Best of
Ecology

1981

The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural


Wendell Berry - 1981
    To touch one, he shows, is to tamper with them all.Here he continues issues first raised in The Unsettling of America; the problems addressed there are still with us and the solutions no nearer to hand, Mr. Berry writes of his journeys to the highlands of Peru, the deserts of southern Arizona, and the Amish country to study traditional agricultural practices. He writes of homesteading, tools and their uses, horses and tractors, family work, land reclamation, diversified land use.In the title essay Mr. Berry draws parallels between the Christian notion of stewardship and the Buddhist doctrine of "right livelihood." He develops the compelling argument that the "gift" of good land has strings attached: the recipient has it only as long as he practices responsible stewardship.

The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture


György Doczi - 1981
    These images are awesome not just for their beauty alone, but because they suggest an order underlying their growth, a harmony existing in nature. What does it mean that such an order exists; how far does it extend? The Power of Limits was inspired by those simple discoveries of harmony. The author went on to investigate and measure hundreds of patterns—ancient and modern, minute and vast. His discovery, vividly illustrated here, is that certain proportions occur over and over again in all these forms. Patterns are also repeated in how things grow and are made—by the dynamic union of opposites—as demonstrated by the spirals that move in opposite directions in the growth of a plant. The joining of unity and diversity in the discipline of proportional limitations creates forms that are beautiful to us because they embody the principles of the cosmic order of which we are a part; conversely, the limitlessness of that order is revealed by the strictness of its forms. The author shows how we, as humans, are included in the universal harmony of form, and suggests that the union of complementary opposites may be a way to extend that harmony to the psychological and social realms as well.

An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology


Nicholas B. Davies - 1981
    In this edition, new examples are introduced throughout, many illustrated with full color photographs. In addition, important new topics are added including the latest techniques of comparative analysis, the theory and application of DNA fingerprinting techniques, extensive new discussion on brood parasite/host coevolution, the latest ideas on sexual selection in relation to disease resistance, and a new section on the intentionality of communication. Written in the lucid style for which these two authors are renowned, the text is enhanced by boxed sections illustrating important concepts and new marginal notes that guide the reader through the text. This book will be essential reading for students taking courses in behavioral ecology. The leading introductory text from the two most prominent workers in the field. Second colour in the text. New section of four colour plates. Boxed sections to ilustrate difficult and important points. New larger format with marginal notes to guide the reader through the text. Selected further reading at the end of each chapter.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures


Norman A. Meinkoth - 1981
    Arrangement by shape and by color makes identification quick and easy. 666 species are covered in full detail.

The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre (Harper nature library)


Edwin W. Teale - 1981
    Edwin Way Teale's selection of the most compelling of Fabre's writing makes The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre the essential edition of the writer Darwin called "the incomparable observer."

The Education of Koko


Francine Patterson - 1981
    

Fern Finder: A Guide to Native Ferns of Central and Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada


Barbara Hallowell - 1981
    Midwest and Northeast, and eastern Canada. Like other plant guides in the "Finders" series, "Fern Finder" is a dichotomous key, which leads the user step-by-step through a series of choices to the species being identified. Heavily illustrated with line drawings.

The Reenchantment of the World


Morris Berman - 1981
    Focusing on the rise of the mechanistic idea that we can know the natural world only by distancing ourselves from it, Berman shows how science acquired its controlling position in the consciousness of the West. He analyzes the holistic, animistic tradition--destroyed in the wake of Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--which viewed man as a participant in the cosmos, not as an isolated observer. Arguing that the holistic world view must be revived in some credible form before we destroy our society and our environment, he explores the possibilities for a consciousness appropriate to the modern era. Ecological rather than animistic, this new world view would be grounded in the real and intimate connection between man and nature.

Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia


R.E. Johannes - 1981
    Words of the Lagoon is an account of the pioneering work of a marine biologist to discover, test, and record the knowledge possessed by native fisherman of the Palau Islands of Micronesia.

The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation


John A. Livingston - 1981
    Livingston, one of Canada's leading naturalists, makes the persuasive argument that unless new approaches are found to our perception of nature and our place within it, it will soon be impossible to reverse the destruction man is inflicting on nature.Livingston has written a fasinating, wide-ranging, and highly provocative work. Blending metaphysiscs, scientific observation, and a poet's eye for the beauty of the natural world, he creates a compelling case for a new vision of existence. (from the back cover)