Our bookstore is open daily from noon till 8pm. Face coverings are required while inside. We look forward to seeing you! The Largest Avian Radiation. Bird Senses. Plant Evolution in the Mediterranean. Alfred Russel Wallace. Avian Evolution. The Evolution of Beauty. The Ascent of Birds. Observing Evolution. The Evolution of Plants. Improbable Destinies.
Other titles from Princeton UP. Fungi of Temperate Europe 2-Volume Set. Felids and Hyenas of the World. Oceanic Birds of the World. Habitats of the World. Why does the robin population stay relatively steady year after year, despite the fact that their nests contain several chicks at once? He brings to the subject both profound knowledge and an enthusiasm that will encourage a greater understanding of the environment and of the efforts of those who seek to preserve it.
Colinvaux — was an ecologist and professor emeritus at Ohio State University. Sort order. The first part of my review is actually in my reading progress comments below - if you really want to know what I think, you have to read those. Now, I just don't know how much is still relevant, and what the current understanding of how nature works is compared to what it was back 4 decades ago.
I do know I'm not convinced by the author's argument, in the last chapter, The first part of my review is actually in my reading progress comments below - if you really want to know what I think, you have to read those. I do know I'm not convinced by the author's argument, in the last chapter, about how human animals live and human societies grow.
But it's a fairly easy read, and the author's voice is engaging and relatively light. And he keeps saying things in fresh way, in a way that helps us think, in an idiom that sticks. For example, consider herbivores as hunters of plants: as far as the genes of the plants can cope, cows etc. Also, it's a great read because the author admits that science is a process. It looks for deeper answers and is not satisfied with intuitive understandings or data that doesn't fit popular theories.
As he puts it at one point, "Ecologists are still inclined to argue about these things, but it does look as if we might have the general answer to these questions, all the same. But there's a lot in here that makes wonderful sense, just as it is, too. Things that I'm sure Colinvaux and his sources have figured out, things that educators and policy-makers have yet to learn. For example, did you know that the ocean is mostly an infertile 'desert' and that we're already getting pretty much as much sustenance as we can from it?
And did you know that there's less competition than peaceful coexistence in nature? Fighting takes a lot of energy that is better used towards reproduction, after all. If you read only one chapter from this book, read the chapter titled "Peaceful Coexistence. Nature is arranged so that competitive struggles are avoided A species lives triumphant in its own special niche Natural selection is harsh only to the deviant aggressor who seeks to poach on the niche of another.
Consider something even more potentially relevant to discussions of humans' warlike nature: wolves cull the young, old, and sick large herbivores, because if the pack took on a healthy adult, "some of the wolves would get hurt, and a hurt wolf can hunt no more. Natural selection see to it that the strain of brave aggressiveness in wolves is purged from the wolf gene pool because such individuals would incur more than an average share of being fatally hurt.
Colinvaux, in his concluding chapter, says we "Change our niches without changing our breeding strategy. Fortunately, we've seen evidence that empowering and educating women has led to them choosing smaller families.
I am more optimistic than the author that this trend will continue, and that we will somehow develop strategies to share a healthy planet with whales, wolves, frogs, and plankton. But who is far-sighted, who is looking at the big picture? Ecology doesn't even seem to be a thing anymore - can anyone tell me who is following in Colinvaux's footsteps? Can anyone tell me what has been learned since about the topics he studied? View all 4 comments. While this is a surprisingly complete collection of essay style chapters that cover the 'big' questions in ecology it is a little simplistic and slightly dated the latter is obviously not the author's fault but it is worth noting.
Colinvaux does manage to explain the cornerstone ecological theories in a manner that can be understood by all through comparison with the 'human world' but this does mean that some of the key complexities of such theories are lost without much indication that they While this is a surprisingly complete collection of essay style chapters that cover the 'big' questions in ecology it is a little simplistic and slightly dated the latter is obviously not the author's fault but it is worth noting.
Colinvaux does manage to explain the cornerstone ecological theories in a manner that can be understood by all through comparison with the 'human world' but this does mean that some of the key complexities of such theories are lost without much indication that they exist at all. Granted this is a very difficult balance to get but it is important not to over simplify such theories as part of their importance and fascination is their complexity.
The personal skew that Colinvaux also gives is a little off putting, particularly as a practising ecologist where I have to be sure to be as objective and scientific as possible in my work.
The more personal approach that Colinvaux gives to each chapter results in the ecological theories coming across as pseudo-science rather than tried and tested science, which is something that us ecologists have fought against for some time granted my own experiences are colouring my view slighty.
This is partly due to the time of writing but even so it is something to be considered. Overall this is a good book for the non-ecologist and non-environmental reader but needs to be part of wider reading in these areas.
View all 3 comments. Shelves: someday-library. Clear-eyed, and full of appreciation. Reading reminded me of sitting on a porch with a great teacher, who is giving an impromptu seminar. I never did get my little bronze tags to flag the pages; I was constantly looking across the room, mentally reaching for them, but deciding I didn't want to put down the book. This is a very odd thing because the sea is also wet and spread out under the sun.
It ought to be green with plants as is the land, but it is not. There are murky coasts Clear-eyed, and full of appreciation. There are murky coasts and estuaries, the green hard waters of stormy channels, the fog-covered silvery-gray of ocean banks. But the deep sea, the open sea, most of the sea, is blue.
This strange blueness of the sea can tell us many things. He talks of how it is that you find teeming life at banks and upwellings, the coasts at the mouths of rivers; and also talks, fondly, of dead poetic alpine lakes.
Sometimes it reminded me in its style of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
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