Bøger udgivet af Comstock Publishing

Among the most widespread and abundant of the world's larger mammals, deer have been a source of endless fascination for humans beings. Yet over the centuries we have hunted them for sport and for their meat, hides, and antlers, and pursued them as destructive pests.In this richly informative and engagingly written book, Rory Putnam captures the astonishing diversity--in habitat, diet, social organization, and behavior--of the world's 40 species of deer, and tells what is known about their biology and natural history. Rather than simply assembling species-by-species data, he compares and contrasts the characteristics of the various species and accounts for their similiarities and differences in reference to the environments they have come to colonize.After discussing the origins of deer, Putnam describes the species of modern deer and their evolutionary relationships. He considers aspects of their physiology, ecology, and behavior, drawing particular attention to the ecology of habitat use, diet and digestive physiology, and social organization and behavior. He covers the life histories of the different species, population dynamics, and the interactions of deer with other animals.Devoting a whole chapter to an essay on antlers, he ends with an enlightening and entertaining analysis of the relations between deer and humans.Generously illustrated with stunning color and black-and-white photographs, as well as many line drawings and figures, this book will both reward the amateur naturalist and please the professional biologist.

Ecological engineering is the process of manipulating farm habitats for the purposes of maintaining or increasing food production, restoring wetlands and other ecosystems, and conserving resources such as water and fertile soil. This book focuses on the pest management aspect of ecological engineering: how to make farmland more attractive for beneficial insects and less favorable for pests. This book brings together contributors from around the world who are leaders in habitat manipulation for the purpose of agriculture.Chapters explore the frontiers of ecological engineering: the authors describe methods including molecular approaches, high-tech marking, and remote sensing. They also review the theoretical aspects of ecological engineering and discuss how ecological engineering may interact with genetic engineering.

Birds of Rhode Island documents the status and distribution of birds in the state since the late nineteenth century. Based on comprehensive fieldwork and research by Richard L. Ferren and edited by Richard R. Veit, this book describes the habitats and locations of more than four hundred species of birds along with data on the seasons of their occurrence.This volume features: - An introductory section that includes a history of ornithology in Rhode Island, descriptions of the state's most important bird habitats and biogeographical regions, and an overview of factors affecting species populations- Species accounts with information on changes in abundance and distribution as well as conservation and management methods- An eighty-year history of banding and migration watching at Block Island, seventy years of seabird migration quantification at Point Judith, a detailed history of the state's seabird colonies, and multiple surveys of the state's breeding birds- Color photographs taken in the field of recent rarities discovered in Rhode Island Offering a chronicle of changing avian population dynamics, Birds of Rhode Island is an indispensable resource for ornithologists and bird enthusiasts interested in the avifauna of Rhode Island and beyond. Copublished with the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 27 in the series Memoirs of the Nuttall Ornithological Club.

Citizen science enlists members of the public to make and record useful observations, such as counting birds in their backyards, watching for the first budding leaf in spring, or measuring local snowfall. The large numbers of volunteers who participate in projects such as Project FeederWatch or Project BudBurst collect valuable research data, which, when pooled together, create an enormous body of scientific data on a vast geographic scale. In return, such projects aim to increase participants' connections to science, place, and nature, while supporting science literacy and environmental stewardship. In Citizen Science, experts from a variety of disciplines--including scientists and education specialists working at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where many large citizen science programs use birds as proxies for biodiversity--share their experiences of creating and implementing successful citizen science projects, primarily those that use massive data sets gathered by citizen scientists to better understand the impact of environmental change.This first and foundational book for this developing field of inquiry addresses basic aspects of how to conduct citizen science projects, including goal-setting, program design, and evaluation, as well as the nuances of creating a robust digital infrastructure and recruiting a large participant base through communications and marketing. An overview of the types of research approaches and techniques demonstrates how to make use of large data sets arising from citizen science projects. A final section focuses on citizen science's impacts and its broad connections to understanding the human dimensions and educational aspects of participation. Citizen Science teaches teams of program developers and researchers how to cross the bridge from success at public engagement to using citizen science data to understand patterns and trends or to test hypotheses about how ecological processes respond to change at large geographic scales. Intended as a resource for a broad audience of experts and practitioners in natural sciences, information science, and social sciences, this book can be used to better understand how to improve existing programs, develop new ones, and make better use of the data resources that have accumulated from citizen science efforts. Its focus on harnessing the impact of "crowdsourcing" for scientific and educational endeavors is applicable to a wide range of fields, especially those that touch on the importance of massive collaboration aimed at understanding and conserving what we can of the natural world.