Ecologists are aware of the importance of natural dynamics in ecosystems. Historically, the focus has been on the development in succession of equilibrium communities, which has generated an understanding of the composition and functioning of ecosystems. Recently, many have focused on the processes of disturbances and the evolutionary significance of such events. This shifted emphasis has inspired studies in diverse systems. The phrase "patch dynamics" (Thompson, 1978) describes their common focus.
The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics brings together the findings and ideas of those studying varied systems, presenting a synthesis of diverse individual contributions.

Gigantic hieroglyphics at the Peruvian desert, ancients civilizations and marvels of the universe to admire, study, preserve, emulate and share the knowledge for future generation's to come.

"Evocative, muscular." - Kathleen Jamie. Karen Lloyd takes us on a deeply personal journey around the 60 miles of coastline that make up 'nature's amphitheatre'. Embarking on a series of walks that take in beguiling landscapes and ever-changing seascapes, Karen tells the stories of the places, people, wildlife and history of Morecambe Bay. So we meet the King's Guide to the Sands, discover forgotten caves and islands that don't exist, and delight in the simple beauty of an oystercatcher winging its way across the ebbing tide. As we walk with Karen, she explores her own memories of the bay, making an unwitting pilgrimage through her own past and present, as well as that of the bay. The result is a singular and moving account of one of Britain's most alluring coastal areas.

Into Woods is an exuberant, profound, and often wonderfully funny account of ten years in the life of author Bill Roorbach. A paean to nature, love, family, and place, it begins with his honeymoon on a wine farm in France's Loire Valley and closes with the birth of his daughter and he and his wife's return to their beloved Maine. These essays blend journalism, memoir, personal narrative, nature writing, cultural criticism, and insight into a flowing narrative of place, a meditation on being and belonging, love and death, wonder and foreboding.

The Newfoundland - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: My Dog And I by H. W. Huntington (1897), The Kennel Encyclopaedia by J. Sidney Turner (1910), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and many others.

What kind of weather is headed your way? Meteorologists make it their job to know. They tell you when sunshine is in the forecast. They tell you when it's going to rain. They spot severe storms, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, before they hit. Their work is important. It can even save lives. Read about this intriguing STEM career Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, this Smithsonian Informational Text builds reading skills while engaging students' curiosity about STEAM topics through real-world examples. Packed with factoids and informative sidebars, it features a hands-on STEAM challenge that is perfect for use in a makerspace and teaches students every step of the engineering design process. Make STEAM career connections with career advice from actual Smithsonian employees working in STEAM fields. Discover engineering innovations that solve real-world problems with content that touches on all aspects of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math!

Humankind has sought a simple, universal theorem representing the ultimate building block of nature. In searching, we have learned that energy and matter are complementary states of reality. Self-Utility - A Theory of Everything explains how within this universal design principle, "process" is also a complementary state of this same reality. Within this informational framework lies this unifying theory of existence - Self-Utility. Self-Utility represents a model of internal attributes that initiate causal outcomes. Self-Utility is an intrinsic determinism that wills its host's animation, wellbeing, and its existence Self-Utility is inherent in humans, animals, plants, social systems, institutions, organizations, rocks, atoms, energy, ideas and even the cosmos itself. Self-Utility unites a diversity of "-ologies" under its common discipline. Personal application of this theory empowers us with a cognitively heightened sense of understanding, of insight, and of control over our behavior and ultimately of whom we are. Embracing the concept of Self-Utility gives us a reference to understand the dynamics of vast interacting networks of any type. It allows us to predict values and allegiances, thus ultimately predicting the behaviors of people, organizations and objects. And it empowers us to direct our being through interrelating cycles of influence. Self-Utility brings order to our whimsical World of whirling dervishes as if in a mystic circus.

Before the drought of the early twenty-first century, the dry benchmark in the American plains was the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. But in this eye-opening work, Kevin Z. Sweeney reveals that the Dust Bowl was only one cycle in a series of droughts on the U.S. southern plains. Reinterpreting our nation's nineteenth-century history through paleoclimatological data and firsthand accounts of four dry periods in the 1800s, Prelude to the Dust Bowl demonstrates the dramatic and little-known role drought played in settlement, migration, and war on the plains. Stephen H. Long's famed military expedition coincided with the drought of the 1820s, which prompted Long to label the southern plains a ""Great American Desert"" - a destination many Anglo-Americans thought ideal for removing Southeastern Indian tribes to in the 1830s. The second dry trend, from 1854 to 1865, drove bison herds northeastward, fomenting tribal warfare, and deprived Civil War armies in Indian Territory of vital commissary. In the late 1880s and mid-1890s, two more periods of drought triggered massive outmigration from the southern plains as well as appeals from farmers and congressmen for federal famine relief, pleas quickly denied by President Grover Cleveland. Sweeney's interpretation of familiar events through the lens of drought lays the groundwork for understanding why the U.S. government's reaction to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was such a radical departure from previous federal responses. Prelude to the Dust Bowl provides new insights into pivotal moments in the settlement of the southern plains and stands as a timely reminder that drought, as part of a natural climatic cycle, will continue to figure in the unfolding history of this region.

Now in paperback! A dual biography of two of the most compelling elements in the narrative of wild America, John Muir and Alaska. John Muir was a fascinating man who was many things: inventor, scientist, revolutionary, druid (a modern day Celtic priest), husband, son, father and friend, and a shining son of the Scottish Enlightenment -- both in temperament and intellect. Kim Heacox, author of The Only Kayak, bring us a story that evolves as Muir's life did, from one of outdoor adventure into one of ecological guardianship---Muir went from impassioned author to leading activist. The book is not just an engaging and dramatic profile of Muir, but an expose on glaciers, and their importance in the world today. Muir shows us how one person changed America, helped it embrace its wilderness, and in turn, gave us a better world. December 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of Muir's death. Muir died of a broken heart, some say, when Congress voted to approve the building of Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park. Perhaps in the greatest piece of environmental symbolism in the U.S. in a long time, on the California ballot last November was a measure to dismantle the Hetch Hetchy Dam. Muir's legacy is that he reordered our priorities and contributed to a new scientific revolution that was picked up a generation later by Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and is championed today by influential writers like E.O. Wilson and Jared Diamond. Heacox takes us into how Muir changed our world, advanced the science of glaciology and popularized geology. How he got people out there. How he gave America a new vision of Alaska, and of itself.

The Norfolk Spaniel - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: House Dogs And Sporting Dogs by John Meyrick (1861), The Illustrated Book Of The Dog by Vero Shaw (1879), The Dog Book by James Watson (1906) and others.

Our planet is covered with volcanoes. They are fascinating natural wonders that are potentially dangerous and destructive. But, they are important to Earth's survival. Scientists who study volcanoes ask lots of questions. Let's find the answers and learn more about volcanoes--and the volcanologists who study them! Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, this Smithsonian Informational Text builds reading skills while engaging students' curiosity about STEAM topics through real-world examples. Packed with factoids and informative sidebars, it features a hands-on STEAM challenge that is perfect for use in a makerspace and teaches students every step of the engineering design process. Make STEAM career connections with career advice from actual Smithsonian employees working in STEAM fields. Discover engineering innovations that solve real-world problems with content that touches on all aspects of STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math!

The Miniature Black and Tan Terrier - A Complete Anthology of the Dog gathers together all the best early writing on the breed from our library of scarce, out-of-print antiquarian books and documents and reprints it in a quality, modern edition. This anthology includes chapters taken from a comprehensive range of books, many of them now rare and much sought-after works, all of them written by renowned breed experts of their day. These books are treasure troves of information about the breed - The physical points, temperaments, and special abilities are given; celebrated dogs are discussed and pictured; and the history of the breed and pedigrees of famous champions are also provided. The contents were well illustrated with numerous photographs of leading and famous dogs of that era and these are all reproduced to the highest quality. Books used include: British Dogs by W. D. Drury (1903), The New Book Of The Dog by Robert Leighton (1907), Hutchinson's Dog Encyclopaedia by Walter Hutchinson (1935) and others.