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A cultural portrait of the Mid-Atlantic coastal ecosystem
This book has become the definitive field guide to the Chesapeake. Flora and fauna descriptions are arranged according to the bay's nine major habitats--from freshwater wetlands to saltwater marshes. The most important field marks of more than 500 species are shown in 350 superb pen-and-ink drawings, which make this benchmark work as beautiful as it is useful. The book is designed as a user-friendly introduction to the natural history of the Chesapeake Bay. Scientific jargon is kept to a minimum. Illustrations and text are paired to present an easy-to-use primer on the estuarine system. The book takes an ecological approach to life above and below the Chesapeake's surface. Wetland and aquatic communities are emphasized.
Life in the estuary is always changing. Ocean tides of salt water flow in and out of the estuary and mix with the fresh water that flows from rivers and streams. The animals that swim or wade in the waters or make the mudflats their homes must have physical or social adaptations that allow them to live in the salty mix. In this book, readers in grades 3-5 will discover how and why animals survive and thrive in these sheltered biomes. This NGSS-aligned series is packed with interesting facts and vivid photos that introduce readers to a variety of land and water animals. Each book includes a glossary, comprehension questions, and an activity for home or the classroom.
A coastal region's oldest inhabitants, particularly families of watermen and commercial fishers, often possess the deepest knowledge about a region and its ecological problems. Because of this, assaults on watermen lifeways and commercial fishing families--whether from organized recreational interests, real estate developers, or public policy makers--reduce the cultural and biological diversity of the coast and often upset the delicate environmental balance. Through the lens of the Mid-Atlantic Coast, especially the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds of North Carolina, David Griffith develops the theme that environmental degradation follows the loss of the most intimate understandings of coastal ecosystems. In The Estuary's Gift, Griffith traces the development of Mid-Atlantic cultures from the Algonquins and the earliest European families who hunted whales and netted herring, to present-day commercial fishing families who work the complex estuarine systems of the coast. In the process, he chronicles a series of developments that erode communities across American landscapes: the wearing away of local and regional history that results when national retail and restaurant chains convert local merchants into clerks and busboys, or the loss of biological diversity that follows the reconfiguration of countrysides to support monocrop agriculture, industrial chicken production, hog farming, forestry, and mining. Griffith insists that we heed the ways we treat one another in light of the ways we treat nature, measuring both by the standards we invoke when we give and receive gifts. Stories of conflict among fishers, of Mexican immigrant women brought to seafood houses to pick the meat from cooked, cooled crab--displacing and replacing African-American women--and of the slow yet steady attempts to criminalize family fishing practices that reach back thirteen generations show the ways in which the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of gift exchange have eroded. Only when we consider human relations as an integral part of the natural cycles will we begin to restore the balance. More than an account of the decline of fishing families or stressed natural resources, The Estuary's Gift illustrates how pressing social problems, such as environmental degradation and assaults on working families, play out in local contexts and local history.
In the heart of the book, they describe the natural history of the eggs, larvae, and juveniles of seventy fish species, the most abundant and ecologically/economically important of 300+ species whose young are found in the Hudson and Delaware estuaries and smaller New Jersey rivers, estuaries, and bays. They stress the temporal and spatial distribution of eggs, larvae, and juveniles. They also analyze the patterns and subtle variations in the ecology and life history strategies of these species: their growth rates, where they find refuge from predators, how they survive their first winter, and how they share the estuarine habitat with so many other species.
A reference volume discussing the dynamics, mixing, sediment regimes and morphological evolution in estuaries for researchers, students and engineers.
The definitive ecological guide to the Gulf of MexicoEstuaries Today the ecological health of the Gulf of Mexico--long the base ofvast commercial fisheries--is at risk from a potent array ofthreats, from increased nutrient inputs to the loss of coastalwetlands that impact water quality. Never before has knowledge of the biogeochemical processes of theGulf's estuaries and wetlands been so critical to its preservation,and yet until now research on this vital area has beenfragmented. Biogeochemistry of Gulf of Mexico Estuaries offers a comprehensive,integrated examination of these vital natural resources and theirecology. Featuring contributions from a diverse group of expertscientists from all regions of the Gulf Coast, thisinterdisciplinary reference provides extensive coverage of what isknown about biogeochemical processes--and the factors that regulatethem--in warm temperate and subtropical systems. Organized around aframework that integrates geomorphology, sedimentary processes,nutrient cycling, and trace metals chemistry, it not onlydemonstrates how the Gulf's estuarine systems work, but alsoestablishes a basis for how they compare with other, better-studiedtemperate estuaries. In addition, the book features afascinating--and timely--examination of the effects ofbiogeochemical processes on estuarine management. Biogeochemistry of Gulf of Mexico Estuaries will be welcomed byecologists, marine scientists, environmental activists, and anyoneinvolved with managing these precious natural resources.
Ecology of Estuaries represents the most definitive and comprehensive source of reference information available on the human impact on estuarine ecosystems. The volume discusses both acute and insidious pollution problems plaguing these coastal ecotones. It also provides a detailed examination of the deleterious and pervasive effects of human activities on biotic communities and sensitive habitat areas in estuaries. Specific areas covered include organic loading, oil pollution, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorinated hydrocarbons, heavy metals, dredging and dredged-spoil disposal, radionuclides, as well as other contaminants and processes. The diverse components of these anthropogenic influences are assembled in an organized framework and presented in a clear and concise style that facilitates their understanding.
A magnificent pictorial tribute to the San Francisco Bay and the Delta region, which together make one of the world's great estuaries. This book celebrates the Bay's beauty and its importance to the region, and inspires those who are helping restore and protect it.
Estuaries are of high socioeconomic importance with twenty-two of the thirty-two largest cities in the world located on river estuaries. Estuaries bring together fluxes of fresh and saline water, as well as fluvial and marine sediments, and contain high biological diversity. Increasingly sophisticated field observation technology and numerical modeling have produced significant advances in our understanding of the physical properties of estuaries over the last decade. This book introduces a classification for estuaries before presenting the basic physics and hydrodynamics of estuarine circulation and the various factors that modify it in time and space. It then covers special topics at the forefront of research such as turbulence, fronts in estuaries and continental shelves, low inflow estuaries, and implications of estuarine transport for water quality. Written by leading authorities on estuarine and lagoon hydrodynamics, this volume provides a concise foundation for academic researchers, advanced students and coastal resource managers.