Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
56
result(s) for
"Marine biology Textbooks."
Sort by:
Drinking behaviors and water balance in marine vertebrates
Acquisition of fresh water is important to animals, and is both difficult and critical for species residing in marine environments. Adaptive radiations to fully marine habitats were constrained by the need for fresh water and the capacity of various taxa to adapt physiology to reliance on sources of water other than free drinking water. Here, we review the water relations of marine vertebrates, with an emphasis on drinking and the need to procure fresh water. Numerous marine teleost fishes drink seawater, but some do not, and drinking is more variable and complex than suggested by textbooks. The mechanisms by which fishes and other vertebrates regulate water balance involve the renin–angiotensin and aldosterone endocrine systems, but plasma osmotic and ionic concentrations as well as other chemical signals can also be involved. Multiple mechanisms for stimulation of drinking are operative and diverse among species. Clearly, evolutionary adaptations to environmental salinities can alter drinking behaviors. Marine elasmobranchs do not characteristically drink seawater, but euryhaline species drink upon returning to more concentrated seawater, as with teleosts. Hagfish are osmoconformers, and there is no evidence for drinking. In general, marine reptiles and most marine mammals and seabirds do not drink seawater. Exceptions include sea turtles, cetaceans, and some pinnipeds. Some marine species (e.g., sea snakes) require fresh water that can be acquired from ephemeral rainwater lenses, while others are adapted to utilize dietary and metabolic water. Regardless of drinking behaviors, numerous forms have evolved varied strategies for conserving water while reducing its losses to the surrounding sea.
Journal Article
Fabulous but Forgotten Fucoid Forests
Fucoid forests are areas dominated by marine brown seaweed in the taxonomic order Fucales that, like the better‐known marine foundation species—corals, kelps, seagrasses, salt marshes, and mangroves—are threatened by anthropogenic stressors. Fucoid forests are fabulous and important because they, like the better‐known marine foundation species (i) span large areas, bioregions, and ecosystems, (ii) provide ecological functions such as high productivity, biodiversity, and habitat for iconic and endemic species, and (iii) support a variety of ecosystem services, like commercial fisheries, regulation of nutrients and carbon, and cultural values. Fucoid forests are, based on a new citation analysis, forgotten worldwide, because they are described orders of magnitude less than the better‐known marine foundation species, in ecology and marine biology textbooks, in Google Scholar and Scopus databases over scientific literature, and in recent reports and reviews about seaweed forests. Fucoid forests would be less forgotten if more people acknowledge their biological importance and societal value more often and equate their importance to that of the better‐known marine foundation species. To decrease the knowledge gap between fucoids and the better‐known foundation species, researchers and science communicators could join forces under a broad “fucoid umbrella,” establish stronger online presences, coordinate and collaborate on publications, and produce free eye‐catching non‐technical materials for teachers, managers, politicians, grass‐root organizations, philanthropists, and funding agencies. We describe that fucoid seaweed forests are vital ecosystems around the world, but also document that they are much less known compared to coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, saltmarshes, and mangroves. We hope our short easy read viewpoint will make fucoid forest more memorable, more valued, and better conserved and managed.
Journal Article
Virtual Reality Simulation
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role textbooks can play on writing complexity and lexical density as a proxy for critical thinking and ultimately learning, in relation to argumentative and summative writing when integrated with a virtual reality experience. In this study, differences in writing complexity and lexical density scores were measured across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by textbook readings, textbook readings followed by VR, and textbook readings alone. Adult students, recruited from non-science-based higher education programs, responded to two prompts related to content found in the VR environments and discussed in the textbooks. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual marine environment prior to responding to the writing prompts would enhance both argumentative and summative writing products, when compared to participants who only had access to the textbook experiences. Participants who were exposed to the VR environment then a textbook demonstrated significantly greater writing complexity and lexical density scores than those who had access to VR alone, or access to the text alone.
Journal Article
Virtual Reality Simulations and Writing
This study investigates the role that textbooks, virtual reality (VR), and mixed approaches (i.e., text and VR) can play in the development of the two writing types, summary and argument writing. This study uses hemodynamics as a proxy for learning. Differences in hemodynamic responses during writing tasks were measured across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by textbook readings, textbook readings followed by VR, and textbook readings alone. Adult students N = 80, recruited from non-science-based higher education programs, responded to two prompts related to content found in the VR environment and discussed in the textbook. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual marine environment prior to writing would enhance the two writing products, when compared with participants who only had access to textbook experiences. Of the four conditions participants exposed to the VR environment then a textbook demonstrated significantly greater hemodynamic response than those who had access to VR alone or text alone.
Journal Article
Ecology of North American freshwater fishes
The North American freshwater fish fauna is the most diverse and thoroughly researched temperate fish fauna in the world. Ecology of North American Freshwater Fishes is the only textbook to provide advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers with an up-to-date and integrated view of the ecological and evolutionary concepts, principles, and processes involved in the formation and maintenance of this fauna. Ecology of North American Freshwater Fishes provides readers with a broad understanding of why specific species and assemblages occur in particular places. Additionally, the text explores how individuals and species interact with each other and with their environments, how such interactions have been altered by anthropogenic impacts, and the relative success of efforts to restore damaged ecosystems. This book is designed for use in courses related to aquatic and fish ecology, fish biology, ichthyology, and related advanced ecology and conservation courses, and is divided into five sections for ease of use. Chapter summaries, supplemental reading lists, online sources, extensive figures, and color photography are included to guide readers through the material and facilitate student learning.
eBook
Megafauna in Salt Marshes
Megafauna shape ecosystems globally through trophic interactions, ecology of fear, and ecosystem engineering. Highly productive salt marshes at the interface of terrestrial and marine systems have the potential to support megafauna species, but a recent global meta-analysis of consumer-plant interactions in marshes found few studies investigated impacts of wild megafauna. We conducted a literature review to document the variety of megafauna in salt marshes and found that 34 species utilize salt marshes, including sharks, manatees, pinnipeds, crocodilians, sea otters, hippos, and large terrestrial animals, such as lions, bears and water buffalo. The use of salt marsh habitats by a variety of megafauna may have implications for both the conservation of these large consumers and for the resilience of coastal wetlands through stabilizing feedbacks on plant ecosystems. Future studies should quantify the occurrence and impacts of megafauna in salt marshes, and how their conservation can help restore these valuable ecosystems.
Journal Article
The Brain of the Domestic Bos taurus: Weight, Encephalization and Cerebellar Quotients, and Comparison with Other Domestic and Wild Cetartiodactyla
The domestic bovine Bos taurus is raised worldwide for meat and milk production, or even for field work. However the functional anatomy of its central nervous system has received limited attention and most of the reported data in textbooks and reviews are derived from single specimens or relatively old literature. Here we report information on the brain of Bos taurus obtained by sampling 158 individuals, 150 of which at local abattoirs and 8 in the dissecting room, these latter subsequently formalin-fixed. Using body weight and fresh brain weight we calculated the Encephalization Quotient (EQ), and Cerebellar Quotient (CQ). Formalin-fixed brains sampled in the necropsy room were used to calculate the absolute and relative weight of the major components of the brain. The data that we obtained indicate that the domestic bovine Bos taurus possesses a large, convoluted brain, with a slightly lower weight than expected for an animal of its mass. Comparisons with other terrestrial and marine members of the order Cetartiodactyla suggested close similarity with other species with the same feeding adaptations, and with representative baleen whales. On the other hand differences with fish-hunting toothed whales suggest separate evolutionary pathways in brain evolution. Comparison with the other large domestic herbivore Equus caballus (belonging to the order Perissodactyla) indicates that Bos taurus underwent heavier selection of bodily traits, which is also possibly reflected in a comparatively lower EQ than in the horse. The data analyzed suggest that the brain of domestic bovine is potentially interesting for comparative neuroscience studies and may represents an alternative model to investigate neurodegeneration processes.
Journal Article
Defecation by the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi occurs with an ultradian rhythm through a single transient anal pore
Defecation in the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi is a stereotyped sequence of effector responses that occur with a regular ultradian rhythm. Here I used video microscopy to describe new features and correct previous reports of the gastrovascular system during and between defecations. Contrary to the scientific literature, individuals defecated through only one of the two anal canals which possesses the only anal pore. The anal pore was not visible as a permanent structure as depicted in textbooks, but appeared at defecation and disappeared afterward. Time intervals between repeated defecations in individual animals depended on body size, ranging from ~10 min in small larvae to ~1 hr in large adults. Differential interference contrast microscopy revealed that both the opening and closing of the anal pore resembled a reversible ring of tissue fusion between apposed endodermal and ectodermal layers at the aboral end. Individuals of M. leidyi thus appear to have an intermittent anus and therefore an intermittent through-gut that reoccur at regular intervals. The temporality of a visible anal pore in M. leidyi is novel, and may shed light on the evolution of a permanent anus and through-gut in animals. In addition, mirror image dimorphism of the diagonal anal complex occurs in larval ctenophores but not in adults, indicating developmental flexibility in diagonal symmetry of the anal complex.
Journal Article
Ocean acidification needs more publicity as part of a strategy to avoid a global decline in calcifier populations
Ocean acidification (OA) is caused by increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, which dissolves in seawater to produce carbonic acid. This carbonic acid reduces the availability of dissolved aragonite needed for production of some invertebrate exoskeletons with potentially severe consequences for marine calcifier populations. There is a lack of public information on OA with less than 1% of press coverage on OA compared with climate change; OA is not included in UK GCSE and A Level specifications and textbooks; environmental campaigners are much less active in campaigning about OA compared with climate change. As a result of the lack of public awareness OA is rarely discussed in the UK Parliament. Much more public education about OA is needed so that people can respond to the urgent need for technological and lifestyle changes needed to massively reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Journal Article