It has an ecological approach that explains the fundamentals of soil science effectively. Chapter topics include Soil Erosion and Its Control, Soil Acidity, Soils and Chemical Pollution, and Organisms and the Ecology of the Soil. For individuals interested in soil and the environment."

    We tend to think of animal function in chemical terms and talk of water, salts, proteins, enzymes, oxygen, energy, and so on. We should not forget, however, that physical laws are equally important, for they determine rates of diffusion and heat transfer, transfer of force and momentum, the strength of structures, the dynamics of locomotion, and other aspects of the functioning of animal bodies. Physical laws provide possibilities and opportunities for an organism, yet they also impose constraints, setting limits to what is physically possible. This book aims to give an understanding of these rules because of their profound implications when we deal with animals of widely different size and scale. The reader will find that the book raises many questions. Remarkable and puzzling information makes it read a little like a detective story, but the last chapter, instead of giving the final solution, neither answers all questions nor provides one great unifying principle.

    It provides a perspective for identifying relationships that are critical to the interpretation of structures while building confidence in using mathematical skills to fully describe, understand and appreciate the concepts of stress and strain in natural structural systems. Techniques, methods, experiments and calculations are described in detail throughout the book, with the aim of inviting active participation and discovery through laboratory and field work.

    Built on rocky hills, the city is surrounded on three sides by bay and ocean that can be seen from nearly everywhere within it. Precipitous cliffs face the city from across the Golden Gate, and the skyline to the north, east, and south is dominated by mountains. Occasional tremors from the San Andreas and related faults nearby remind us that the earth here is active. Until recently the rocks so abundantly exposed in San Francisco baffled geologists. Jumbled together without apparent order and lacking visible fossils, they defied explanation. The theory of plate tectonics has changed all that. We now have an explanation for the origin of the rocks of San Francisco, although it is anything but simple.

    Quaternary Extinctions presents the latest and most comprehensive examination of these questions." —Geological Magazine "May be regarded as a kind of standard encyclopedia for Pleistocene vertebrate paleontology for years to come." —American Scientist "Should be read by paleobiologists, biologists, wildlife managers, ecologists, archeologists, and anyone concerned about the ongoing extinction of plants and animals." —Science "Uncommonly readable and varied for watchers of paleontology and the rise of humankind." —Scientific American "Represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of Pleistocene and Holocene palaeobiology. . . . Many volumes on our bookshelves are destined to gather dust rather than attention. But not this one." —Nature "Two strong impressions prevail when first looking into this epic compendium. One is the judicious balance of views that range over the whole continuum between monocausal, cultural, or environmental explanations. The second is that both the data base and theoretical sophistication of the protagonists in the debate have improved by a quantum leap since 1967." —American Anthropologist