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Lädt ... Tales From The Underground: A Natural History Of Subterranean Life (2002. Auflage)von David Wolfe (Autor)
Werk-InformationenTales From The Underground: A Natural History Of Subterranean Life von David W. Wolfe
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Looking for the soils biology textbook I craved in college 40 years ago, I’ve devoured all the recent titles I can find. This one was a bit harder to get through, not sure why. The chapters can be read as individual topics without reference to each other, and read as investigative reporting rather than a unified text. Not particularly interested in large segments. Chapter 6 is about the earthworm, excellent, but spends an obnoxious amount of pages on Charles Darwin’s story. Chapter 7 convinced me to get a tetanus booster shot, with a vivid description of the disease and a portrait of a man in the last throes of death. Zeige 2 von 2 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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Ecologist David Wolfe takes us on a tour through current scientific knowledge of the subterranean world. We follow the progress of discovery from Charles Darwin's experiments with earthworms, to Lewis and Clark's first encounter with prairie dogs, to the use of new genetic tools that are revealing an astonishingly rich ecosystem beneath our feet. Wolfe plunges us deep into the earth's rocky crust, where life may have begun -- a world devoid of oxygen and light but safe from asteroid bombardment. Primitive microbes found there are turning our notion of the evolutionary tree of life on its head: amazingly, they represent perhaps a full third of earth's genetic diversity. As Wolfe explains, creatures of the soil can work for us, by providing important pharmaceuticals and recycling the essential elements of life, or against us, by spreading disease and contributing to global climate change. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)578.757Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Microscopy in Biology Organisms characteristic of specific kinds of environmentsKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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This book takes a look at the Earth's most ancient life forms, the extremophiles; bacterium; fungi; earthworms; the dual nature of soils with regards to deadly plant and animal diseases; the tragic history of human interactions with prairie dogs, burrowing owls and the black-footed ferret. This book also explores the impact of human activities on the soil resources important to our food security and the potential for using soil microbes for bioremediation of damaged soil. The author also takes a look at the various hypothesis that try to explain the origin of life in which dirt or soil play a role e.g. the "clay-gene" theory in which clay crystals act as a catalyst and gene precursors.
The author states that he hopes that as more of us become aware of the life beneath our feet, we will be inclined to work together to maintain the biological integrity of the underground, an preserve some of what we find there for future generations.
"With each new subterranean discovery, it becomes more apparent that the niche occupied by Homo sapiens is more fragile and much less central than we once thought."
This book contains diagrams where relevant and a decent reference section. However, the author tends to select too many examples and creatures from the U.S.A, which is a bit annoying, since there is an entire planet full of underground creatures and humans that interact with them. The book is well written without excessive biographical detail and a fair amount of detailed information on each topic. I believe this book is easy to understand for the general reader. Tales of the Underground provides an enjoyable look at some of the interesting underground citizens. ( )