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The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans
Par Laura Trethewey. 2023
A Globe and Mail Top 100 SelectionFive oceans cover approximately seventy per cent of the earth, yet we know little…
of what lies beneath them. Now, the race is on to completely map the oceans’ floor. Scientists, investors, militaries, and private explorers are competing in this epic venture to obtain an accurate reading of this vast terrain and understand its contours and environment. In The Deepest Map, Laura Trethewey chronicles this race to the bottom. Following global efforts around the world, she documents Inuit-led crowdsourced mapping in the Arctic as climate change alters the landscape, a Texas millionaire’s efforts to become the first man to dive to the deepest point in each ocean, and the increasingly fraught question of whether and how to mine the deep sea. A true tale of science, nature, technology, and extreme outdoor adventure, The Deepest Map both illuminates why we love — and fear — the earth’s final frontier and contributes to increasingly urgent conversations about climate change.Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales (Princeton Science Library #142)
Par John Tyler Bonner. 2006
Why size plays such a big role in the living worldJohn Tyler Bonner, one of our most distinguished and creative…
biologists, here offers a completely new perspective on the role of size in biology. In his hallmark friendly style, he explores the universal impact of being the right size. By examining stories ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Gulliver's Travels, he shows that humans have always been fascinated by things big and small. Why then does size always reside on the fringes of science and never on the center stage? Why do biologists and others ponder size only when studying something else--running speed, life span, or metabolism?Why Size Matters, a pioneering book of big ideas in a compact size, gives size its due by presenting a profound yet lucid overview of what we know about its role in the living world. Bonner argues that size really does matter--that it is the supreme and universal determinant of what any organism can be and do. For example, because tiny creatures are subject primarily to forces of cohesion and larger beasts to gravity, a fly can easily walk up a wall, something we humans cannot even begin to imagine doing.Bonner introduces us to size through the giants and dwarfs of human, animal, and plant history and then explores questions including the physics of size as it affects biology, the evolution of size over geological time, and the role of size in the function and longevity of living things.As this elegantly written book shows, size affects life in its every aspect. It is a universal frame from which nothing escapes.Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds
Par Tony D. Williams. 2012
Physiological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds is the most current and comprehensive account of research on avian reproduction. It develops…
two unique themes: the consideration of female avian reproductive physiology and ecology, and an emphasis on individual variation in life-history traits. Tony Williams investigates the physiological, metabolic, energetic, and hormonal mechanisms that underpin individual variation in the key female-specific reproductive traits and the trade-offs between these traits that determine variation in fitness.The core of the book deals with the avian reproductive cycle, from seasonal gonadal development, through egg laying and incubation, to chick rearing. Reproduction is considered in the context of the annual cycle and through an individual's entire life history. The book focuses on timing of breeding, clutch size, egg size and egg quality, and parental care. It also provides a primer on female reproductive physiology and considers trade-offs and carryover effects between reproduction and other life-history stages. In each chapter, Williams describes individual variation in the trait of interest and the evolutionary context for trait variation. He argues that there is only a rudimentary, and in some cases nonexistent, understanding of the physiological mechanisms that underpin individual variation in the major reproductive life-history traits, and that research efforts should refocus on these key unresolved problems by incorporating detailed physiological studies into existing long-term population studies, generating a new synthesis of physiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.Ancient lessons for sustainable citizenshipAn ecologically sustainable society cannot be achieved without citizens who possess the virtues and values that…
will foster it, and who believe that individual actions can indeed make a difference. Eco-Republic draws on ancient Greek thought—and Plato's Republic in particular—to put forward a new vision of citizenship that can make such a society a reality. Melissa Lane develops a model of a society whose health and sustainability depend on all its citizens recognizing a shared standard of value and shaping their personal goals and habits accordingly. Bringing together the moral and political ideas of the ancients with the latest social and psychological theory, Lane illuminates the individual's vital role in social change, and articulates new ways of understanding what is harmful and what is valuable, what is a benefit and what is a cost, and what the relationship between public and private well-being ought to be.Eco-Republic reveals why we must rethink our political imagination if we are to meet the challenges of climate change and other urgent environmental concerns. Offering a unique reflection on the ethics and politics of sustainability, the book goes beyond standard approaches to virtue ethics in philosophy and current debates about happiness in economics and psychology. Eco-Republic explains why health is a better standard than happiness for capturing the important links between individual action and social good, and diagnoses the reasons why the ancient concept of virtue has been sorely neglected yet is more relevant today than ever.The Nature of Nutrition: A Unifying Framework from Animal Adaptation to Human Obesity
Par Stephen J. Simpson, David Raubenheimer. 2012
The first book to address nutrition's complex role in biologyNutrition has long been considered more the domain of medicine and…
agriculture than of the biological sciences, yet it touches and shapes all aspects of the natural world. The need for nutrients determines whether wild animals thrive, how populations evolve and decline, and how ecological communities are structured. The Nature of Nutrition is the first book to address nutrition's enormously complex role in biology, both at the level of individual organisms and in their broader ecological interactions.Stephen Simpson and David Raubenheimer provide a comprehensive theoretical approach to the analysis of nutrition—the Geometric Framework. They show how it can help us to understand the links between nutrition and the biology of individual animals, including the physiological mechanisms that determine the nutritional interactions of the animal with its environment, and the consequences of these interactions in terms of health, immune responses, and lifespan. Simpson and Raubenheimer explain how these effects translate into the collective behavior of groups and societies, and in turn influence food webs and the structure of ecosystems. Then they demonstrate how the Geometric Framework can be used to tackle issues in applied nutrition, such as the problem of optimizing diets for livestock and endangered species, and how it can also help to address the epidemic of human obesity and metabolic disease.Drawing on a wealth of examples from slime molds to humans, The Nature of Nutrition has important applications in ecology, evolution, and physiology, and offers promising solutions for human health, conservation, and agriculture.What rational justification is there for conceiving of all living things as possessing inherent worth? In Respect for Nature, Paul…
Taylor draws on biology, moral philosophy, and environmental science to defend a biocentric environmental ethic in which all life has value. Without making claims for the moral rights of plants and animals, he offers a reasoned alternative to the prevailing anthropocentric view--that the natural environment and its wildlife are valued only as objects for human use or enjoyment. Respect for Nature provides both a full account of the biological conditions for life--human or otherwise--and a comprehensive view of the complex relationship between human beings and the whole of nature. This classic book remains a valuable resource for philosophers, biologists, and environmentalists alike--along with all those who care about the future of life on Earth. A new foreword by Dale Jamieson looks at how the original 1986 edition of Respect for Nature has shaped the study of environmental ethics, and shows why the work remains relevant to debates today.Ecological Models and Data in R
Par Benjamin M. Bolker. 2008
Ecological Models and Data in R is the first truly practical introduction to modern statistical methods for ecology. In step-by-step…
detail, the book teaches ecology graduate students and researchers everything they need to know in order to use maximum likelihood, information-theoretic, and Bayesian techniques to analyze their own data using the programming language R. Drawing on extensive experience teaching these techniques to graduate students in ecology, Benjamin Bolker shows how to choose among and construct statistical models for data, estimate their parameters and confidence limits, and interpret the results. The book also covers statistical frameworks, the philosophy of statistical modeling, and critical mathematical functions and probability distributions. It requires no programming background--only basic calculus and statistics. Practical, beginner-friendly introduction to modern statistical techniques for ecology using the programming language R Step-by-step instructions for fitting models to messy, real-world data Balanced view of different statistical approaches Wide coverage of techniques--from simple (distribution fitting) to complex (state-space modeling) Techniques for data manipulation and graphical display Companion Web site with data and R code for all examplesThe Extreme Life of the Sea
Par Stephen R. Palumbi, Anthony R. Palumbi. 2014
A thrilling tour of the sea's most extreme species, written by one of the world's leading marine scientistsThe ocean teems…
with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes readers to the absolute limits of the ocean world—the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It dives into the icy Arctic and boiling hydrothermal vents—and exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches—to show how marine life thrives against the odds. This thrilling book brings to life the sea's most extreme species, and tells their stories as characters in the drama of the oceans. Coauthored by Stephen Palumbi, one of today’s leading marine scientists, The Extreme Life of the Sea tells the unforgettable tales of some of the most marvelous life forms on Earth, and the challenges they overcome to survive. Modern science and a fluid narrative style give every reader a deep look at the lives of these species.The Extreme Life of the Sea shows you the world’s oldest living species. It describes how flying fish strain to escape their predators, how predatory deep-sea fish use red searchlights only they can see to find and attack food, and how, at the end of her life, a mother octopus dedicates herself to raising her batch of young. This wide-ranging and highly accessible book also shows how ocean adaptations can inspire innovative commercial products—such as fan blades modeled on the flippers of humpback whales—and how future extremes created by human changes to the oceans might push some of these amazing species over the edge.An enhanced edition is also available and includes eleven videos.Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali (Princeton Studies in Complexity #11)
Par J. Stephen Lansing. 2006
Along rivers in Bali, small groups of farmers meet regularly in water temples to manage their irrigation systems. They have…
done so for a thousand years. Over the centuries, water temple networks have expanded to manage the ecology of rice terraces at the scale of whole watersheds. Although each group focuses on its own problems, a global solution nonetheless emerges that optimizes irrigation flows for everyone. Did someone have to design Bali's water temple networks, or could they have emerged from a self-organizing process? Perfect Order--a groundbreaking work at the nexus of conservation, complexity theory, and anthropology--describes a series of fieldwork projects triggered by this question, ranging from the archaeology of the water temples to their ecological functions and their place in Balinese cosmology. Stephen Lansing shows that the temple networks are fragile, vulnerable to the cross-currents produced by competition among male descent groups. But the feminine rites of water temples mirror the farmers' awareness that when they act in unison, small miracles of order occur regularly, as the jewel-like perfection of the rice terraces produces general prosperity. Much of this is barely visible from within the horizons of Western social theory. The fruit of a decade of multidisciplinary research, this absorbing book shows that even as researchers probe the foundations of cooperation in the water temple networks, the very existence of the traditional farming techniques they represent is threatened by large-scale development projects.Birder's Conservation Handbook: 100 North American Birds at Risk
Par Jeffrey V. Wells. 2008
Until now there has been no single, comprehensive resource on the status of North America's most threatened birds and what…
people can do to help protect them. Birder's Conservation Handbook is the only book of its kind, written specifically to help birders and researchers understand the threats while providing actions to protect birds and their habitats. Jeffrey Wells has distilled vast amounts of essential information into a single easy-to-use volume-required reading for anyone who loves birds and wants to ensure they are protected. At-a-glance species accounts cover in detail North America's one hundred most at-risk birds; each account is beautifully illustrated by today's top bird artists. The text includes status, distribution, ecology, threats, conservation actions and needs, and references. A distribution map accompanies each entry. Chapters discuss birds as indicators of environmental health, the state of North American bird populations, major conservation issues, and initiatives now underway to improve the health of North America's birds. Birder's Conservation Handbook is an indispensable resource for birdwatchers, researchers, naturalists, and conservationists. Reading it will inspire you to become an active steward of our birds and the habitats we share. A comprehensive guide to North America's one hundred most at-risk birds and how to protect them Compact and easy to use, with beautiful illustrations and data organized for convenient, at-a-glance reference Detailed species accounts, including distribution maps Practical advice on conservation Information on leading conservation agencies and resourcesNature's Compass: The Mystery of Animal Navigation (Science Essentials #16)
Par James L. Gould, Carol Grant Gould. 2012
The mysterious and remarkable ways that animals navigateWe know that animals cross miles of water, land, and sky with pinpoint…
precision on a daily basis. But it is only in recent years that scientists have learned how these astounding feats of navigation are actually accomplished. With colorful and thorough detail, Nature's Compass explores the remarkable methods by which animals find their way both near home and around the globe. Noted biologist James Gould and popular science writer Carol Gould delve into the elegant strategies and fail-safe backup systems, the invisible sensitivities and mysterious forces, and incredible mental abilities used by familiar and rare species, as they investigate a multitude of navigation strategies, from the simple to the astonishing.The Goulds discuss how animals navigate, without instruments and training, at a level far beyond human talents. They explain how animals measure time and show how the fragile monarch butterfly employs an internal clock, calendar, compass, and map to commence and measure the two-thousand-mile annual journey to Mexico—all with a brain that weighs only a few thousandths of an ounce. They look at honey bees and how they rely on the sun and mental maps to locate landmarks such as nests and flowers. And they examine whether long-distance migrants, such as the homing pigeon, depend on a global positioning system to let them know where they are. Ultimately, the authors ask if the disruption of migratory paths through habitat destruction and global warming is affecting and endangering animal species.Providing a comprehensive picture of animal navigation and migration, Nature's Compass decodes the mysteries of this extraordinary aspect of natural behavior.The Princeton Guide to Ecology
Par Simon A. Levin. 2009
The Princeton Guide to Ecology is a concise, authoritative one-volume reference to the field's major subjects and key concepts. Edited…
by eminent ecologist Simon Levin, with contributions from an international team of leading ecologists, the book contains more than ninety clear, accurate, and up-to-date articles on the most important topics within seven major areas: autecology, population ecology, communities and ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere, conservation biology, ecosystem services, and biosphere management. Complete with more than 200 illustrations (including sixteen pages in color), a glossary of key terms, a chronology of milestones in the field, suggestions for further reading on each topic, and an index, this is an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, research ecologists, scientists in related fields, policymakers, and anyone else with a serious interest in ecology. Explains key topics in one concise and authoritative volume Features more than ninety articles written by an international team of leading ecologists Contains more than 200 illustrations, including sixteen pages in color Includes glossary, chronology, suggestions for further reading, and index Covers autecology, population ecology, communities and ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere, conservation biology, ecosystem services, and biosphere managementResolving Ecosystem Complexity (Monographs in Population Biology #47)
Par Oswald J. Schmitz. 2010
An ecosystem's complexity develops from the vast numbers of species interacting in ecological communities. The nature of these interactions, in…
turn, depends on environmental context. How do these components together influence an ecosystem's behavior as a whole? Can ecologists resolve an ecosystem's complexity in order to predict its response to disturbances? Resolving Ecosystem Complexity develops a framework for anticipating the ways environmental context determines the functioning of ecosystems. Oswald Schmitz addresses the critical questions of contemporary ecology: How should an ecosystem be conceptualized to blend its biotic and biophysical components? How should evolutionary ecological principles be used to derive an operational understanding of complex, adaptive ecosystems? How should the relationship between the functional biotic diversity of ecosystems and their properties be understood? Schmitz begins with the universal concept that ecosystems are comprised of species that consume resources and which are then resources for other consumers. From this, he deduces a fundamental rule or evolutionary ecological mechanism for explaining context dependency: individuals within a species trade off foraging gains against the risk of being consumed by predators. Through empirical examples, Schmitz illustrates how species use evolutionary ecological strategies to negotiate a predator-eat-predator world, and he suggests that the implications of species trade-offs are critical to making ecology a predictive science. Bridging the traditional divides between individuals, populations, and communities in ecology, Resolving Ecosystem Complexity builds a systematic foundation for thinking about natural systems.50 Hikes with Kids Colorado (50 Hikes with Kids)
Par Wendy Gorton, Kristin Tillack. 2023
Discover the 50 most kid-friendly hikes in Colorado with this book featuring maps and scavenger hunts of items to find…
along each trail—plus fun extras that will foster a curiosity about the region's flora, fauna, and geology! Handcrafted for caregivers who want to spark a love of nature, 50 Hikes with Kids: Colorado highlights the most kid-friendly hikes in the Centennial State. These hikes are perfect for little legs—they are all under five miles and have an elevation gain of 900 feet of less. Some are even accessible by stroller. Every entry includes the essential details: easy-to-read, trustworthy directions; a detailed map; hike length and elevation gain; natural history factoids to keep kids engaged. Full-color photographs show scavenger hunt items kids are guaranteed to see along the trail.Creative Design and Innovation: How to Produce Successful Products and Buildings
Par Robin Roy. 2024
Using many real-world examples and cases, this book identifies key factors and processes that have contributed to the creation of…
successful new products, buildings, and innovations, or resulted in some failures. Such factors include the creativity of individuals and groups, their sources of inspiration, the processes of creative design and innovation, and the characteristics of the products, buildings, and innovations themselves. Much has been written about creativity and innovation, but what helps to foster creativity, enable creative ideas to be translated into practical designs, and ensure those new products or buildings succeed as innovations on the market or in use? This book discusses these elements through the author’s origination and analysis of examples and case studies ranging from the revolutionary innovation of the smartphone, through radical innovations in domestic appliances and sustainable housing, to creative designs of contemporary jewellery. The broad range of examples and cases include product and fashion design, filmmaking and fine art, as well as industrial design, engineering, and architecture, offering lessons for creatives, designers, and innovators from many subject backgrounds. Analysis of the different factors, successes, and failures are presented in text boxes throughout the book to allow readers to easily understand the key lessons from each example or case, with numerous colour visuals, diagrams, and charts for illustration. This book is a must-read for a broad audience interested in creativity, design, and innovation, including practitioners in design, engineering, architecture, and product management, and students and instructors of those subjects.Sustainability of Southern African Ecosystems under Global Change: Science for Management and Policy Interventions (Ecological Studies #248)
Par Graham P. von Maltitz, Guy F. Midgley, Jennifer Veitch, Christian Brümmer, Reimund P. Rötter, Finn A. Viehberg, Maik Veste. 2024
This open access book about the sustainability of marine and terrestrial ecosystems in southern Africa provides a synthesis of the…
research program Science Partnerships for the Adaptation to Complex Earth System Processes (SPACES II, 2018-2022). It addresses the scientific, social, and economic issues related to climate change, its potential impacts on the various ecosystems, adaptations, and management interventions for enhancing systems resilience in Southern Africa. It is written by numerous scientists from African states and Germany and summarizes the latest research findings, which are of great relevance for a better understanding of climate change impacts, adaptations, and vulnerabilities as well as for developing management options and policy options to reduce the associated risks. This is crucial considering that the projected African population increase is exceptional. Furthermore, climate change is assumed to hit southern Africa extremely hard with a significant increase in extreme events and the frequency of severe droughts, heat waves, and flooding. Southern Africa hosts a high variety of ecosystems, which belongs to important biodiversity hotspots for unique flora and fauna. The surrounding oceans form, in turn, a bottle neck within the ocean’s global thermohaline circulation, act as a still poorly understood carbon sink and source and play an important role for fisheries as they are highly productive. Considering these important aspects, the book is an important interdisciplinary contribution to the scientific literature and will find a wide readership.The book is aimed at students, teachers, and scientists in the fields of terrestrial and marine ecology, environmental, nature and landscape planning, agriculture, environmental and resource management, biodiversity, and nature conservation, as well as scientists and representatives in specialised authorities and associations, nature conservationists, and policy makers of related disciplines.Cosmopolitical Ecologies Across Asia: Places and Practices of Power in Changing Environments (ISSN)
Par Riamsara Kuyakanon, Hildegard Diemberger, David Sneath. 2022
Cosmopolitical Ecologies Across Asia offers a unique insight into the non-human and spiritual dimensions of environmental management in a changing…
world.This volume presents a comparative, place-based exploration of landscapes across Asia and the entities, practices and knowledges that inhabit them. Rather than treating sacred mountains, terrains and water sources as self-contained, esoteric religious phenomena, the authors consider them within critical 'cosmopolitical ecologies' framings in which non-human entities are engaged as actors in the socio-political arena. The chapters include case studies of healing springs recognized by governments, and sacred mountains that are addressed by heads of states and Communist Party cadres, or that speak to the faithful through spirit mediums in a politics of re-enchantment. Contributors explore the diverse ways in which non-human entities such as forest spirits, reindeer, mountains and Buddhist Masters of the Land are engaged by humans to navigate environmental change and address a range of ecological threats from large-scale mining to climate change. Cosmopolitical ecologies approaches encompass the healing power of topography as well as transformative intimacies with other-than-human beings such as sparrows within an Islamic eco-theological poetic setting. In this light the book observes dynamic and creative processes of cosmological innovation including the repurposing of ritual to address challenges such as the Covid-19 epidemic.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environment and society across disciplinary perspectives in general, and to anthropologists, human geographers, political ecologists, indigenous studies, area studies, environmental sciences and environmental humanities scholars in particular.The Introduction to this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.Local Responses to Mine Closure in South Africa: Dependencies and Social Disruption (Routledge Studies of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development)
Par Sethulego Matebesi, Lochner Marais, Verna Nel. 2024
This book investigates mine closure and local responses in South Africa, linking dependencies and social disruption. Mine closure presents a…
major challenge to the mining industry and government policymakers globally, but particularly in the Global South. South Africa is experiencing notable numbers of mine closures, and this book explores the notion of social disruption, a concept often applied to describe the effects of mine growth on communities but often neglecting the impact of mine closures. The book begins with three theoretical chapters that discuss theory, closure cost frameworks and policy development in South Africa. It uses evolutionary governance theory to show how mining creates dependencies and how mining growth often blinds communities and governments to the likelihood of closure. Too easily, mining goes ahead with no concern for the possibility, or indeed inevitability, of eventual closure and how mining communities will cope. These impacts are showcased through eight place-based case studies from across South Africa, one focusing on mine workers, to demonstrate that mine closure causes significant social disruption. This book will be of interest to students and scholars researching the social impacts of mining and the extractive industries, social geography and sustainable development, as well as policymakers and practitioners working with mine closure and social impact assessments.Japanese Whaling and the People Behind It: A Look from Within (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
Par Nadzeya Shutava. 2024
This book explores the recent developments in global and Japanese whaling from the viewpoint of the members of the Japanese…
whaling community, a perspective that is largely neglected and misinterpreted. Japanese whaling has been one of the most contentious issues in global environmental governance in recent years, and Japan is often harshly criticized for its whaling programs. By distinguishing between the different whaling-related actors and their experiences, this book widens our understanding of why whaling programs continue to exist. Rich in ethnographic data, the book includes in-depth interviews with representatives of the Japanese whaling community, from government officials to fishermen, shedding light on what whaling represents, both historically and today. As an ethnographic study of a divisive and controversial subject, this book will appeal to a wide range of students and scholars, including, but not limited to, those interested in Japanese studies, anthropology, political science, and ocean resource management.Adoption of Emerging Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability
Par Ewa Ziemba, Jarosław. 2024
This book represents an important voice in the discourse on the adoption of emerging ICT for sustainability. It focuses on…
how emerging ICT acts as a crucial enabler of sustainability, offering new forward-looking approaches to this field. The book explores how emerging ICT adoption drives sustainability efforts in business and public organizations, promoting ecological, economic, social, cultural, and political sustainability. The book's theoretical discussions, conceptual approaches, empirical studies, diverse perspectives, and views make it a valuable and comprehensive reference work. Appealing to both researchers and practitioners, this book provides significant areas for research and practice related to the contribution of emerging ICT adoption to sustainability. It also suggests vital considerations for programming and building sustainable development-driven emerging ICT adoption. Readers will find answers to important contemporary questions, such as: What are the concepts, frameworks, models, and approaches to enhance sustainable development through the adoption of emerging ICT? How does the adoption of emerging ICT influence sustainability? How can emerging ICT be adopted to enhance sustainability? What are the current practices and successful cases of emerging ICT adoption for sustainability? What factors influence emerging ICT adoption to enhance sustainability?