This book provides a wealth of high-quality scientific information on the patterns and processes of vegetation change across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, concentrating on Southwestern China, mostly on the Yunnan region, and extending to the Yangtze River valley near the boundaries separating Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou.

Offers the first detailed quantitative analysis of the subtropical vegetation of southwestern China Provides the first synthesis of a number of recently identified rare forests that survived the Ice Age Extensively illustrated with 126 figures and maps as well as some 137 color photos

Inhalt

1. Introduction. - 2. Evergreen broad-leaved forests. - 3. Evergreen sclerophyllous Quercus forests. - 4. Warm temperate coniferous forests. - 5. Man-made forests. - 6. Semi-savannas in hot-dry valleys. - 7. Endemism and Tertiary relict forests. - 8. Relations to relevant regions.