Биология
Различные книги в жанре Биология
Giraffe Reflections
The most comprehensive book on giraffes to appear in the last fifty years, this volume presents a magnificent portrait of a group of animals who, in spite of their legendary elegance and astonishing gentleness, may not entirely survive this century.<br /><br />Dale Peterson’s text provides a natural and cultural history of the world’s tallest and second-biggest land animals, describing in detail their biology and behavior. He offers a new perspective on the giraffes’ place in our world, and argues for the stronger protection of these imposing yet endangered creatures and their elusive forest relatives, the okapis.<br /><br />Some 120 stunning photographs by award-winning wildlife photographer Karl Ammann capture the grace and elegance of <i>Giraffa camelopardalis.</i> Both beautiful and informative, the images document giraffes’ complex interactions with each other and their environment.<br /><br />
Ecology of North American Freshwater Fishes
The North American freshwater fish fauna is the most diverse and thoroughly researched temperate fish fauna in the world. <i>Ecology of North American Freshwater Fishes</i> is the only textbook to provide advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers with an up-to-date and integrated view of the ecological and evolutionary concepts, principles, and processes involved in the formation and maintenance of this fauna. <br /><br /><i>Ecology of North American Freshwater Fishes</i> provides readers with a broad understanding of why specific species and assemblages occur in particular places. Additionally, the text explores how individuals and species interact with each other and with their environments, how such interactions have been altered by anthropogenic impacts, and the relative success of efforts to restore damaged ecosystems.<br /><br />This book is designed for use in courses related to aquatic and fish ecology, fish biology, ichthyology, and related advanced ecology and conservation courses, and is divided into five sections for ease of use. Chapter summaries, supplemental reading lists, online sources, extensive figures, and color photography are included to guide readers through the material and facilitate student learning.<br /><br />Part 1: Faunal origins, evolution, and diversity<br /><br />Presents a broad picture—both spatially and temporally—of the derivation of the fauna, including global and regional geological and climatological processes and their effects on North American fishes.<br /><br />Part 2: Formation, maintenance, and persistence of local populations and assemblages<br /><br />Focuses on how local fish populations and assemblages are formed and how they persist, or not, through time. <br /><br />Part 3: Form and function<br /><br />Deals with the relationship of body form and life history patterns as they are related to ecological functions. <br /><br />Part 4: Interactions among individuals and species<br /><br />Discusses the numerous interactions among individuals and species through communication, competition, predation, mutualism, and facilitation. <br /><br />Part 5: Issues in conservation<br /><br />Focuses on several primary conservation issues such as flow alterations and the increasing biotic homogenization of faunas. <br /><br />
Neuropsychedelia
Neuropsychedelia examines the revival of psychedelic science since the «Decade of the Brain.» After the breakdown of this previously prospering area of psychopharmacology, and in the wake of clashes between counterculture and establishment in the late 1960s, a new generation of hallucinogen researchers used the hype around the neurosciences in the 1990s to bring psychedelics back into the mainstream of science and society. This book is based on anthropological fieldwork and philosophical reflections on life and work in two laboratories that have played key roles in this development: a human lab in Switzerland and an animal lab in California. It sheds light on the central transnational axis of the resurgence connecting American psychedelic culture with the home country of LSD. In the borderland of science and religion, Neuropsychedelia explores the tensions between the use of hallucinogens to model psychoses and to evoke spiritual experiences in laboratory settings. Its protagonists, including the anthropologist himself, struggle to find a place for the mystical under conditions of late-modern materialism.
The Other Shore
In this book, ethnographer and poet Michael Jackson addresses the interplay between modes of writing, modes of understanding, and modes of being in the world. Drawing on literary, anthropological and autobiographical sources, he explores writing as a technics akin to ritual, oral storytelling, magic and meditation, that enables us to reach beyond the limits of everyday life and forge virtual relationships and imagined communities. Although Maurice Blanchot wrote of the impossibility of writing, the passion and paradox of literature lies in its attempt to achieve the impossible–a leap of faith that calls to mind the mystic's dark night of the soul, unrequited love, nostalgic or utopian longing, and the ethnographer's attempt to know the world from the standpoint of others, to put himself or herself in their place. Every writer, whether of ethnography, poetry, or fiction, imagines that his or her own experiences echo the experiences of others, and that despite the need for isolation and silence his or her work consummates a relationship with them.
Plant and Animal Endemism in California
California is globally renowned for its biological diversity, including its wealth of unique, or <i>endemic,</i> species. Many reasons have been cited to explain this abundance: the complex geology and topography of its landscape, the special powers of its Mediterranean-type climate, and the historic and modern barriers to the wider dispersal of its flora and fauna. <i>Plant and Animal Endemism in California</i> compiles and synthesizes a wealth of data on this singular subject, providing new and updated lists of native species, comparing patterns and causes of both plant and animal endemism, and interrogating the classic explanations proposed for the state’s special significance in light of new molecular evidence. Susan Harrison also offers a summary of the innovative tools that have been developed and used in California to conserve and protect this stunning and imperiled diversity.