How to live in the north

Abstract

book reviews ISSN 1948-6596 How to live in the north Tundra–Taiga Biology: Human, Plant, and Animal Survival in the Arctic. Robert M.M. Crawford, 2013, Oxford University Press. 288 pp. £75.00 (hardback) / £37.50 (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-19- 955940-4 / 978-0-19-955941-1; http://oup.com This book presents a comprehensive survey of the organisms that live at our northern high latitudes and the environmental challenges that these organisms face in their attempts to survive, grow, and reproduce as individuals, and as elements of populations and communi- ties. The book begins appropriately by defin- ing the Arctic which, as Crawford notes, given the multitude of different definitions used among various groups, “presents problems.” Crawford provides several of these definitions from which the readers can choose their fa- vourite, or most reasonable with regard to their interests. I was disappointed however that Crawford does not inform the reader which definition is being used as the context for the book, which would certainly have been helpful. At the extremes, one definition of the Arctic might include no (or very few) taiga habitats, whereas another definition could include several biome types in addition to tundra and taiga, making the scope of the book highly dependent on defining the Arctic. Following the discussion of the Arctic's extent, Crawford describes the physical attributes of our Earth that drive the unique properties of polar climates, and then presents the history of the Arctic climate since the Cretaceous. Although the biota do appear in Chapter 1 in the form of ancient forests, a freshwater aquatic fern, and a cyanobacteria, they be- come more prevalent in Chapter 2, as Craw- ford discusses the period since the Last Glacial Maximum, the refugia of Arctic plants and animals during the last Ice Age, and the dy- namics of some of these species during the Holocene to form their present distributions. Chapter 3 is a nice chronicle of human migra- tion to and across the Arctic, and the different groups of indigenous peoples that have and still do reside on Arctic lands. The bulk of the remainder of the book (Chapters 4-9) leads a tour of the wide variety of species (including humans) that live in the Arctic, discussing their distribution across the Arctic, and how they have evolved to survive and reproduce in the harsh polar environment. The final chap- ter (10) discusses recent environmental changes in the Arctic (largely anthropogenic), and the impacts that these changes might have on the conservation of Arctic species, with a focus on some of the more charismatic Arctic megafauna, such as polar bears, mus- koxen, and caribou. The back cover of the book provides a note from the publisher, briefly summarising the text in addition to noting the potential utility of the book for students, scientists, and practitioners. I had a somewhat differing opinion on the practicality of the book. While I am sure that this book could “appeal to re- searchers new to the field,” I am less confi- dent that those with some experience in the Arctic would see it as a “concise but authori- tative overview of the biome” (actually more than one biome – tundra and taiga) – concise, maybe, but I would hesitate to call it authori- tative, certainly not from a scientific perspec- tive. In an attempt to cover the generalities of the physical environment and the biota of the Arctic, Crawford has a tendency to oversim- plify; simplification of course is necessary in a text such as this one, however, in places it leads to misinformation. To provide some ex- amples, I was discouraged immediately by the first paragraph of the Preface, which set the frontiers of biogeography 7.1, 2015 — © 2015 the authors; journal compilation © 2015 The International Biogeography Society