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There is a growing crisis in our oceans: mysterious outbreaks of infectious disease are on the rise. Marine epidemics can cause mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Portending global environmental disaster, ocean outbreaks are fueled by warming seas, sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic. Ocean Outbreak follows renowned scientist Drew Harvell and her colleagues into the field as they investigate how four iconic marine animals—corals, abalone, salmon, and starfish—have been devastated by disease. Based on over twenty years of research, this firsthand account of the sometimes gradual, sometimes exploding impact of disease on our ocean’s biodiversity ends with solutions and a call to action. Only through policy changes and the implementation of innovative solutions from nature can we reduce major outbreaks, save some ocean ecosystems, and protect our fragile environment.
"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation."—Library Journal "Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."—The Guardian Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell’s eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, document...
Global research on marine disease ecology has expanded at an accelerating rate, due to increases in disease emergence across many taxa but also a broader realization that the parasites responsible are themselves important members of marine communities. Courses are now starting to emerge and this first textbook is ideally placed to serve them.
Inducible defenses--those often dramatic phenotypic shifts in prey activated by biological agents ranging from predators to pathogens--are widespread in the natural world. Yet research on the inducible defenses used by vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants in terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats has largely developed along independent lines. Tollrian and Harvell bring together leading researchers from all fields to review common themes and explore emerging ideas. Contributors examine organisms as different as unicellular algae and higher vertebrates, and consider defenses ranging from immune systems to protective changes in morphology, behavior, chemistry, and life history.
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 61. The effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and related climate change on shallow coral reefs are gaining considerable attention for scientific and economic reasons worldwide. Although increased scientific research has improved our understanding of the response of coral reefs to climate change, we still lack key information that can help guide reef management. Research and monitoring of coral reef ecosystems over the past few decades have documented two major threats related to increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2: (1) increased sea surface temperatures and (2) increased seawa...
Winner of the Sustainability Science Award 2020, Ecological Society of America Winner of the PROSE Award (Biological Sciences category) 2020, Association of American Publishers There is a growing crisis in our oceans: mysterious outbreaks of infectious disease are on the rise. Marine epidemics can cause mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Portending global environmental disaster, ocean outbreaks are fueled by warming seas, sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic. Ocean Outbreak follows renowned scientist Drew Harvell and her colleagues into the field as they investigate how four iconic marine animals—corals, abalone, salmon, and starfish—have been devastated by disease. Based on over twenty years of research, this firsthand account of the sometimes gradual, sometimes exploding impact of disease on our ocean’s biodiversity ends with solutions and a call to action. Only through policy changes and the implementation of innovative solutions from nature can we reduce major outbreaks, save some ocean ecosystems, and protect our fragile environment.
Focusing on advancements over the last decade, this book gives advanced undergraduate and graduate students a current overview of what is known about the structure and organisation of the assemblages of organisms that live in the ocean, with each chapter written by leading researchers.
In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.
'A life-changing new book' DAILY MAIL What problem touches millions of people and causes distress so profound that it can last a lifetime? What if no reliable professional guidance exists for this problem, so most people who suffer from it are on their own in finding solutions? This critically important issue - and hidden epidemic - is family estrangement. Few problems are so widespread and so damaging, sometimes for decades and across generations, and yet there has not been a definitive, popular and data-informed book about how families are broken and stay broken - until now. Fault Lines is a fascinating, moving and above all practical treatment of this complex issue, aimed at adults of all...
A remarkable look at the rarest butterflies, how global changes threaten their existence, and how we can bring them back from near-extinction Most of us have heard of such popular butterflies as the Monarch or Painted Lady. But what about the Fender’s Blue? Or the St. Francis’ Satyr? Because of their extreme rarity, these butterflies are not well-known, yet they are remarkable species with important lessons to teach us. The Last Butterflies spotlights the rarest of these creatures—some numbering no more than what can be held in one hand. Drawing from his own first-hand experiences, Nick Haddad explores the challenges of tracking these vanishing butterflies, why they are disappearing, a...