You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Easter Island, an isolated speck in the Pacific Ocean, produced one of the most fascinating and yet least understood of ancient cultures. Who were the inhabitants of this unimaginably remote volcanic island? Where did they come from? What, and equally intriguing, how did they erect the giant stone statues found all over the island? And what became of their civilization? - ;Easter Island, an unimaginably remote volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, produced one of the most fascinating and yet least understood prehistoric cultures. Who were its inhabitants, and where did they come from? Why, and equally intriguingly, how did they erect the giant stone statues found all over the island? Paul Ba...
The goal of this book is to provide a current overview of the impacts of climate change on tropical forests, to investigate past, present, and future climatic influences on the ecosystems with the highest biodiversity on the planet.Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climatic Change will be the first book to examine how tropical rain forest ecology is altered by climate change, rather than simply seeing how plant communities were altered. Shifting the emphasis onto ecological processes e.g. how diversity is structured by climate and the subsequent impact on tropical forest ecology, provides the reader with a more comprehensive coverage. A major theme of this book that emerges progressively is t...
Easter Island, isolated deep in the South Pacific and now a World Heritage Site, was home to a fascinating prehistoric culture—one that produced massive stone effigies (the moai) and the birdman cult—and yet much of the island’s past remains shrouded in mystery. Where did the islanders come from, and when? How did Rapa Nui culture evolve over the centuries? How, and why, did their natural environment change over time? Paul Bahn and John Flenley guide readers through the mysteries and enigmas of Rapa Nui, incorporating the records of early explorers, folk legends, and archaeological evidence along the way. They cover the island’s geological and environmental history and explore its flora and fauna, illustrating how human actions affected the natural environment of the island. This fourth edition draws in: recent DNA studies of ancient human and animal bones as well as plant remains; evolving understandings of how the moai were transported; and current efforts to reforest the island.
The Equatorial Rain Forest: A Geological History presents the equatorial vegetation as a dynamic entity with varied and highly significant history. It also discusses other types of equatorial regions. It addresses the vegetational history from a palaeoecological viewpoint. Some of the topics covered in the book are the vegetation of equatorial regions; the prelude to the quaternary; the quaternary vegetation of equatorial Latin America; the quaternary vegetation of equatorial Africa; the cretaceous period; and the quaternary vegetation of equatorial indo-malesia. The value of vegetational history is fully covered. The effect of man on vegetation is discussed in detail. The text describes in depth the methods of studying vegetational history. The Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs are presented completely. A chapter is devoted to the palynological evidence and synthesis. Another section focuses on the xeroseres, hydroseres and related successions. The book can provide useful information to botanists, geologists, students, and researchers.
We are facing ecological disasters that will affect our ability to survive and the crisis is forcing us to reexamine the entire value system that has governed our lives for the past two thousand years.
The author traces his journey through the South Pacific and examines the natural history of the region
David Suzuki's lifelong work as an environmentalist, naturalist, and scientist have influenced countless others in their fight to save the planet, 20 such devotees of them have contributed to this inspiring collection. These journalists, scientists, writers and environmentalists have taken their enthusiasm for Suzuki's philosophy and funneled it into their own personal recollections, manifestos, and essays: Rick Bass describes his love for the Yaak Valley in Montana; Richard Mabey takes readers to a moonlit May evening in Suffolk; David Helvarg tells us of a stirring seaside memory from his childhood. No matter what journey these writers take us on, the unifying theme of their work is always the same: a deep and abiding love of nature — inspired and shared by David Suzuki.
In 1967, then-unknown writers David Godfrey and Dennis Lee founded a small press they grandly named “The House of Anansi,” after an African trickster spider-god. Their goal was to publish groundbreaking new Canadian work in three core genres: literary fiction, poetry, and topical nonfiction. Forty years later, Anansi is not only going strong but enjoying a fascinating creative renaissance, bolstered by both its important backlist and its renewed commitment to seeking out the best new writers and ideas to publish alongside its established ones. Assembled by award-winning writer Lynn Coady, The Anansi Reader features excerpts from ten of the best books from each decade of the existence of the press, for a total of 40 entries. Samples from Lynn Crosbie's Queen Rat, Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination, and Kevin Connelly's Drift are among the treasures included. In a thoughtful coda, Coady shows readers the future with selections from seven exciting works-in-progress coming from Anansi in the next two years.
Biogeography has been one of the great growth areas in geography in recent years, with much new research work and many new developments taking place. This book presents an authoritative, up-to-date, international review of all the major biogeographical themes. The chapters define each theme and its place within biogeography and consider the methods of study adopted. Each chapter then assesses recent trends and the latest state of the art, and concludes by examining where future developments are likely. Many case-studies and examples are provided, from throughout the world, including North America.