is largely drawn from Wohl s personal experience researching in the field.A combination of travel writing, nature writing, and science writing, Transient Landscapes is a beautiful and thoughtful journey through the natural world.