Forest Vegetation of Northeast Asia

This book presents the first detailed survey, in English, of the forest vegetation of northeast Asia, a vast, mainly boreal or cool-temperate region that includes the Russian Far East (easternmost Siberia, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Kuril Islands), Manchuria (northeastern China and adjacent), and northern Korea and Japan. Vegetation descriptions were prepared by local and foreign vegetation scientists, partly from literature sources but also from local field experience, including the several Czech-Slovak botanical expeditions to North Korea during the 1990s. Regional integration is provided in chapters on physical conditions and biogeography, and in a chapter comparing vegetation syntaxa. Two methodologies are used: 1) Exploration and forest classification following the Sukachev school of forest types (Manchuria and Russian Far East); and 2) Forest classification by Zurich-Montpellier (Braun-Blanquet) methodology (Japan and North Korea). The book should be valuable to vegetation scientists, conservation biologists, and anyone interested in the regional vegetation and landscapes, including students.