This book offers to the layman a reliable guide to the marine vegetation of the entire California coast. With over 240 plants now described, it is filled with fascinating information on the natural history of each plant, the geographical range in which it is likely to be found, and the role of marine plants in the ecology of the California coastal environment. Twelve pages of color plates and 66 line drawings, along with botanical keys to the major groups of seaweeds, to aid in identification.

Seashore Plants of California (California Natural History Guides)

Science & Math

Dawson, E. Yale

Foster, Michæl S.

Biological Sciences

University of California Press

The largest seaweed, giant kelp (Macrocystis) is the fastest growing and most prolific of all plants found on earth. Growing from the seafloor and extending along the ocean surface in lush canopies, giant kelp provides an extensive vertical habitat in a largely two-dimensional seascape. It is the foundation for one of the most species-rich, productive, and widely distributed ecological communities in the world. Schiel and Foster’s scholarly review and synthesis take the reader from Darwin’s early observations to contemporary research, providing a historical perspective for the modern understanding of giant kelp evolution, biogeography, biology, and physiology. The authors furnish a comprehensive discussion of kelp species and forest ecology worldwide, with considerations of human uses and abuses, management and conservation, and the current and likely future impacts of global change. This volume promises to be the definitive treatise and reference on giant kelp and its forests for many years, and it will appeal to marine scientists and others who want a better appreciation and understanding of these wondrous forests of the sea.

The Biology and Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests

Schiel, David R.

Edited by Michael S. Foster and Shirley GorensteinArchaeologyMesoamerican studies, as they are still practiced today,  are framed by the Spanish colonial intrusion into Mexico from the east, and  subsequent involvement with the Aztec Empire. Greater Mesoamerica expands  the definition of "Mesoamerica" beyond the more traditionally accepted central  Mexican areas to both western and northwestern Mexico where sophisticated  cultures were flourishing outside the realm of Spanish influence. It is the  first comprehensive overview of both regions since the Handbook of Middle  American Indians was published in the early 1970s.Based on recent  archaeological surveys and excavations, the chapters in this volume provide  current, comprehensive, area-by-area summaries of the region's Precolumbian  past, noting the discovery of new cultural configurations, new connections, and  new complexities.

Greater Mesoamerica

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

University of Utah Press

Edited by Michael S. Foster and Shirley GorensteinArchaeologyMesoamerican studies, as they are still practiced today, are framed by the Spanish colonial intrusion into Mexico from the east, and subsequent involvement with the Aztec Empire. Greater Mesoamerica expands the definition of "Mesoamerica" beyond the more traditionally accepted central Mexican areas to both western and northwestern Mexico where sophisticated cultures were flourishing outside the realm of Spanish influence. It is the first comprehensive overview of both regions since the Handbook of Middle American Indians was published in the early 1970s.Based on recent archaeological surveys and excavations, the chapters in this volume provide current, comprehensive, area-by-area summaries of the region's Precolumbian past, noting the discovery of new cultural configurations, new connections, and new complexities.

Greater Mesoamerica: The Archaeology of West and Northwest Mexico

Archaeology

History of the Western Society of Naturalists (Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History contributions in science)

History & Philosophy

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Between 1967 and 1975 archaeologists from SUNY-Buffalo led a multidisciplinary project in the Marismas Nacionales, a vast, resource-rich estuary and mangrove forest of coastal Sinaloa and Nayarit, west Mexico. Michael Foster and fellow archaeologists provide a much-needed synthesis of these investigations, drawing from previously unpublished data and published reports to provide a comprehensive look at the region. While in the field, the SUNY team recovered a variety of material artifacts and 248 human remains. Their findings, along with the project’s background, history, and analyses, are detailed in this volume’s thirteen chapters and nine appendices. Also included are supporting geomorphic, environmental, and ethnohistoric studies that establish the context for local human settlement and change. Evidence indicates that as the coastal plain grew, ceramic-bearing agriculturalists moved into the area and participated in far-reaching exchanges of goods and resources. This book makes a significant and lasting contribution to our knowledge of what today remains an understudied region of greater Mesoamerica. Marismas Burial Descriptions, Supplemental Digital Material

The Archaeology, Ethnohistory, and Environment of the Marismas Nacionales

History

Americas

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Books by Foster, Michæl S.