🔴 This is USED item. NOT FOR FUSSY BUYER! Published: 1996 (First edition) Author: Deborah Uchida Publisher: Tropical Press Genre: Tropical Rain Forest, Forestry Paperback: 183 pages Condition: 8/10 (Used, all colour pages) Weight: 1.5kg approx. From the back cover: For more than 130 million years, equatorial heat and rain have shaped the world's oldest tropical rain forest-an emerald expanse of trees that shelters a unique world of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. Protected within Malaysia's National Park, Taman Negara, this pristine green wilderness is a living symbol of the country's precious natural heritage. The lofty crown of evergreen treetops in this ancient forest shimmers like gemstones of national pride and timeless beauty. Two thousand one hundred metres of vertical relief provide the setting for this rain forest exploration 4,343 square kilometres of parkland rises from lowland dipterocarp forest to the barren peak of Gunung Tahan, the Malay peninsula's highest mountain. With more than 150 full-colour photographs taken especially for this work, scientific investigations in the fields of botany, geology and zoology are highlighted to portray the complexities of this uniquely balanced tropical ecosystem. A fascinating geologic time scale describes the emergence of Malaysia's rain forest climax and introduces the concepts of relative age, the hydrologic cycle of rainfall and climate, earth tectonics and erosion, and the role of modern conservation. Chapters on the area's topography, vegetation and animal life vividly examine the striking changes which altitude brings and explain the biodiversity and distribution of living things in each forest zone. Symbiotic relationships and the forest's complex process of recycling and regeneration are explained. The concluding chapter centers on the relationship between peoples of the forest and their environment. The result is a comprehensive view of rain forest dynamics that is largely unavailable elsewhere. Malaysia's Emerald Crown is an unforgettable portrait of a complex rain forest environment. Well researched for factual accuracy, with an index and bibliography, the book is a stimulating and instructive photographic guide to Taman Negara's rain forest treasures. It is written in a readable style that will appeal to scholars and non-experts alike.