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Leonardo da Vinci once mused that “we know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot,” an observation that is as apt today as it was five hundred years ago. The biological world under our toes is often unexplored and unappreciated, yet it teems with life. In one square meter of earth, there lives trillions of bacteria, millions of nematodes, hundreds of thousands of mites, thousands of insects and worms, and hundreds of snails and slugs. But because of their location and size, many of these creatures are as unfamiliar and bizarre to us as anything found at the bottom of the ocean. Lavishly illustrated with nearly three hundred color illustrations and maste...
The causes and consequences of differences in microbial community structure, defined here as the relative proportions of rare and abundant organisms within a community, are poorly understood. Articles in “The Causes and Consequences of Microbial Community Structure”, use empirical or modeling approaches as well as literature reviews to enrich our mechanistic understanding of the controls over the relationship between community structure and ecosystem processes. Specifically, authors address the role of trait distributions and tradeoffs, species-species interactions, evolutionary dynamics, community assembly processes and physical controls in affecting ‘who’s there’ and ‘what they are doing.’
For focus, exercise, and pleasant distraction, scientist Declan McCabe takes frequent walks along Vermont's Winooski River. The brief trips provide solitude, grounding, and an opportunity to explore. Slowing down, and observing carefully, reveals diverse life in unexpected places. Each patch of soil, each fallen tree, and every puddle of standing water is a microcosm of life to be appreciated.Turning Stones is a careful look at the mysteries and life that can be found in a river if you just the take the time to look. The more than 50 short essays gathered in this volume provide an astounding look at the rich diversity of life that depends on water. McCabe looks at the unique chemistry of water that makes it essential for all life. He examines a range of life form and looks to the future at ways to preserve clean water for the next generation and beyond.
On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Ross T. Bell, Professor Emeritus of Entomology at the University of Vermont, his colleagues and former students staged a Festschrift in his honor that included his wife and oft-times co-author, Joyce Bell. Two days of scientific presentations and a field day resulted in twenty-six manuscripts on such diverse organisms as Coleoptera, Collembola, and Diptera and in such disparate fields as taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology, with a sprinkling of natural history and cyberinfrastructure. Mostly, the theme of the papers focus on the beetle family Carabidae, on which the Bells spent a number of decades in pursuit of information on taxonomy and biology, particularly for the wrinkled bark beetles, the rhysodines. Twenty-six scientific contributions make up this volume and they are introduced by the preface and first two papers on the Bells themselves and their other contributions to teaching and natural history studies in the environs of Burlington, Vermont.
This fascinating, beautifully illustrated book profiles twenty "troublesome bugs," showing how the study of these creatures has led scientists to many basic discoveries that have enhanced our understanding of life. The reader learns how an American entomologist was awarded France’s gold medal of honor for rescuing the French wine industry from destruction by the aphid-like "grape phylloxera"; how the World Health Organization almost completely eradicated malaria through the use of DDT before the insect adapted to the insecticide and became resistant; how some insects disguise themselves to avoid detection; how others survive the subzero temperatures of winter; why some flies have a uterus and a mammary gland; and many more strange and tantalizing true tales about these wonderful, troublesome "pests"—pests that have taught us vital lessons about survival, nature, and the environment.
Streamline technological integration with updated design The automotive industry is consistently confronted with new challenges in design and manufacturing. Total Vehicle Technology: Challenging Current Thinking highlights the ways in which current methods are evolving in the face of new technology, new legislation, and new consumer demands. Integrating the latest technology into new designs requires consideration of cost, comfort, safety, environmental effects, and more; this book offers real-world solutions based on both new and established practices to provide insight for forward-looking automotive engineers.
This book is a provocative and invigorating real-time exploration of the future of human evolution by two of the world’s leading interdisciplinary ecologists – Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison. Steeped in a rich multitude of the sciences and humanities, the book enshrines an elegant narrative that is highly empathetic, personal, scientifically wide-ranging and original. It focuses on the geo-positioning of the human Self and its corresponding species. The book's overarching viewpoints and poignant through-story examine and powerfully challenge concepts associated historically with assertions of human superiority over all other life forms. Ultimately, The Hypothetical Species: Variables of Human Evolution is a deeply considered treatise on the ecological and psychological state of humanity and her options – both within, and outside the rubrics of evolutionary research – for survival. This important work is beautifully presented with nearly 200 diverse illustrations, and is introduced with a foreword by famed paleobiologist, Dr. Melanie DeVore.