Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process

Book Description

This is a new text aimed expressly at the student taking a course in landscape ecology, written by very well-known practitioners and pioneers in this new field of ecological analysis. Landscape ecology has emerged during the past two decades as a new and exciting level of ecological study. Environmental problems such as global climate change, land use change, habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity have required ecologists to expand their traditional spatial and temporal scales and the widespread availability of remote imagery, geographic information systems, and desk top computing has permitted the development of spatially explicit analyses. In this new text book this new field of landscape ecology is given the first fully integrated treatment suitable for the student. Throughout, the theoretical developments, modeling approaches and results, and empirical data are merged together, so as not to introduce barriers to the synthesis of the various approaches that constitute an effective ecological synthesis. The book also emphasizes selected topic areas in which landscape ecology has made the most contributions to our understanding of ecological processes, as well as identifying areas where its contributions have been limited. Each chapter features questions for discussion as well as recommended reading.

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommended.......2006-03-03

One of the most comprehensive landscape ecology materials existing on the market nowadays. Ideal for landscape ecology beginners or for for anybody who wonders what fragmentation, ecological processes and patterns are.

Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice.......2005-09-21

This is an excellent book that intrigues the informed while explaining complex information in such a way that novice readers can follow along.

Valuable Summary.......2003-01-08

I use this book as the recommended text for both undergraduate and graduate courses in landscape ecology. It has a useful synthesis of recent trends in the field and particularly good chapters on scale, landscape metrics and disturbance. The accompanying CD has jpeg versions of most of the figures, which is handy for preparing lectures, although the quality of some of the digital images from CD (especially graphs and line charts) isn't so great. The literature review is thorough without being overwhelming, so it's a good entry point into the professional literature in most areas of landscape ecology. My main criticism is that the writing style is somewhat dense; I didn't find it easy to read from cover to cover. People looking for a cursory introduction to the field may do better to start with an alternative text. As a teaching and reference text for landscape ecology, however, I think this book is the best available.

A Must-Have for Anyone into Landscape Ecology or GIS.......2002-10-20

If the credentials of the authors didn't convince of the quality of this book, I'm not sure I can. I will say that I have read and re-read the book several times, and that it's a vital resource in our laboratory. From the various issues of scaling to what analyses do what, this book is an excellent resource of theories and technologies involved in Landscape Ecology.

Cesar Landscape.......2001-08-31

It is a good book that help us to maintain an equilibrium of the landscape when we mad some changes to it. The content will be usefull for different areas of study, maily ecology, but also here in San Luis Potosi we have a class that we call landscape ecology. This class is the architecture carrer. We got many information from the book.

Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process

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Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice: Pattern and Process
Monica Turner & others
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W9AEZU

Customer Reviews:

Fun knowledge to have!.......2005-09-13

I had the opportunity to attend a talk given by Cattail Bob recently. I was impressed enough to by his book. This book doesn't cover all the edible plants avilable, but the title does state "Best Tasting Plants" and I imagine there are plenty more that just don't taste good out there. At the presentation he had samples for us to all taste and taught what characteristics to look out for with the toxic plants. The book is an excellent alternative to attending one of his classes, and a great supplement to them if you can attend one. I especially like that he has multiple photographs of each plant showing them in different seasons (since we all know that plants don't bloom year round). I am looking forward to exploring more on my own with this handy field guide. I never knew that I had edible plants in my own backyard!

EXCELLENT.......2000-05-28

I have read many books on the wild edibles of our Rocky Mountains, and have had very few compare to this one. This book not only gives DETAILED color photos of every plant listed, he also gives approximate dates (months) they are to be immature, mature, flowering, adn bearing fruit. He also gives potential lookalikes, cautions, uses, and special notes of other uses. This book is divided into three main sections. Low altitude plants, High altitude plants and the common toxic plants of the area. All the plants listed in all sections are fairly common and I am sure many people from enthusiasts to hikers/backpackers would find this information useful. In the back of the book, Seebeck also includes ideas of what type of recipies to use these plants in. The only reason I awarded four stars is because I wished there were more listed, like those ever present mountain weeds and grains.

Customer Reviews:

Gorgeous Photography!.......2000-06-13

An OUTSTANDING book for those who love the wonderful British Countryside of East Anglia or those who would like to become more familiar with it.

Book Description

Cell Movements is a synthetic account of cell shape and motility (the fascinating mechanisms by which cells move, divide, and organise their internal contents). This second edition is updated throughout with recent advances in the field and has a completely revised and redrawn artwork program. The text is suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduates as well as for professionals wishing for an overview of this field.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2002-04-20

This is an excellent and balanced overview of cell motility and the cytoskeleton.Thankfully there is a sense of perspective applied to the material, and the reader is spared the gory details of every last molecule or putative signalling pathway. There are copious elegant photomicrographs and line drawings.It is a pleasure to read.

cell motility in a nutshell.......2002-02-20

This is an introductory text to the field of cell motility and the cytoskeleton. It is written so that anyone who has taken some basic undergrad courses in biology should be able to pick it up and start learning. Because it is more of an introduction than an in-depth review of the entire field, it is mostly useful for getting a general idea of what is known and not known in cell biology, without going into excessive detail. The book is well written and fun to read, with tons of illustrations.

Cell Motility: From Molecules to Organisms (Life Sciences)

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Cell Motility: From Molecules to Organisms (Life Sciences)

Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0470848723

Book Description

Recent advances in molecular and biophysical techniques, particularly fluorescence and live cell imaging, are revolutionizing the study of cell motility. New bioprobes not only reveal simple intracellular localization, but also contain details of post-translational modifications, conformational state and protein-protein interactions. Coupling these insights with complementary advances in genetic and biochemical methods is enabling scientists to understand the processes involved in cell motility - from molecular motors to cell movements in vivo in a range of organisms and cell types.

This book features landmark essays that provide an up to date and fascinating account of current research and concepts in cell motility.These cover the roles of molecular motors that drive movement and their interactions with the cytoskeleton as well as membrane dynamics that allow cells to change shape and to move.

Cell motility plays a key role in development - there are chapters on the genetics of cell migration, the regulation of contact repulsion in growth cones, and the progression from cell migration to cell-cell adhesion. Cell motility is directional - experts describe the molecules that regulate chemotaxis, allowing cells to migrate along pathways specified by chemical gradients. Finally, cell motility can be perturbed by mutation--metastasis occurs when cells lose their normal intercellular interactions and invade other tissue types. All these processes are regulated by signals from the environment, including other tissues in the body, and the various molecules that transmit and transduce these signals are discussed.

This book is a 'must read' for cell biologists working in a variety of fields, from development to wound healing, at all levels - post-doctoral fellows, post-graduate students and lab technicians. It is also stimulating reading for molecular and developmental biologists, biophysicists and biochemists.

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"Recent advances in molecular and biophysical techniques, particularly fluorescence and live cell imaging, are revolutionizing the study of cell motility. New bioprobes not only reveal simple intracellular localization, but also contain details of post-translational modifications, conformational state and protein-protein interactions. Coupling these insights with complementary advances in genetic and biochemical methods is enabling scientists to understand the processes involved in cell motility - from molecular motors to cell movements in vivo in a range of organisms and cell types.

This book features landmark essays that provide an up to date and fascinating account of current research and concepts in cell motility.These cover the roles of molecular motors that drive movement and their interactions with the cytoskeleton as well as membrane dynamics that allow cells to change shape and to move.

Cell motility plays a key role in development - there are chapters on the genetics of cell migration, the regulation of contact repulsion in growth cones, and the progression from cell migration to cell-cell adhesion. Cell motility is directional - experts describe the molecules that regulate chemotaxis, allowing cells to migrate along pathways specified by chemical gradients. Finally, cell motility can be perturbed by mutation—metastasis occurs when cells lose their normal intercellular interactions and invade other tissue types. All these processes are regulated by signals from the environment, including other tissues in the body, and the various molecules that transmit and transduce these signals are discussed.

This book is a ‘must read’ for cell biologists working in a variety of fields, from development to wound healing, at all levels - post-doctoral fellows, post-graduate students and lab technicians. It is also stimulating reading for molecular and developmental biologists, biophysicists and biochemists.
"

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Man-made Crystals
Joel E. Arem
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Books,US
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0874741416

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SCIENCE AND MECHANICS - Volume 20, number 6 - December 1949: Man Made Sea Legs for Ships; Crystal Coat Your Craftwork; Motion Styling for Studebaker; Rain Maker for Big Crops; More Miles for Your Money; Monty Carves Cameos; Robot Hands for Hot Jobs
V. D. (editor) Angerman
Manufacturer: Science and Mechanics Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M42CI2

Book Description

The mathematical theory underlying many sporting activities is of considerable interest to both applied mathematicians and sporting enthusiasts alike. Here Professor de Mestre presents a rigorous account of the techniques applied to the motion of projectiles. This equips the reader for the final section of the book in which an enlightening collection of sporting applications is considered, ranging from the high jump to frisbees and soccer to table tennis. The presentation should be accessible to most undergraduate science students and provides an ideal setting for the development of mathematical modeling techniques.

Customer Reviews:

a member of the family.......2006-05-08

Rameau's Nephew is one of the the world's best books. It is a supremely entertaining and profound examination of the puzzling capacity of human beings to simultaneously contain both vile selfishness and the ability to self-sacrifice, and why corruption and dishonesty often seem to have the upper hand. Diderot's triumph is that he manages to eschew didacticism for an artistically well-rounded study of one of the greatest characters - whose honest venality calls forth a sympathetic response from all of us - ever to appear in a work of fiction.

Taking the philosophical dialogue form as its structure, the book presents an extremely vivid conversation (often sublime, sometimes crude) between 'I', a philosopher presumably based on Diderot himself , and 'He', Rameau, the nephew of a famous musician in France around the middle of the eighteenth-century. The philosopher represents many of the best aspects of the 'enlightenment' - honesty, hard work, patriotism, concern for his fellow-man, while Rameau is precisely the opposite - he is a sponger, a parasite who lives off - when he can - the rich and corrupt members of society, utterly disdaining work (though he has intelligence, some musical gifts and a near-supernatural talent for mimicry and impersonation) unless driven to it by imminent starvation. He throws away his self-respect to toady to the idle bourgeois who keep him in funds, food and clothing, only occasionally letting his true feelings be seen.

As the novel begins, Rameau ('one of the weirdest characters in this land of ours where God has not been sparing of them') meets the philosopher in a public garden, where chess is being played, and tells him the sad state of his affairs - he has in an ill-timed moment been cruel to another of his 'patron's' hangers-on, and as a result is now back on the street with no money and no prospects. The conversation shifts to a discussion on the subject of genius, the philosopher arguing artists who have achieved great works can be forgiven dissolute habits and viciousness, while Rameau is mainly interested in the fact that (rare) artistic success usually brings in money, something he truly loves, along with 'good wine...luscious food...a tumble with lovely women...soft beds. Apart from that the rest is vanity'.

The topics covered in this book seem endless: music, literature (in one wonderful section Rameau tells how reading the 'moralists' has taught him to lie and deceive more effectively!), virtue, wisdom, fame, reputation, children, education - yet we always return to the woeful amount of corruption in society, for whom Rameau's ideas, claims 'I', 'are so exactly made to the measure of'.

On rare occasions the tone is a little too dry, the discourses on current political and musical controversies go on too long, yet these contribute verisimilitude to the outrageously honest remarks by Rameau: 'the rascal by nature only offends now and again, but the evil-looking person offends all the time', and his difficult to believe behaviour, particularly when he, in rapid succession, totally loses himself in imitation - both physically and vocally - of opera and other musical forms, characters of all ages and from all walks of life, in virtually every possible human situation, and all the sounds of nature - coming down from these performances exhausted, to find himself surrounded by people he had been utterly unaware of. The writing is still fresh and innovative today.

In his superb introduction, Leonard Tancock (also the translator) states: 'The most profound issues raised by the two men in their discussion are certainly the moral ones. The crucial problem which each of the great eighteenth-century French writers tried to solve in his own way, and which none of them solved quite satisfactorily, is this: in varying degrees each was committed to a materialistic philosophy, and this means determinism. But they were equally committed to an emotional faith in progress, civilization, the social virtues of public spirit, kindness, unselfishness. But the logical end of determinism is cynical opportunism, for how can there be moral responsibility if our lives are predetermined by the laws of chemistry and physics?'

Tancock further on adds: 'Finally there is a long discussion of the familiar theme: is happiness possible without virtue? Rameau ingeniously begs the whole question by saying that happiness comes from living according to nature, *one's own nature*. This turns one of the most cherished ideas of some eighteenth-century thinkers upside-down - the notion that nature is right because she is pure, simple, undefiled. Human nature, such people say, is essentially good, and has only been corrupted by evil political forces and social exploitation. Yes, says Rameau, nature is indeed always the best guide, and she counsels free rein for such perfectly natural human traits as sloth, lies, hypocrisy, greed, sensuality. Look at a natural animal or child and deny that if you can'.

Though Rameau (who on this subject as on all others is capable of adopting vastly inconsistent positions and opinions) certainly suggests nature counsels absolute selfishness, does this mean Diderot believes one cannot suggest with equal vigour that nature also counsels unselfishness and virtuous action? Certainly, it is the philosopher who, regarding children, says: 'If the little brute were left to himself and kept in his native ignorance, combining the undeveloped mind of a child in the cradle with the violent passions of a man of thirty, he would wring his father's neck and sleep with his mother'. Yet Rameau sounds entirely reasonable as he argues if he: 'just let the little brute go his own way and told him nothing, he would want to be expensively dressed, eat sumptuously, be popular with the men and loved by the women, in fact to gather round him all the pleasures of life'. These desires are so normal and common we forget for one moment Rameau means to satisfy them not by any hard work, but by flattery, trickery and any other unscrupulous method opportunity presents. Still, the point remains that Diderot is perhaps not as condemning of human nature as Tancock implies.

In the passage of the novel in which Rameau blames his 'stars', his 'blood', his 'molecule', his 'nature', his 'heredity' for what he has become, it is possible Diderot the literary artist is - with a great deal of irony - facing the facts about human beings in a way Diderot the philosopher perhaps never could. If so, the message would be: 'Moral' responsibility should more accurately be termed 'natural' responsibility. Human nature is at the same time both essentially good and essentially bad. If we claim that we can remove the bad from humanity - or at least suppress it - in order to maximize the good, instead of recognising that each of us has been randomly allotted fixed quantities of these attributes - then to the degree we believe this we are deceiving ourselves.

What the philosopher, and the religious person, with their insistence on abstract notions of human perfectibility (or depravity) will at best merely tolerate, I like to think Diderot is indicating the artist can wholeheartedly - notwithstanding some sadness born of disillusionment - accept and embrace.

Not satisfying.......2003-10-13

The layers of this work contain important, interesting questions. Many of these questions are universal and enduring, but appreciating 'Rameau's Nephew' depends on knowing his contemporaries and some fairly obscure historical information (and I'm not referring to pre-Enlightenment 101, but specific pockets of Paris culture in the late 1700's). The footnotes in this edition give some context, but working through this book was torture. The prose is odd, part philosophy part pedagogy. If you enjoy a Sunday night of Kant or Descartes, then this book will satisfy your appetite for language run amok. If, however, you prefer to have your great questions asked in metaphor, allusion, and story--if you think in pictures and find academic prose too absorbed in its own process to touch human experience, pass on this one. I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from educating themselves--but I found reading 'Rameau's Nephew' intellectually unsatisfying and aesthetically empty. Unless you're absorbed in Deiderot's time and place, or have specific academic interests, I think one's time is better spent with other thinkers, thinkers who question with depth and complexity without leaving the aethestic landscape barren. Even though Diderot is considered a great figure in French literature, I wasn't touched emotionally or intellectually by 'Rameau's Nephew.' I'm ready for a good dose of Flaubert or Camus.

Waiter, theres a Gadfly in my Perrier.......2001-09-20

If ever there was a cafe novel this is it though it is not really a novel as it consists mainly of dialogue or a dialectic between(perhaps) the two sides of Diderot himself. It is very funny and its all very staged to be that way of course. It makes fun of what passes for reason as this was The Age of Reason and so it has been called a precursor to the romantic movement but still what it most values is cleverness and that seems to fit very well with the age it comes from. Chock full of witty chat, and anti establishment(accepted views) banter in the Candide to Celine tradition of French letters, Rameau's Nephew plays devils advocate to an entire epoch . What is most appealing about this is the earthy idleness which is the center the wandering intelligence(s) roam around. It is a liberating feeling to read a book which challenges a whole societys agenda and self view. It is interesting to see that this is the tradition Celine and Beckett inherited and furthered(well, used) in their own way. A sort of gleeful anti utopian pessimism seems the attitude to adopt if one wants to keep ones dignity in the face of society's sometimes ludicrous efforts to maintain the appearance of civilization . Of course the greatest cafe novel is Man Without Qualities but that is just too long to read at one sitting. Check please, garcon.

Not Candide, but still great fun.......2000-05-28

This is probably Diderot's most widely read work in English translation. There is good reason for it. Rather than strict philosophical treatises, Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream are a series of comic dilogues which serve as vehicles to attack conventional 18th century social mores and theology. In the first book, Rameau, who is an actual historical figure, the nephew of the famed composer, runs into the narrator (Diderot) in a parisian cafe where games of chess are going on around them. Rameau is one of the great comic creations of 18th century French literature. He is a cross between Lear's fool and Dostoevsky's Underground Man. Like the fool, he gets away (until recently) with saying outrageous things to his benefactor's faces, because they tend to regard him as a buffoon. Like the underground man, he is constantly vacillating in terms of his self-image. For the most part he excoriates himself and even seems to revel in the fact that he has brought his misery upon himself. This is in fact a rather ennobling trait, and probably part of the reason that Diderot doesn't dismiss him out of hand. Rameau really doesn't blame others. He accepts resposibility for getting himself kicked out of his rich sponsor's household. He also blames himself for the loss of his attractive young wife. Diderot's descriptions of Rameau's japery is hilarious. Rameau is an accomplished mimic. He performs an entire opera there in the cafe, singing all the parts and providing his own unorthodox instrumental accompaniment. Diderot writes: "What didn't he do? He wept, laughed, sighed, his gaze was tender, soft or furious: a woman swooning with grief, a poor wretch abandoned in the depth of despair, a temple rising into view, birds falling silent at eventide, waters murmuring in a cool, solitary place or tumbling in torrents down the mountainside, a thunderstorm, a hurricane, the shrieks of the dying mingled with the howling of the tempest and the crash of thunder; night with its shadows, darkness and silence, for even silence itself can be depicted in sound. By now he was quite beside himself. Knocked up with fatigue, like a man coming out of a deep sleep or a long trance, he stood there motionless, dazed, astonished, looking about him and trying to recognize his surroundings." Yet, as Diderot the narrator acknowledges, there is method to Rameau's madness. Again like Lear's fool, truth is to be mined beneath the jester's antics. Within the context of the flippant diologue, Diderot addresses many of the philophical concerns that were coming to the fore at the time of the enlightenment. There is a groping towards a definition of evolution that predates Darwin in some respects. There is even a brief discussion of social, vs. gentetic engineering (sustitute "gene: for Diderot's "molecule"). On man's natural state, which was so integral to Rousseu's optimistic philosophy, here is what Diderot has to say: "If the little brute were left to himself and kept in his native ignorance, combining the undeveloped mind with the violent passions of a man of thirty, he would wring his father's neck and sleep with his mother." Remind you of any 20th century father of psychology? D'Alembert's Dream , the companion-piece in this edition, is less entertaining than Rameau's Nephew, but still worth reading. The conceit doesn't work quite as well and the diologue tends to get bogged down at times. For students of the history of philosophy it makes for a lot less dry reading than Hobbes or Descartes however. I was surprised at what a big influence Lucretius must have had on Diderot (something I missed when I first read this work 20 years ago - but then I hadn't read Lucretius "On the Nature of the Universe" at that point). I would definitely recommend reading Leonard Tancock's introduction to both these works, not only for an overview of the subjects that Diderot is tackling, but for the intersting family backgrounds of D'Alembert (who was a revered mathematician and a contributor, along with Diderot and Voltaire to the monumental "Encyclopedie")and Mademoiselle L'Espinasse.

A Refreshing Look at Society Without the Usual Hypocrisy.......2000-03-07

Denis Diderot's groundbreaking philosophical text, Rameau's Nephew is a discourse between Rameau, a musician and jester for the rich, and a philosopher, possibly Diderot himself. Rameau takes the name of "He" throughout the discussion, while the philosopher is referred to as "I". One of their first areas of disagreement arises with their discussion on men of genius; this discussion then leads into many other areas of philosophy and music. He takes a definite position on the side of materialism, greed, nihilism, and cynicism, and goes to the farthest extreme in defending the accuracy with which these ideas explain why people act as they do. On the other hand, it is more difficult to determine the position that I takes, the philosopher possibly argues Diderot's ideas on these subjects, but there is also evidence that Diderot in fact disagrees with him, and merely uses I's stance to show many of the conventional and socially accepted ideas of the time. Problems arise when one tries to classify where I's ideas come from, and they strange events surrounding the printing of the text only add to these woes. Diderot never allowed Rameau's Nephew to be printed during his lifetime; it was only after his death that versions of the manuscript were printed. These concerns make finding a definite position for I to take a difficult proposition. Taking into consideration the printing dates of the text as well as discrepancies within in the ideas of the philosopher lead to a conclusion that Diderot probably does not agree with the philosopher, but uses him to serve a purpose in regards to Rameau. Diderot makes the philosopher's defense of genius based on amoral grounds and contradictory to his later arguments on virtue and morals because Diderot wants to show the inanity in conceptions commonly held by the general public.

Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream (Penguin Classics)

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Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream (Penguin Classics)
Leonard Tancock Denis Diderot
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ2PD2

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RAMEAU'S NEPHEW AND D'ALEMBERT'S DREAM

Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HFCIN0

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RAMEAU'S NEPHEW D'ALEMBERT'S DREAM
DIDEROT
Manufacturer: PENGUIN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S5ND6U

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Rameau's Nephew and D'alembert's Dream
Denis Diderot
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000PC55MQ

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