Browse

Beavers can and do dramatically change the landscape. The beaver is a keystone species—their skills as foresters and engineers create and maintain ponds and wetlands that increase biodiversity, purify water, and prevent large-scale flooding. Biologists have long studied their daily and seasonal routines, family structures, and dispersal patterns. As human development encroaches into formerly wild areas, property owners and government authorities need new, nonlethal strategies for dealing with so-called nuisance beavers. At the same time, the complex behavior of beavers intrigues visitors at parks and other wildlife viewing sites because it is relatively easy to observe. This book gathers a wealth of scientific knowledge about both the North American and Eurasian beaver species. It is designed to satisfy the curiosity and answer the questions of anyone with an interest in these animals.

Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to learn about evolution. This book invites readers into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the playful thinking found in children's books. The book weds children's literature to recent research in paleontology and evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origins of origins stories, the book presents three portraits of Charles Darwin—curious child, twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist. Chapters focusing on the origins of tetrapods, elephants, whales, and birds explain fundamental Darwinian concepts with examples of fossil history and comparative anatomy. The imagery of the children's story offers a way to remember and recreate scientific discoveries. By juxtaposing Darwin's science with tales for children, the book underscores the importance of whimsical storytelling to the accomplishment of serious thinking. Darwin mused about duck beaks and swimming bears as he imagined a pathway for the origin of baleen. A “bearduck” chimera may be a stretch, but the science linking not just cows but also whales to moose through shared ancestry has great merit. By calling attention to surprising and serendipitous echoes between children's stories and challenging science, the book demonstrates how playful thinking opens the doors to an understanding of evolutionary thought.

This book offers the first quantitative long-term historical analysis of the migratory, winter, and breeding avifaunas of any New York City natural area—Van Cortlandt Park and the adjacent Northwest Bronx—and spans the century and a half from 1872 to 2016. Only Manhattan’s Central and Brooklyn’s Prospect Parks have published even lightly annotated cumulative species lists, last updated in 1967, and the most recent book addressing the birdlife of the New York City area was published more than 50 years ago. Addressed are the 301 Bronx, New York City and New York City area species known to have occurred within the study area, plus another 70 potential additions. These are contrasted with their status in adjacent Riverdale, the entire Bronx, Central and Prospect Parks, New York City, plus Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland Cos. The history of the 123 known study area breeding species are tracked from 1872—only 20 years after Audubon’s death in Manhattan—complemented by unique quantitative breeding data from Van Cortlandt Park censuses from 1937 to 2015. Gains and losses of breeding species are tracked and discussed as an expanding New York City inexorably extinguished unique habitat, offset only slightly by addition of two large reservoirs. Comparisons are provided with analogous data from heavily monitored Central and Prospect Parks. The tradeoffs in attempting to managing an urban park area for mass recreation at the same time as conserving its natural resources are highlighted.

The world’s nearly 7,000 species of crabs are immediately recognizable by their claws, sideways movement, stalked eyes, and thick outer shells. These common crustaceans are found internationally, thriving in various habitats from the edge of the sea to the depths of the ocean, in fresh water or on land. Despite having the same basic body type as decapod crustaceans—true crabs have heavy exoskeletons and ten limbs with front pincer claws—crabs come in an enormous variety of shapes and sizes, from the near microscopic to the giant Japanese spider crab. This book provides an engaging and informative tour of the remarkable world of crabs, highlighting their unique biology and natural history. It introduces recently discovered crabs such as the Yeti crab found in deep sea vents, explains what scientists are learning about blue and hermit crabs commonly found at the shore, and gives us insight into the lifecycles of the king and Dungeness crabs typically seen only on dinner plates. Among the topics covered are the evolution and classification of crabs, their habitats, unique adaptations to water and land, reproduction and development, behavior, ecology, and threats, including up-to-date research. Crabs are of special interest to biologists for their communication behaviors, sexual dimorphism, and use of chemical stimuli and touch receptors, and the book explains the importance of new scientific discoveries.

Global warming and human-driven impacts from logging, natural gas drilling, mining of oil sands, and the development of hydropower increasingly threaten North America's northern forests. These forests are far from being a uniform environment; close inspection reveals that the conifers that thrive there—pines, larches, spruces, hemlocks, firs, Douglas-firs, arborvitaes, false-cypresses, junipers, and yews—support a varied and complex ecosystem. This book introduces the biology of the northern forests and covers in detail this unique and threatened northern world and the species that make it their home. The book emphasizes how different these plants are both biologically and evolutionarily from the hardwoods we also call “trees.” Following an introduction to the essential conifers, the book expands to include the interactions of conifers with other plants, fungi, mammals, birds, and amphibians. The second edition, enriched by new illustrations of woodland features and creatures, updates the text with new topics including mycorrhizal fungi, soil, woodlice, bats, and invasive insects such as the hemlock woolly adelgid. Emphasis is given to the very real human-driven impacts that threaten the species that live in and depend on the vital and complex forest ecosystem. The book provides a rich understanding of the northern forests in th1is work praised for its nontechnical presentation, scientific objectivity, and original illustrations.