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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Immensely useful compendium for the American tropics, 29 Nov 2005
Janzen's book is over twenty years old but remains an encyclopaedia of tropical America. The 174 authors, all experts in their fields, have penned over 800 fascinating pages. The final product is a milestone, since much of the information presented was previously unpublished.Introductory chapters cover the history of field biology in Costa Rica, biogeography, climate, geology and soils. The information presented is a thorough background for Costa Rica and provides a wealth of references for those who want to have more detail. These chapters are a useful aid to understanding the biology of any area in the northern Neotropics. The bulk of the book comprises species accounts grouped systematically with an additional section on agriculture. At the start of each chapter, a well-written introduction gives an overview of the Costa Rican group in question and a taxonomic checklist for the country. However, the meat of the book is the species accounts themselves. Written by a large number of authors, they range from a brief few paragraphs to a couple of pages with two dozen references, depending on the amount of information available. Monochrome photographs illustrate the accounts. Not surprisingly, Janzen’s tome has found its way into universities, research stations and personal libraries throughout the American tropics. For the tropical naturalist who wants to know more than the identity of an animal or plant, this is the book to go for, especially for a trip to Costa Rica. Highly recommended.
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(1 customer review)
