Southern Rivers : Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Duncan, R. Scot.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Freshwater biodiversity.

Climatic factors.

Southern States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (509 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2024.

Summary:

"In Southern Rivers: Restoring America's Freshwater Biodiversity, R. Scot Duncan explores the environmental history and future of the rivers of the southeastern United States. These river systems are the epicenter of North American freshwater biodiversity and the top global hotspot for several aquatic taxa including mussels, turtles, snails, crayfish, and temperate zone fish; these rivers also play a prominent role in the region's history, culture, and economy. Unfortunately, centuries of industrialization have impaired the region's river systems, sacrificing biodiversity and compromising their ability to provide essential ecosystem services like drinking water, waste disposal, irrigation, navigation, and power production to human communities. And now overall waterflow is diminishing in the Southeast due to increasing heat and drought brought by climate change. As these and other threats to the region's water supply increase, it may seem necessary to prioritize between using water for natural resource conservation or reserving it for human concerns-but Duncan argues this is a false choice. Combining nature, science, and stories in a series of short, illustrated chapters, Southern Rivers takes readers on an illuminating journey of the Southeast's river systems and the many communities that depend on them. Duncan cogently articulates the challenges threatening rivers, streams, and wetlands in the face of the planet's accelerating climate and extinction crises, then turns to explore the new solutions conservationists and water managers have developed to preserve them. Ultimately, the book is both a call to action and a clear, comprehensive, practical plan to help the Southeast save its water resources and adapt to climate change by restoring the very biodiversity that is now under threat"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1

The point

Welcome to the anthropocene

Brimming with species

A simple dock

Three questions

Part 2

Uncle Dallas and the sturgeon

Ancient witnesses

Industrialization

Jubilee

Warts and all

Unsung heroes

Death by mud

A golden age begins

How to drown a river

Unlikely survivor

Case closed?

Hitchhiking elephantears

Pearls and caviar

Part 3

Sacrifice zone

Coal's curse

Toxic chemistry

Quitting coal

Hothouse Earth

A thirsty future

Rising waters

Salty floods

Part 4

Ecological free fall

Ivan's wisdom

Part 5

Armor, adapt, retreat

Working with nature

Drought

Reservoir reservations

Water from the rock and sea

The source within

Mussel power

Back from the brink

Restoration blueprint

Let 'em flow

Struggling sturgeon

A shad story

Safe, timely, and effective

American eel, superhero

Halfway solutions

A new era begins

The road to removal

The future of hydropower

Escaping the flood trap

Lake life

Part 6

Where do we go from here?

Homecoming.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

ISBN:

0-8173-9484-2

9780817394844

OCLC:

1583701226