Download or read book Biodiversity and Earth History written by Jens Boenigk and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This uniquely interdisciplinary textbook explores the exciting and complex relationship between Earth’s geological history and the biodiversity of life. Its innovative design provides a seamless learning experience, clarifying major concepts step by step with detailed textual explanations complemented by detailed figures, diagrams and vibrant pictures. Thanks to its layout, the respective concepts can be studied individually, as part of the broader framework of each chapter, or as they relate to the book as a whole. It provides in-depth coverage of: - Earth’s formation and subsequent geological history, including patterns of climate change and atmospheric evolution; - The early stages of life, from microbial ‘primordial soup’ theories to the fossil record’s most valuable contributions; - Mechanisms of mutual influence between living organisms and the environment: how life changed Earth’s history whilst, at the same time, environmental pressures continue to shape the evolution of species; - Basic ideas in biodiversity studies: species concepts, measurement techniques, and global distribution patterns; - Biological systematics, from their historical origins in Greek philosophy and Biblical stories to Darwinian evolution by natural selection, and to phylogenetics based on cutting-edge molecular techniques. This book’s four major sections offer a fresh cross-disciplinary overview of biodiversity and the Earth’s history. Among many other concepts, they reveal the massive diversity of eukaryotes, explain the geological processes behind fossilisation, and provide an eye-opening account of the relatively short period of human evolution in the context of Earth’s 4.6 billion-year history. Employing a combination of proven didactic tools, the book is simultaneously a reading reference, illustrated guide, and encyclopaedia of organismal biology and geology. It is aimed at school- and university-level students, as well as members of the public fascinated by the intricate interrelationship of living organisms and their environment.
Download or read book Biodiversity written by Laura Perdew and published by Nomad Press (VT). This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's a big world out there, and it's populated with millions of different species of plants, animals, and microorganisms! Available in paperback, Biodiversity: Explore the Diversity of Life on Earth with Science Activities for Kids introduces middle school readers to the evolution of life on Earth, beginning with the first single-celled organisms that emerged 3.8 billion years ago to the complex multi-celled organisms that exist today and make up the tree of life. Science-minded, hands-on experiments make this a book a fully immersive learning experience!
Download or read book Earth History and Palaeogeography written by Trond H. Torsvik and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a complete Phanerozoic story of palaeogeography, using new and detailed full-colour maps, to link surface and deep-Earth processes.
Download or read book Eden s Endemics written by Elizabeth Callaway and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past thirty years biodiversity has become one of the central organizing principles through which we understand the nonhuman environment. Its deceptively simple definition as the variation among living organisms masks its status as a hotly contested term both within the sciences and more broadly. In Eden’s Endemics, Elizabeth Callaway looks to cultural objects—novels, memoirs, databases, visualizations, and poetry— that depict many species at once to consider the question of how we narrate organisms in their multiplicity. Touching on topics ranging from seed banks to science fiction to bird-watching, Callaway argues that there is no set, generally accepted way to measure biodiversity. Westerners tend to conceptualize it according to one or more of an array of tropes rooted in colonial history such as the Lost Eden, Noah’s Ark, and Tree-of-Life imagery. These conceptualizations affect what kinds of biodiversities are prioritized for protection. While using biodiversity as a way to talk about the world aims to highlight what is most valued in nature, it can produce narratives that reinforce certain power differentials—with real-life consequences for conservation projects. Thus the choices made when portraying biodiversity impact what is visible, what is visceral, and what is unquestioned common sense about the patterns of life on Earth.
Download or read book Investigating the History of Earth written by Michael Anderson and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the geological history of the Earth, including how the planet was formed, the beginnings of life, the rise of the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Age, and the possible future of the Earth.
Download or read book Abundant Earth written by Eileen Crist and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-01-17 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Abundant Earth, Eileen Crist not only documents the rising tide of biodiversity loss, but also lays out the drivers of this wholesale destruction and how we can push past them. Looking beyond the familiar litany of causes—a large and growing human population, rising livestock numbers, expanding economies and international trade, and spreading infrastructures and incursions upon wildlands—she asks the key question: if we know human expansionism is to blame for this ecological crisis, why are we not taking the needed steps to halt our expansionism? Crist argues that to do so would require a two-pronged approach. Scaling down calls upon us to lower the global human population while working within a human-rights framework, to deindustrialize food production, and to localize economies and contract global trade. Pulling back calls upon us to free, restore, reconnect, and rewild vast terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, the pervasive worldview of human supremacy—the conviction that humans are superior to all other life-forms and entitled to use these life-forms and their habitats—normalizes and promotes humanity’s ongoing expansion, undermining our ability to enact these linked strategies and preempt the mounting suffering and dislocation of both humans and nonhumans. Abundant Earth urges us to confront the reality that humanity will not advance by entrenching its domination over the biosphere. On the contrary, we will stagnate in the identity of nature-colonizer and decline into conflict as we vie for natural resources. Instead, we must chart another course, choosing to live in fellowship within the vibrant ecologies of our wild and domestic cohorts, and enfolding human inhabitation within the rich expanse of a biodiverse, living planet.
Download or read book Biodiversity and Evolution written by Philippe Grandcolas and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biodiversity and Evolution includes chapters devoted to the evolution and biodiversity of organisms at the molecular level, based on the study of natural collections from the Museum of Natural History. The book starts with an epistemological and historical introduction and ends with a critical overview of the Anthropocene epoch. - Explores the study of natural collections of the Museum of Natural History - Examines evolution and biodiversity at the molecular level - Features an introduction focusing on epistemology and history - Provides a critical overview
Download or read book The Biodiversity Crisis written by Michael J. Novacek and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading experts explain the fastest mass extinction in Earth's history in an illustrated companion to the American Museum of Natural History's new permanent exhibit. 60 photos. Illustrations.
Download or read book World Atlas of Biodiversity written by Brian Groombridge and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global biological diversity, ecosystem diversity.
Download or read book Inheritors of the Earth written by Chris D. Thomas and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human activity has irreversibly changed the natural environment. But the news isn't all bad. It's accepted wisdom today that human beings have permanently damaged the natural world, causing extinction, deforestation, pollution, and of course climate change. But in Inheritors of the Earth, biologist Chris Thomas shows that this obscures a more hopeful truth -- we're also helping nature grow and change. Human cities and mass agriculture have created new places for enterprising animals and plants to live, and our activities have stimulated evolutionary change in virtually every population of living species. Most remarkably, Thomas shows, humans may well have raised the rate at which new species are formed to the highest level in the history of our planet. Drawing on the success stories of diverse species, from the ochre-colored comma butterfly to the New Zealand pukeko, Thomas overturns the accepted story of declining biodiversity on Earth. In so doing, he questions why we resist new forms of life, and why we see ourselves as unnatural. Ultimately, he suggests that if life on Earth can recover from the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, it can survive the onslaughts of the technological age. This eye-opening book is a profound reexamination of the relationship between humanity and the natural world.
Download or read book Biodiversity and Climate Change written by Thomas E. Lovejoy and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential, up-to-date look at the critical interactions between biological diversity and climate change that will serve as an immediate call to action The physical and biological impacts of climate change are dramatic and broad-ranging. People who care about the planet and manage natural resources urgently need a synthesis of our rapidly growing understanding of these issues. In this all-new sequel to the 2005 volume Climate Change and Biodiversity, leading experts in the field summarize observed changes, assess what the future holds, and offer suggested responses. From extinction risk to ocean acidification, from the future of the Amazon to changes in ecosystem services, and from geoengineering to the power of ecosystem restoration, this book captures the sweep of climate change transformation of the biosphere.
Download or read book A Brief History of Earth written by Andrew H. Knoll and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard’s acclaimed geologist “charts Earth’s history in accessible style” (AP) “A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).
Download or read book Half Earth Our Planet s Fight for Life written by Edward O. Wilson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-03-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An audacious and concrete proposal…Half-Earth completes the 86-year-old Wilson’s valedictory trilogy on the human animal and our place on the planet." —Jedediah Purdy, New Republic In his most urgent book to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and world-renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson states that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet. In this "visionary blueprint for saving the planet" (Stephen Greenblatt), Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. Identifying actual regions of the planet that can still be reclaimed—such as the California redwood forest, the Amazon River basin, and grasslands of the Serengeti, among others—Wilson puts aside the prevailing pessimism of our times and "speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all" (Oliver Sacks).
Download or read book Experimental Evolution and the Nature of Biodiversity written by Professor and University Research Chair in Experimental Evolution Rees Kassen and published by . This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Draws on more than three decades of research in microbial experimental evolution to provide a sketch of a general, empirically grounded theory of biodiversity and the first synthetic treatment of experimental evolution.
Download or read book Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy written by Sahotra Sarkar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-19 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the epistemological and ethical issues at the foundations of environmental philosophy, emphasising the conservation of biodiversity. Sahota Sarkar criticises attempts to attribute intrinsic value to nature and defends an anthropocentric position on biodiversity conservation based on an untraditional concept of transformative value. Unlike other studies in the field of environmental philosophy, this book is as much concerned with epistemological issues as with environmental ethics. It covers a broad range of topics, including problems of explanation and prediction in traditional ecology and how individual-based models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology is transforming ecology. Introducing a brief history of conservation biology, Sarkar analyses the consensus framework for conservation planning through adaptive management. He concludes with a discussion of directions for theoretical research in conservation biology and environmental philosophy.
Download or read book Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation written by Justice Ross & Roberto Adkins and published by Scientific e-Resources. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biodiversity is the variety of all the genes, species and ecosystems which are found on our planet. It provides humanity with the cornucopia of goods and services, from food, energy and materials to the genes which protect our crops and cure our diseases. The loss of the earth's biological diversity is one of the most pressing environmental and development issues. Sustainability highlights the idea that the current use of natural resources should not diminish the options of future generations, and maintaining biodiversity is clearly one of the requirements for meeting this goal. Biodiversity conservation addresses the remarkable growth in concern at all levels for living things and the environment, and increased appreciation of the links between the state of ecosystems and the state of humankind. Building on a wealth of research and analysis by the conservation community worldwide, this book provides a comprehensive and accessible view of key global issues in biodiversity. It outlines some of the broad ecological relationships between humans and the rest of the material world and summaries information on the health of the planet. Biodiversity is beneficial to the local environment, and can also be a natural form of crop protection. In conventional agriculture, biodiversity is often eliminated by planting large tracts of fields with a single crop, and killing other species with herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, and fungicides. In the absence of biodiversity, the arrival of a single species can significantly affect crop production, and conventional farmers counter this with chemical killing agents that damage the environmental health of the area. Conservation is the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and natural resources such as forests and water. Through the conservation of biodiversity and the survival of many species and habitats which are threatened due to human activities can be ensured. There is an urgent need, not only to manage and conserve the biotic wealth, but also restore the degraded ecosystems. This book will definitely serve as an excellent reference material and practical guide for teachers, research workers, students and environmentalists.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Biodiversity written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 5485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 7-volume Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Second Edition maintains the reputation of the highly regarded original, presenting the most current information available in this globally crucial area of research and study. It brings together the dimensions of biodiversity and examines both the services it provides and the measures to protect it. Major themes of the work include the evolution of biodiversity, systems for classifying and defining biodiversity, ecological patterns and theories of biodiversity, and an assessment of contemporary patterns and trends in biodiversity. The science of biodiversity has become the science of our future. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning areas of both physical and life sciences. Our awareness of the loss of biodiversity has brought a long overdue appreciation of the magnitude of this loss and a determination to develop the tools to protect our future. Second edition includes over 100 new articles and 226 updated articles covering this multidisciplinary field— from evolution to habits to economics, in 7 volumes The editors of this edition are all well respected, instantly recognizable academics operating at the top of their respective fields in biodiversity research; readers can be assured that they are reading material that has been meticulously checked and reviewed by experts Approximately 1,800 figures and 350 tables complement the text, and more than 3,000 glossary entries explain key terms
