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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Developmental biology
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Exuberant Life - An Evolutionary Approach to Conservation in Galapagos (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,318
Discovery Miles 13 180
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Exuberant Life - An Evolutionary Approach to Conservation in Galapagos (Hardcover)
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The terrestrial organisms of the Galapagos Islands live under
conditions unlike those anywhere else. At the edge of a uniquely
rich mid-ocean upwelling, their world is also free of mammalian
predators and competitors, allowing them to live unbothered,
exuberant lives. With its giant tortoises, marine iguanas,
flightless cormorants, and forests of giant daisies, there's no
question that this is a magnificent place. Long before people
traversed the Earth, evolution endowed native species with
adaptations to these special conditions and to perturbations like
El Nino events and periodic droughts. As the islands have grown
ever-more connected with humanity, those same adaptations now make
its species vulnerable. Today, the islands are best viewed as one
big social-ecological system where the ability of each native
organism to survive and reproduce is a product of human activity in
addition to ecological circumstances. In this book, William H.
Durham takes readers on a tour of Galapagos and the organisms that
inhabit these isolated volcanic islands. Exuberant Life offers a
contemporary synthesis of what we know about the evolution of its
curiously wonderful organisms, how they are faring in the
tumultuous changing world around them, and how evolution can guide
our efforts today for their conservation. The book highlights the
ancestry of a dozen specific organisms in these islands, when and
how they made it to the Galapagos, as well as how they have changed
in the meantime. Durham traces the strengths and weaknesses of each
species, arguing that the mismatch between natural challenges of
their habitats and the challenges humans have recently added is the
main task facing conservation efforts today. Such analysis often
provides surprises and suggestions not yet considered, like the
potential benefits to joint conservation efforts between tree
finches and tree daisies, or ways in which the peculiar evolved
behaviors of Nazca and blue-footed boobies can be used to benefit
both species today. In each chapter, a social-ecological systems
framework is used to highlight links between human impact,
including climate change, and species status today, Historically,
the Galapagos have played a central role in our understanding of
evolution; what these islands now offer to teach us about
conservation may well prove indispensable for the future of the
planet.
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