Reflections Underwater

Oded Degany

Description

Why are we as humans so attracted to water and to colorful reefs? Indeed, why are reefs so dazzling? How did cleaning station symbiosis evolve? How come there are so many extraordinary defense mechanisms among reef animals? Do the denizens of reefs have consciousness? How did warning coloration evolve? In what ways do fundamental mathematical rules manifest in coral reefs? For answers to these questions and many more, take a dive into Reflections Underwater.

Coral reefs are one of the world's great natural wonders: endlessly surprising and mesmerizing kaleidoscopic fractals of color and life. But they are also under serious threat from the effects of climate change and development. Reflections Underwater is a unique, illuminating book that explores a stunning variety of topics and concepts relating to coral reefs.

Adopting a holistic, multidisciplinary perspective that weaves together scientific and humanistic ideas, including psychology, evolution, zoology, philosophy, mathematics, art, physics, and more, this book offers a compelling angle on these remarkable and fragile habitats. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, it is illustrated throughout with exquisite photographs gleaned from the author's many marine adventures.

Foreword by Professor David Fortus

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. The Uniqueness of the Diving Experience

2. Coral Reefs – A Holistic View

3. The Reef Kaleidoscopic View – Why Are Coral Reefs So Colorful?

4. Illumination, Disguise and Vision Mechanisms in Coral Reefs

5. Mutual Aid – Coral Reefs as a Symbiotic Society

6. Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw – Defense and Preying Mechanisms

7. Reproduction – The Wild Side of Sex in Coral Reefs

8. Evolutionary Themes

Epilogue

Afterword by Dr. Tom Shlesinger

Concise Glossary

Bibliography

Figure Credits

Index

About the Author

Sujets

• Sciences de la nature
• Biologie marine
• Life Sciences
• Habitats
• Water Sports
• Ecosystems
• Earth Sciences
• Sciences et techniques
• Oceans
• Earth science
• Geography
• Biology
• Scuba diving
• List of water sports
• Coral reef
• Marine biology
• Diving
• Seas
• 454 Life Sciences
• Nature

Informations

• Publié par: Pelagic Publishing
• Date de parution: 08 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781784274146
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

Reflections Underwater
Published in 2023 by
Pelagic Publishing
20–22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU, UK
www.pelagicpublishing.com
Reflections Underwater
A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Coral Reef Wonders
Editor: Shoshana Brickman
Scientific editor: Dr. Tom Shlesinger
Photographs: Oded Degany
Illustrations: Anath Abensour
Book design: Inbal Reuven
Additional credits are included on the bibliography and figure credits pages.
Copyright © 2023, Oded Degany
The right of Oded Degany to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher and the author, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.
https://doi.org/10.53061/PJYM7953
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78427-413-9 Hardback
ISBN 978-1-78427-414-6 ePub
ISBN 978-1-78427-415-3 PDF
www.oded-degany.com | [e-mail]
Front cover: Pinnacle of Crinoids (sea lilies). Puerto Galera, Philippines.
Spine: School of anthias. Verde Island, Philippines.
Back cover: Spotted-ribbontail ray’s eye. Eilat, Israel; Freckled (scarlet) frogfish. Lembeh Strait, Indonesia.

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the Living Infinite.
Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A World Tour Underwater, 1872

Sea turtle. Bunaken, Indonesia.
Contents
Foreword by Professor David Fortus
Acknowledgments
Prologue
CHAPTER 1
The Uniqueness of the Diving Experience
Water Symbolism
Sensual Experience and the Enigma Behind Our Attraction to Diving
Intellectual Experience
Reflections on Underwater Photography
CHAPTER 2
Coral Reefs – A Holistic View
What Are Corals?
Biodiversity in the Coral Triangle
What Does a Pristine Coral Reef Look Like?
Coral Colonies: Do They Constitute Superorganisms?
Resolving Darwin’s Paradox
CHAPTER 3
The Reef Kaleidoscopic View – Why Are Coral Reefs So Colorful?
The Constraints of Natural Selection
The Properties of Light Underwater
The Principle of Camouflage
Human-Biased Point of View
CHAPTER 4
Illumination, Disguise and Vision Mechanisms in Coral Reefs
Biological Luminescence Mechanisms
Reef Dwellers’ Vision System and Methods of Illumination
The Incredible Mystery of the Mantis Shrimp’s Eye
Octopuses: The Colorblind Masters of Disguise
CHAPTER 5
Mutual Aid – Coral Reefs as a Symbiotic Society
What Is Symbiosis?
The Centrality of Coral’s Symbiosis with Algae
Cleaning Stations: How Did They Evolve?
The Sea Anemone and Its Partners
Examples of Symbiosis with Crustaceans in the Reef
CHAPTER 6
Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw – Defense and Preying Mechanisms
Cnidaria Preying Mechanism
The Deadly Strike of the Mantis Shrimp
The Occult Power of Electric Rays (Torpedo Fishes)
Shapeshifters: The Dynamic Mimicry of the Mimic Octopus
The Aggressive Mimicry and Fast Gulp of Frogfishes
Venomous Coral Reef Creatures
Zombie Powder: TTX Venom Mystery
Crowd Behavior: Why Do Fish School?
CHAPTER 7
Reproduction – The Wild Side of Sex in Coral Reefs
Hermaphroditism: Sex Change in Fishes
Hybrids: Interspecies Breeding
A Death Sentence: Octopus Sex
Nudibranch Mating
Seahorse “Feminism”
Mandarinfish Mating
CHAPTER 8
Evolutionary Themes
Cephalopods and Animal Consciousness
Origin of the Octopus: Terrestrial or Cosmic?
The Evolution of Animal Eyes: Convergent or Divergent Evolution?
Better Red Than Dead: The Evolution of Warning Coloration
CHAPTER 9
Mathematical Beauty in Coral Reefs
The Divine Proportion
Symmetry and the Evolution of Flatfishes
The Hyperbolic Universe
“Endless forms most beautiful” – Turing Patterns
Coral Reefs as Complex Systems
Epilogue
Afterword by Dr. Tom Shlesinger
Concise Glossary
Bibliography
Figure Credits
Index
About the Author
About the Book

“Shuzan held out his short staff and said: ‘If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now what do you wish to call this?’”
- Zen Koan
There is something on my table. It is almost symmetrical around a vertical axis. It is hard, but not brittle. It is made of organic materials. Once it was home to many organisms, now to fewer. It is wet on the inside but dry outside. It does not conduct electricity. It has sentimental value to me. What is it? Do these descriptions of the object’s properties bring it to life or do they actually deaden it? Can knowledge of these properties replace the sense of appreciation that may come with experiencing the object, by holding it, seeing it, using it, smelling and perhaps tasting it? Do they limit or enhance one’s experience with the object?
Whenever we inspect any object or phenomenon, we see different things depending on the perspective we adopt. A physicist sees in a leaf countless energy transformations, a chemist the synthesis of sugars, the evolutionary biologist an adaptation to an environment, an indigenous shaman the source of a substance to relieve pain, and so on… So is a leaf just a leaf, or is it much more? Can we really know what a leaf is and fully grasp its reality, or by simply calling it a leaf are we actually constraining it and limiting our ability to fully appreciate it?
Epistemology, which deals with the nature and the justification for our perceptions and conceptions of the world, is central to philosophical discourse. Emmanuel Kant was the first to challenge the longstanding historical pretension that the world could be understood in a completely objective manner, claiming that our conceptions of the external world were not accurate reflections of objective external reality. Instead, according to Kant, the human mind acts as an organizer, constructing our conception of reality based on a priori concepts and our senses’ inputs and not merely on experience. A priori concepts and sensation, Kant believed, led to conception, and different senses would lead to different conceptions. Since our senses are uniquely human, we have a unique and anthropocentric conception of nature. We simply cannot view the world other than the way we do. This anthropocentrism may underlie our ethical approach to nature, leading to the belief that humans stand in the center of the universe and are superior to nature, a worldview that is criticized several times in Degany’s book. However, Kant’s theory has itself been challenged; the fact that Degany is human but argues against anthropocentrism can be seen as evidence that not all our conceptions may be derived from our senses.
This remarkable book clearly adopts the perspective that knowledge enhances experience, but cannot replace it. Reading this will not make diving at coral reefs unnecessary; it will embellish the experience. If you dive regularly at coral reefs, this book will show you new ways of seeing the reef, changing your experience of it. But rather than having to read one book about reefs by a physicist, another one by a mathematician, another one by a marine biologist, another one by an anthropologist, and yet another one by a philosopher, Degany has done something unique, he has combined all these perspectives in a single book. He has succeeded in demonstrating that, as far as the reef is concerned, everything is connected.
But more than that, Degany continually draws parallels between the reef and the human condition, so you will learn a lot about people, not just about polyps and octopuses and other marine creatures. You will learn about reproduction strategies in the reef and have these compared to gender and sexuality in humans. You will learn about the power of numbers, not only in fish schools, but with people. You will learn about shamanism, zombies, the dispute between Newton and Goethe about color theory, and much more. In the end, this book provides a very humanistic perspective on the reef: by learning about the reef, we are learning about ourselves.
In the end though, no matter how much we learn, we are limited in our ability to conceive of the reef in its totality, just as I am limited in my ability to understand all the various aspects that make the object on my desk what it is. In spite of the incredible eruditeness underlying this book, it is clear to Degany that he is only scratching the surface, that some things cannot be fully explained by reductionist approaches like science. In this sense, this book is modest, about our ability to understand nature and about humanity’s place in nature. Hopefully, this will be another insight that readers will take away with them: We are blind elephants in an intricately organized china store. Even when our eyes are opened, we can still barely see. Let us be aware of our limitedness and proceed cautiously, showing respect for and awe of Mother Nature.
This book is extraordinary, original, beautiful, and fascinating. Degany has an incredible mind. I have met many brilliant people, but only extremely few have interests so broad, are knowledgeable about such a wide range of disciplines, and delve into the tiniest details underlying a topic but at the same time are able to see the big picture. This book justifies Descartes, who thought that “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds….” At a time when society encourages, promotes and often dictates specialization at the expense of broadness, when too many scientists know everything about almost nothing but almo