The Long-Term Fate of Invasive Species

The Long-Term Fate of Invasive Species PDF Author: Arne Jernelöv
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319553968
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book examines the long-term fate of invasive species by detailing examples of invaders from different zoological and botanical taxa from various places around the world. Readers will discover what happened, after a century or so, to 'classical' invaders like rabbits in Australia, house sparrows in North America, minks in Europe and water hyacinths in Africa and Asia. Chapters presented in the book focus on eighteen species in the form of in-depth case studies including: earthworms, zebra mussels, Canadian water weed, Himalayan balsam, house sparrows, rabbits, crayfish plague, Colorado beetles, water hyacinths, starlings, Argentine ant, Dutch elm disease, American mink, cane toad, raccoons, Canadian beavers, African killer bees and warty comb jelly. Invaded areas described are in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Pacific islands, and South America. Readers will get some ideas about the likely future of current invaders from the fate of old ones. This book is intended for undergraduates studying environmental sciences, researchers and members of environmental NGO's.

The Long-Term Fate of Invasive Species

The Long-Term Fate of Invasive Species PDF Author: Arne Jernelöv
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319553968
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the long-term fate of invasive species by detailing examples of invaders from different zoological and botanical taxa from various places around the world. Readers will discover what happened, after a century or so, to 'classical' invaders like rabbits in Australia, house sparrows in North America, minks in Europe and water hyacinths in Africa and Asia. Chapters presented in the book focus on eighteen species in the form of in-depth case studies including: earthworms, zebra mussels, Canadian water weed, Himalayan balsam, house sparrows, rabbits, crayfish plague, Colorado beetles, water hyacinths, starlings, Argentine ant, Dutch elm disease, American mink, cane toad, raccoons, Canadian beavers, African killer bees and warty comb jelly. Invaded areas described are in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Pacific islands, and South America. Readers will get some ideas about the likely future of current invaders from the fate of old ones. This book is intended for undergraduates studying environmental sciences, researchers and members of environmental NGO's.

The Fate of the Species

The Fate of the Species PDF Author: Fred Guterl
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608192601
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
"A beautifully written book that will make you think and worry."--Fareed Zakaria

Once and Future Giants

Once and Future Giants PDF Author: Sharon Levy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199831548
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Until about 13,000 years ago, North America was home to a menagerie of massive mammals. Mammoths, camels, and lions walked the ground that has become Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and foraged on the marsh land now buried beneath Chicago's streets. Then, just as the first humans reached the Americas, these Ice Age giants vanished forever. In Once and Future Giants, science writer Sharon Levy digs through the evidence surrounding Pleistocene large animal ("megafauna") extinction events worldwide, showing that understanding this history--and our part in it--is crucial for protecting the elephants, polar bears, and other great creatures at risk today. These surviving relatives of the Ice Age beasts now face the threat of another great die-off, as our species usurps the planet's last wild places while driving a warming trend more extreme than any in mammalian history. Deftly navigating competing theories and emerging evidence, Once and Future Giants examines the extent of human influence on megafauna extinctions past and present, and explores innovative conservation efforts around the globe. The key to modern-day conservation, Levy suggests, may lie fossilized right under our feet.

The Fate of the Earth and The Abolition

The Fate of the Earth and The Abolition PDF Author: Jonathan Schell
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804737029
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
These two books, which helped focus national attention on the movement for a nuclear freeze, are published in one volume.

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals PDF Author: Ross D E MacPhee
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393249301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The fascinating lives and puzzling demise of some of the largest animals on earth. Until a few thousand years ago, creatures that could have been from a sci-fi thriller—including gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and crocodiles that weighed a ton or more—roamed the earth. These great beasts, or “megafauna,” lived on every habitable continent and on many islands. With a handful of exceptions, all are now gone. What caused the disappearance of these prehistoric behemoths? No one event can be pinpointed as a specific cause, but several factors may have played a role. Paleomammalogist Ross D. E. MacPhee explores them all, examining the leading extinction theories, weighing the evidence, and presenting his own conclusions. He shows how theories of human overhunting and catastrophic climate change fail to account for critical features of these extinctions, and how new thinking is needed to elucidate these mysterious losses. Along the way, we learn how time is determined in earth history; how DNA is used to explain the genomics and phylogenetic history of megafauna—and how synthetic biology and genetic engineering may be able to reintroduce these giants of the past. Until then, gorgeous four-color illustrations by Peter Schouten re-create these megabeasts here in vivid detail.

The Council of Animals

The Council of Animals PDF Author: Nick McDonell
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 125079904X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
From national bestselling author Nick McDonell, The Council of Animals is a captivating fable for humans of all ages—dreamers and cynics alike—who believe (if nothing else) in the power of timeless storytelling. “‘Now,’ continued the cat, ‘there is nothing more difficult than changing an animal’s mind. But I will say, in case I can change yours: humans are more useful to us outside our bellies than in.’” Perhaps. After The Calamity, the animals thought the humans had managed to do themselves in. But, it turns out, a few are cowering in makeshift villages. So the animals—among them a cat, a dog, a crow, a baboon, a horse, and a bear—have convened to debate whether to help the last human stragglers . . . or to eat them. Rest assured, there is a happy ending. Sort of. Featuring illustrations by Steven Tabbutt

Improbable Destinies

Improbable Destinies PDF Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399184937
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

The Demogra-Fate Hypothesis

The Demogra-Fate Hypothesis PDF Author: Thanh Nguyen-Ba
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
The demogra-fate hypothesis explored in this short book first appeared in a "Philosophy Now" Oct. 2016 article. Does humankind have a birth-death life cycle, like life forms, stars, and the universe itself? As they modernize, birthrates in 100+ countries have fallen below the replacement minimum of 2.1 births/woman. Sustained sub-2.1 fertility will make societies older and smaller. With India, South Africa, Mexico... crossing below that 2.1 threshold, will the entire species follow fast-aging and shrinking Japan, whose rising median age could top 60 before 2100 at the current birthrate? Enter our demogra-fate hypothesis: does population aging conclude the natural life cycle of all intelligent species in the universe? Intelligent life may have arisen separately in isolated oases far across the cosmos, yet are aliens and us that different? Even if only 1 civilization existed for every 10 galaxies, there would still be around 20 billion civilizations concurrently alive within our (200 billion stars per galaxy) x (200 billion galaxies) observable universe. With no say in one's own birth, sentient societies are but evolved wildflowers of the same cosmic desert. Can our 0.3-million-year-old humankind survive until the death of this Big Bang-started universe in tens of billions of years, in a Big Crunch/Chill/Rip scenario? Or do cosmic civilizations just wildly bloom and fade, here one million years and gone the next, being nothing but brainier wild nature? Also with no say in one's own death, like true desert wildflowers? How exactly do high-tech societies grow old and die naturally? Isn't population aging and decline as seen on Earth the sign of an inescapable life cycle? Is this demographic fate the natural end common to all cosmic civilizations? What are intelligent beings but brainier wild creatures, more cerebral yet forever driven by the same old primeval desires? Though galaxies apart, are these societies of tech-capable animals all helpless against nature's birth-death law? Despite being keenly conscious of such law, what no lower species is capable of? Much like humans being conscious of yet helpless against their own bodies' aging and dying? Our demogra-fate hypothesis is empirically grounded. The phenomenon of population aging and decline has been extensively observed and measured in the very first alien civilization ever studied: our own. Until refuted by other cases of intelligent life, this elegant and well-evidenced hypothesis might be the one to investigate. Without immortality, all alien societies should have a measurable median age that rises when reproduction falls below replacement? An intelligent species fades here, another pops up in a nearby galaxy... yet another dull day in infinity. No good, bad, or purpose to it; it's all wild nature.

The Sibling Effect

The Sibling Effect PDF Author: Jeffrey Kluger
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594486115
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A provocative and surprising exploration of the longest sustained relationships we have in life—those we have with our siblings. Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters. Our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life. In this perceptive and groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based on cutting-edge research, he examines birth order, twins, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on sibling relationships, and much more. With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes science’s provocative new ideas about the subject and transforms them into smart, accessible insights that will help everyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.

Game Changer

Game Changer PDF Author: Glen Martin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520266269
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Assesses the rising influence of the animal rights movement in Africa to find that the policies championed by animal welfare groups could lead paradoxically to the elimination of the very species that are the most cherished.