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Big Ecology: The Emergence of Ecosystem Science

David Coleman

This book documents historically fruitful ecological collaborations in the early years of studying large ecosystems in the United States. As the book explains, the concept of the ecosystem—a local ... More

This book documents historically fruitful ecological collaborations in the early years of studying large ecosystems in the United States. As the book explains, the concept of the ecosystem—a local biological community and its interactions with its environment—has given rise to many institutions and research programs, like the National Science Foundation's program for Long Term Ecological Research. This book's insider account of this important and fascinating trend toward big science takes us from the paradigm of collaborative interdisciplinary research, starting with the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957, through the International Biological Program (IBP) of the late 1960s and early 1970s, to the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) programs of the 1980s.Less

The Biology and Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests

David R. Schiel and Michael S. Foster

The largest seaweed, giant kelp (Macrocystis) is the fastest growing and most prolific of all plants found on earth. Growing from the seafloor and extending along the ocean surface in lush canopies, ... More

The largest seaweed, giant kelp (Macrocystis) is the fastest growing and most prolific of all plants found on earth. Growing from the seafloor and extending along the ocean surface in lush canopies, giant kelp provides an extensive vertical habitat in a largely two-dimensional seascape. It is the foundation for one of the most species-rich, productive, and widely distributed ecological communities in the world. This review takes the reader from Darwin's early observations to contemporary research, providing a historical perspective for the modern understanding of giant kelp evolution, biogeography, biology, and physiology. The chapters furnish a discussion of kelp species and forest ecology worldwide, with considerations of human uses and abuses, management and conservation, and the current and likely future impacts of global change.Less

Comparing Futures for the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta

Jay Lund

An ecosystem in freefall, a shrinking water supply for cities and agriculture, an antiquated network of failure-prone levees—this is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the major hub of California's ... More

An ecosystem in freefall, a shrinking water supply for cities and agriculture, an antiquated network of failure-prone levees—this is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the major hub of California's water system. This analysis of the latest data evaluates proposed solutions to the Delta's myriad problems. Through in-depth economic and ecological analysis, the chapters find that the current policy of channeling water exports through the Delta is not sustainable for any interest. Employing a peripheral canal—conveying water around the Delta instead of through it—as part of a larger habitat and water management plan appears to be the best strategy for maintaining both a high-quality water supply and at the same time improve conditions for native fish and wildlife. This assessment includes integrated analysis of long term ecosystem and water management options and demonstrates how issues such as climate change and sustainability will shape the future.Less

Ecology, Conservation, and Restoration of Tidal Marshes: The San Francisco Estuary

Arnas Palaima (ed.)

The San Francisco Bay, the biggest estuary on the west coast of North America, was once surrounded by an almost unbroken chain of tidal wetlands, a fecund sieve of ecosystems connecting the land and ... More

The San Francisco Bay, the biggest estuary on the west coast of North America, was once surrounded by an almost unbroken chain of tidal wetlands, a fecund sieve of ecosystems connecting the land and the Bay. Today, most of these wetlands have disappeared under the demands of coastal development, and those that remain cling precariously to a drastically altered coastline. This volume is a collaborative effort of nearly 40 scholars in which the wealth of scientific knowledge available on tidal wetlands of the San Francisco Estuary is summarized and integrated. This book addresses issues of taxonomy, geomorphology, toxicology, the impact of climate change, ecosystem services, public policy, and conservation, and it is an essential resource for ecologists, environmental scientists, coastal policymakers, and researchers interested in estuaries and conserving and restoring coastal wetlands around the world.Less

Fire in California's Ecosystems

Neil Sugihara (ed.)

Fires are both an integral natural process in the California landscape and growing threat to its urban and suburban developments as they encroach on wildlands. This book synthesizes knowledge of the ... More

Fires are both an integral natural process in the California landscape and growing threat to its urban and suburban developments as they encroach on wildlands. This book synthesizes knowledge of the science, ecology, and management of fire in California. Part I introduces the basics of fire ecology. It includes an historical overview of fire, vegetation, and climate in California; overviews of fire as a physical and ecological process; and reviews the interactions between fire and the physical, plant, and animal components of the environment. Part II explores the history and ecology of fire in each of California’s nine bioregions. Part III examines fire management in California, including both Native American and post-European settlement; discusses current issues related to fire policy and management, including air quality, watershed management, invasive plant species, native species, and fuel management; and considers the future of fire management.Less

Grass: In Search of Human Habitat

Joe Truett

Part autobiography, part philosophical rumination, this conservation odyssey explores the deep affinities between humans and our original habitat: grasslands. The book traces the evolutionary, ... More

Part autobiography, part philosophical rumination, this conservation odyssey explores the deep affinities between humans and our original habitat: grasslands. The book traces the evolutionary, historical, and cultural forces that have reshaped North American rangelands over the past two centuries. It introduces an intriguing cast of characters—wildlife and grasslands biologists, archaeologists, ranchers, and petroleum geologists—to illuminate a wide range of related topics: our love affair with turf and how it manifests in lawns and sports, the ecological and economic dimensions of ranching, the glory of cowboy culture, grasslands and restoration ecology, and more. This book ultimately provides the background against which we can envision a new paradigm for restoring rangeland ecosystems—and a new paradigm for envisioning a more sustainable future.Less

Island: Fact and Theory in Nature

James Lazell

Guana, in the British Virgin Islands, is home to a remarkably diverse assortment of animal and plant life: mangroves, flamingos, iguanas, frogs, birds, snakes, spiders, tortoises, grasshoppers, and ... More

Guana, in the British Virgin Islands, is home to a remarkably diverse assortment of animal and plant life: mangroves, flamingos, iguanas, frogs, birds, snakes, spiders, tortoises, grasshoppers, and bats, to name but a few. What is so surprising about Guana's astonishing panoply is that, according to prevailing ecological theories, the island's diversity should be much lower than it actually is. This book describes Guana's flora and fauna against the backdrop of islands worldwide and their ecology, evolution, and conservation. Much more than a book about one island, it raises important challenges to prevailing dogma of island biogeography and theoretical ecology. The author demonstrates that meaningful conservation and avoiding tragic loss of biodiversity demand we know far more about biological interactions, physiographic and geological structure, meteorology, and other factors. He presents compelling evidence that high levels of natural biodiversity underpin ecosystem resilience and stability. The narrative, containing many asides and personal reflections, widens into a commentary about the nature of life on earth.Less

Laws, Theories, and Patterns in Ecology

Walter Dodds

Physics and chemistry are distinguished from biology by the way generalizations are codified into theories tested by observation and experimentation. Some theories have been sufficiently tested to ... More

Physics and chemistry are distinguished from biology by the way generalizations are codified into theories tested by observation and experimentation. Some theories have been sufficiently tested to qualify as laws. In ecology, generalizations worthy of being called theories are less common because observations and experimentation are difficult and exceptions are more common. This book enumerates generalizations in ecology. Introductory material describes how the practice of science in general, and ecology specifically, yields theories and laws. The text also discusses why such ideas are only useful if they have predictive ability, and delineates the scope of these generalizations and the constraints that limit their application.Less

Living with Fire: Fire Ecology and Policy for the Twenty-first Century

Sara Jensen

Fire, both inevitable and ubiquitous, plays a crucial role in North American ecosystems. But as necessary as fire is to maintaining healthy ecosystems, it threatens human lives and livelihoods in ... More

Fire, both inevitable and ubiquitous, plays a crucial role in North American ecosystems. But as necessary as fire is to maintaining healthy ecosystems, it threatens human lives and livelihoods in unacceptable ways. This volume explores the rich yet largely uncharted terrain at the intersection of fire policy, fire science, and fire management in order to find better ways of addressing this pressing dilemma. This book aims to help scientists, policy makers, and the general public, especially residents of fire-prone areas, better understand where we are today in regard to coping with wildfires, how we got here, and where we need to go. Drawing on abundant historical and analytic information to shed new light on current controversies, this book offers a dynamic new paradigm for coping with fire that recognizes its critical environmental role. The book also tells how we can rebuild the important ecological and political processes that are necessary for finding better ways to cope with fire and with other complex policy dilemmas.Less

Mercury in the Environment: Pattern and Process

Michael Bank (ed.)

Mercury pollution and contamination are widespread, well documented, and continue to pose a public health concern in both developed and developing countries. In response to a growing need for ... More

Mercury pollution and contamination are widespread, well documented, and continue to pose a public health concern in both developed and developing countries. In response to a growing need for understanding the cycling of this ubiquitous pollutant, the science of mercury has grown rapidly to include the fields of biogeochemistry, economics, sociology, public health, decision sciences, physics, global change, and mathematics. Only recently have scientists begun to establish a holistic approach to studying mercury pollution that integrates chemistry, biology, and human health sciences. Mercury in the Environment follows the process of mercury cycling through the atmosphere, through terrestrial and aquatic food webs, and through human populations to develop a comprehensive perspective on this important environmental problem. This timely reference also provides recommendations on mercury remediation, risk communication, education, and monitoring.Less

Mirror Lake: Interactions among Air, Land, and Water

Thomas Winter

Lakes change constantly in response to their surrounding landscape, and their airshed. Mirror Lake, located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has been carefully researched since the 1960s. ... More

Lakes change constantly in response to their surrounding landscape, and their airshed. Mirror Lake, located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has been carefully researched since the 1960s. This book summarizes and interprets the extensive data collected on this lake and its watershed from 1981 to 2000, a period during which the lake was affected by a variety of climate conditions as well as significant human activity. The findings documented also identify the panoply of chemicals influenced by limnological processes and include percentages of inflow sources, percentages of water loss from seepage, surface outflow, and evaporation, and the effect of water flow on the lake nutrients.Less

Monitoring Rocky Shores

Steven Murray

J. Stanford and R.L. Newell (eds)

Monitoring changes in the intertidal zone of rocky shores has never been more critical. This sensitive habitat at the interface of land and ocean may well be the marine equivalent of the canary in a ... More

Monitoring changes in the intertidal zone of rocky shores has never been more critical. This sensitive habitat at the interface of land and ocean may well be the marine equivalent of the canary in a coal mine as we advance into an era of global climate change. This book describes effective methods and procedures for monitoring the ecological and environmental status of these areas. It provides critical discussions and evaluation of the various sampling techniques and field procedures for studies of intertidal macroinvertebrates, seaweeds, and seagrasses. Rather than prescribing standard protocols or procedures, the book breaks down the decision-making process into various elements so investigators can become aware of the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a particular method or approach. Topics include site selection, field sampling layouts and designs, selection of sampling units, nondestructive and destructive methods of quantifying abundance, and methods for measuring age, growth rates, size, structure, and reproductive condition.Less

Plant and Animal Endemism in California

Susan Harrison

This book modernizes our understanding of why California is so rich in unique biological diversity. It brings together, for the first time, what recent evolutionary studies have revealed about the ... More

This book modernizes our understanding of why California is so rich in unique biological diversity. It brings together, for the first time, what recent evolutionary studies have revealed about the origins of the wealth of plants and animals found only in the California floristic province. It also reviews the innovative scientific and policy tools that have been developed for conserving this diversity.Less

Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel

Frank N. Egerton

Roots of Ecologytraces the history of ideas and observations about ecology from Plato and Aristotle down to Ernst Haeckel, who named and defined ecology in 1866. The earliest ecological idea was the ... More

Roots of Ecologytraces the history of ideas and observations about ecology from Plato and Aristotle down to Ernst Haeckel, who named and defined ecology in 1866. The earliest ecological idea was the balance of nature, beginning with Herodotus and Plato, but it was first named only in the early 1700s. Herodotus realized that predatory species have fewer offspring than do their prey species. Plato explained that all species have means of survival that prevent their extinction. Pliny, the Roman author of an encyclopedia entitled Naturalis historiae, included Greek botany, zoology, and geology under that rubric, thus giving rise to a general environmental science that persisted until the end of the 1700s. In 1749, Linnaeus named a somewhat static ecological science, Oeconomia naturae, which extended the balance of nature to include plants. He described the succession of vegetation from bare rocks with lichens to forests. During the early 1800s, zoologists and botanists retained Linnaeus's idea of an economy of nature, but they discussed the possibility of species evolving and some becoming extinct—giving a dynamic dimension to Linnaeus's idea. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biological sciences, causing Haeckel to elevate ecology to a separate science.Less

Species: A History of the Idea

John Wilkins

Daniel Doak (ed.)

The complex idea of “species” has evolved over time, yet its meaning is far from resolved. This work takes a fresh look at an idea central to the field of biology by tracing its history from ... More

The complex idea of “species” has evolved over time, yet its meaning is far from resolved. This work takes a fresh look at an idea central to the field of biology by tracing its history from antiquity to today. The book explores the essentialist view, a staple of logic from Plato and Aristotle through the Middle Ages to fairly recent times, and considers the idea of species in natural history—a concept often connected to reproduction. Tracing “generative conceptions” of species back through Darwin to Epicurus, the text provides a new perspective on the relationship between philosophical and biological approaches to this concept. It also reviews the array of current definitions.Less

Suisun Marsh: Ecological History and Possible Futures

Peter B. Moyle, Amber D. Manfree, and Peggy L. Fiedler (eds)

Suisun Marsh is the largest tidal wetland in California and a major component of the San Francisco Estuary. It is a refuge for native plants and animals and is major area of “open space” in an ... More

Suisun Marsh is the largest tidal wetland in California and a major component of the San Francisco Estuary. It is a refuge for native plants and animals and is major area of “open space” in an increasingly urban region. Suisun Marsh has a long history of being managed for its wildlife, beginning with the native peoples. It persists as a wetland today mainly because of its value for waterfowl hunting. It is increasingly managed, however, for endemic species threatened with extinction and for nature-based recreation. In the next century, the marsh will undergo major changes as the result of the rising sea level, climate change, land-use changes, and changing human priorities. This short book presents four future scenarios to illustrate landscape-scale outcomes of different management strategies. While the marsh is likely to remain a semi-wild place and a refuge for wildlife under almost any scenario, choices can be made that maximize its role as a center for native biodiversity in the San Francisco Estuary.Less