Land of Contrast: Southern Africa’s Diverse Biomes

Husband and wife award-winning photographers Philip and Ingrid van den Berg share a love of Africa and all its facets. It is their passion to capture unique moments in nature and share these with readers, through the pages of their wildlife books. Now retired from careers in environmental education and biological sciences, Philip and Ingrid have transformed a love of photography into a full-time "hobby", with several acclaimed wildlife books to their credit. With their extensive knowledge of the natural world coupled with their scientific backgrounds, they are an integral part of the HPH team of photographers and writers.

Land of Contrast is a visual delight of amazing photography with brief but highly informative text. It depicts the renowned diversity of the eight different landscape types (or biomes) of the southern African sub-continent. Each of these biomes is the result of its geology and climate, which in turn determine the soil and vegetation types and ultimately the fauna. Life on land is determined by the availability of fresh water, and therefore water, rivers and wetlands form an intrinsic part of each biome. The various biomes are Fynbos, Succulent Karoo, Nama Karoo, Desert, Grassland, Savanna, Thicket and Forest. The major landscape is the Savanna Biome and the most unique the Fynbos Biome. Each section begins with a short summary of the main factors that determine the characteristics of the biome. Then follows a list of places to visit where the specific biome is evident. The images are not cluttered with captions, which appear instead on the last page of a chapter where the images are repeated in thumbnail size together with relevant information about each one.