Regional intercomparisons between ecosystems on different continents can
be a powerful tool to better understand the ways in which ecosystems
respond to global change. Large areas are often needed to characterize
the causal mechanisms governing interactions between ecozones and their
environments. Factors such as weather and climate patterns, land-ocean
and land-atmosphere interactions all play important roles. As a result
of the strong physical north-south symmetry between the western coasts
of North and South America, the similarities in climate, coastal
oceanography and physiography between these two regions have been
extensively documented. High Latitude Rain Forests and
Associated Ecosystems of the West Coast of the Americas presents
current research on West Coast forest and river ecology, and compares
ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest with those of South America.