What do you think?
Rate this book
Habitats of the World: A Field Guide for Birders, Naturalists, and Ecologists
The first field guide to all of the world’s major land habitats—richly illustrated and packed with essential information to help you get the most out of your outdoor adventures
Accurately identifying and understanding habitats in detail is essential to any birder, naturalist, outdoor enthusiast, or ecologist who wants to get the most out of their experiences in the field. Habitats of the World is the first field guide to the world’s major land habitats—189 in all. Using the format of a natural history field guide, this compact, accessible, and comprehensive book features concise identification descriptions and is richly illustrated—including more than 650 color photographs of habitats and their wildlife, 150 distribution maps, 200 diagrams, and 150 silhouettes depicting each habitat alongside a human figure, providing an immediate grasp of its look and scale. Each major habitat has an illustrated “climate box” that allows easy comparisons between habitats. Thirty other illustrated boxes present clear explanations of complex phenomena affecting habitats—from plate tectonics and mountain formation to fire regimes and climate change. Requiring no scientific background, Habitats of the World offers quick and reliable information for anyone who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of the habitats around them, whether in their own backyard or while travelling anywhere in the world.
Accurately identifying and understanding habitats in detail is essential to any birder, naturalist, outdoor enthusiast, or ecologist who wants to get the most out of their experiences in the field. Habitats of the World is the first field guide to the world’s major land habitats—189 in all. Using the format of a natural history field guide, this compact, accessible, and comprehensive book features concise identification descriptions and is richly illustrated—including more than 650 color photographs of habitats and their wildlife, 150 distribution maps, 200 diagrams, and 150 silhouettes depicting each habitat alongside a human figure, providing an immediate grasp of its look and scale. Each major habitat has an illustrated “climate box” that allows easy comparisons between habitats. Thirty other illustrated boxes present clear explanations of complex phenomena affecting habitats—from plate tectonics and mountain formation to fire regimes and climate change. Requiring no scientific background, Habitats of the World offers quick and reliable information for anyone who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of the habitats around them, whether in their own backyard or while travelling anywhere in the world.
568 pages, ebook
First published September 1, 2021
13 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Iain Campbell
40 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 29, 2022
Plaudits for a tremendous effort at putting together information for all the different biomes/biotopes on our planet. Standard format/template for each habitat makes comparing them easier as one would know where to find relevant sections like the types of animals and plants found in each.
I zoomed in on the tropical regions that I am most interested in, and was not disappointed as the authors did justice to these biologically diverse regions of the world. The subtleties of evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forests were well described and thoroughly researched.
If I had to be critical, it is that the format of a 'field guide' is not that appropriate or useful for what is essentially a detailed reference book. I cannot picture any nature enthusiast lugging this small but heavy volume in his/her backpack while traveling to exotic wilderness locales where presumably only a tiny portion would be relevant. Rather, it would serve as a pre-trip source book, and as such, could have been in a larger, easier to read format of a textbook I reckon.
I zoomed in on the tropical regions that I am most interested in, and was not disappointed as the authors did justice to these biologically diverse regions of the world. The subtleties of evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous forests were well described and thoroughly researched.
If I had to be critical, it is that the format of a 'field guide' is not that appropriate or useful for what is essentially a detailed reference book. I cannot picture any nature enthusiast lugging this small but heavy volume in his/her backpack while traveling to exotic wilderness locales where presumably only a tiny portion would be relevant. Rather, it would serve as a pre-trip source book, and as such, could have been in a larger, easier to read format of a textbook I reckon.
December 4, 2022
I read this book as a challenge to myself because I often feel like I lack context when traveling, for example when in the hills of Texas or Mexican mountains is easy to see similarities but also to miss how big our small that habitat is, and what's around it.
The field guide format makes little sense, but the binding and printing are good. There appear to be few outright mistakes, and they don't seem huge. I only caught one misspelling (Adenostoma fasciculatum). Obviously there will be more but that's inevitable. There's a true error on page 437, where the range of Pinus contorta var. contorta was included with the lodgepole pine forest range. This is wrong, as it mistakenly extends said habitat into Glacier Bay, Haida Gwaii, and the ABC islands. Pinus contorta var. contorta is not fire tolerant, unlike the lodgepole pine subspecies.
In many parts of the text the authors acknowledge the limitations of their project. That's true and good. Some issues were not insuperable though. Having a section on oceans as a separate "continent" would have alleviated many problems, such as: no Polynesia, Arctic habitats divided into two sets of identical habitat (one each for nearctic and palearctic, and mapped in a ridiculous Mercator projection), mangroves split into awkward sections, the "nearctic pelagic waters" including half the pelagic north Atlantic and half the pelagic north Pacific, migratory shorebirds habitat split along the tropics, etc.
One of the authors is a soil scientist and it shows. I would request another two or so sidebars on soil science because some terms are not explained, such as chernozems for example. "Lithosols" on page 340 also was not included in sidebar 2.5, but it was finally defined, with an aside on page 407. I didn't have internet access for part of the time I was reading the book, but I used Google a lot otherwise. As an aside, at one point I had to read the book using red light and the experience was rather unpleasant. If you're very color blind you will probably miss out on some content, especially maps.
If you're examining places you know well you will spot oversimplifications and probably some slight errors in range. For example, a bunch of alpine habitat is missing from my region. However, the point of the book is to explore the places we don't know and I feel like my area is well covered for a visitor to it. I know I already decided I want to go to a couple of places some day based on the book. I will also re-read chapters as needed for trips. That makes the book worth the price and time.
The field guide format makes little sense, but the binding and printing are good. There appear to be few outright mistakes, and they don't seem huge. I only caught one misspelling (Adenostoma fasciculatum). Obviously there will be more but that's inevitable. There's a true error on page 437, where the range of Pinus contorta var. contorta was included with the lodgepole pine forest range. This is wrong, as it mistakenly extends said habitat into Glacier Bay, Haida Gwaii, and the ABC islands. Pinus contorta var. contorta is not fire tolerant, unlike the lodgepole pine subspecies.
In many parts of the text the authors acknowledge the limitations of their project. That's true and good. Some issues were not insuperable though. Having a section on oceans as a separate "continent" would have alleviated many problems, such as: no Polynesia, Arctic habitats divided into two sets of identical habitat (one each for nearctic and palearctic, and mapped in a ridiculous Mercator projection), mangroves split into awkward sections, the "nearctic pelagic waters" including half the pelagic north Atlantic and half the pelagic north Pacific, migratory shorebirds habitat split along the tropics, etc.
One of the authors is a soil scientist and it shows. I would request another two or so sidebars on soil science because some terms are not explained, such as chernozems for example. "Lithosols" on page 340 also was not included in sidebar 2.5, but it was finally defined, with an aside on page 407. I didn't have internet access for part of the time I was reading the book, but I used Google a lot otherwise. As an aside, at one point I had to read the book using red light and the experience was rather unpleasant. If you're very color blind you will probably miss out on some content, especially maps.
If you're examining places you know well you will spot oversimplifications and probably some slight errors in range. For example, a bunch of alpine habitat is missing from my region. However, the point of the book is to explore the places we don't know and I feel like my area is well covered for a visitor to it. I know I already decided I want to go to a couple of places some day based on the book. I will also re-read chapters as needed for trips. That makes the book worth the price and time.
December 29, 2022
This is more of a reference guide; it's well written with mostly non academic language, which I appreciate. It's not a "read front to back" situation, it's over 500 pages describing the basics of each land habitat on earth. Wished for (more? any?) info on indigenous relationships with the land and species described. This will collect some dust on my shelf but hopefully I'll get to refer to it soon enough.
December 30, 2021
A fantastic and unique guide. My only complaint is that there aren’t more photos of the actual habitats. But, given the book is already 500 pages, I understand there are limitations, ha.
May 23, 2023
Used this to help teach a semester of ecology and it was great
August 11, 2023
its great
March 1, 2024
Used this to teach a semester of Ecology and it was great.
November 6, 2024
More of a reference book than a cover to cover read. Unique coverage of habitats and good to use to look up what they’re like in places near home and far away before a visit.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews