The Shark and the Jellyfish

Stephen Daubert

Description

In this sequel to the acclaimed Threads from the Web of Life, Stephen Daubert presents twenty-six new stories that pull the reader into the mystery and immediacy of ecological processes ranging from the microscopic to the tectonic. Many show surprising intersections of creatures from different realms or the hidden interplay of evolving organisms. These gripping stories contain a level of intimacy and detail not usually encountered in other styles of natural history writing.

Praise for the first collection of stories:

Stephen Daubert's Threads from the Web of Life is written in the tradition of Aldo Leopold and Bernd Heinrich. It teaches by drawing you into the drama, excitement, and beauty of nature.
--Don Glass, host of the NPR-syndicated program "A Moment of Science"

Threads from the Web of Life is a uniquely wide-ranging combination of scientific research and literary imagination that takes the reader on journeys through time and space that even the most elaborate television programs still can't provide. Stephen Daubert's grasp of a variety of botanical, zoological, geological, and climatological disciplines is impressive, and he presents them and their interactions with grace and authority.
--David Rains Wallace, author of The Klamath Knot, The Monkey's Bridge, and Beasts of Eden

Each of these happenings is a thread in the intricate web of life, and Daubert, a molecular scientist at the University of California, Davis, demonstrates that these threads are easily broken by humans. ... Instructive and entertaining.
--Publishers Weekly

Threads from the Web of Life takes readers on a journey around the globe as the author describes unique and unusual ecological processes. It is ideal for casual reading as well as a source of selections to read aloud (!) or to link literature with the study of natural history.
--NSTA Recommends, National Science Teachers Association

Highly recommended. ... The stories are as much enjoyable as they are informative.
--Science Books& Films
In these sixteen stories of the interplay of organisms, weather, and geophysics, many a being succumbs to predation, and many another endures. Evolution happens as species learn the hard way. There is often a tragic element in these fascinating tales. . . . These vivid, poetic tales . . . afford good teaching. Threads from the Web of Life will appeal to any reader whose heart is in the living world.
-- ForeWord

Sujets

• Ecology
• Nature
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 07 septembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826516817
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

he S hark T and the  ellyfish J M O R E S T O R I E S I N N A T U R A L H I S T O R Y

S tephen D aubert

The Shark and the Jellyish

The Shark and

Vanderbilt University Press 

the Jellyish

MORE STORIES

IN NATUR AL HISTORY

By Stepen Daubert

© 2009 by Vanderbilt University Press Nasville, Tennessee 37235 All rigts reserved

13 12 11 10 09

1 2 3 4 5

his book is printed on acid-free paper made from 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. Manufactured in te United States of America

Jacket design: Ceryl Carrington Text design: Dariel Mayer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daubert, Stepen. he sark and te jellyfis : more stories in natural istory / Stepen Daubert. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8265-1629-9 (clot : alk. paper) 1. Natural istory. I. Title. QH45.2.D377 2009 508—dc22 2008029024

Contents

Preface vii

Part 1. Field and Stream

Accidental Airmail  3 he Essence of Survival 9 Marc of te Oaks 15 Wolf Spring 22 Were Noting Grows 30

Part 2. Air Eye of te Needle 39 Spider on te Fly 43 Sky Walkers 49 Nutcracker 56 Flying Lessons 69

Part 3. Sea and Shore Sanderling 79 Unseen Masters of te Sea 91 Water World 101 Sturgeon 110 Life in te Sky 125

Part 4. Forest

he Bitter Taste of Success 133 Fair-Weater Desert  138 Tree-Squirrel Fungus 144 Focal Point 154 Puppeteers 158

Part 5. Earth and Stars he Ligt Fantastic 165 Gold 171 Incandescent Falls 177 Window on te Sky 183 Liaisons to a Rare Planetary Alignment  189 A Dangerous Place 198

Follow te hreads on te Web 207

Index 209

Credits 213

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Preface

S o many readers ofTreads from te Web of Life—students, parents, science teacers, naturalists, and wildlife conservationists—ave reacted to its stories wit stories from teir own experiences, tat I decided to put to- geter a sequel, a new set of adventures in te ecology of te natural world. I title te new bookhe Sark and te Jellyfis, after one of te twenty-six stories in it: like tat one, many of te stories reveal surprising intercon- nections and boundary crossings.  Students of te istory of te eart and te life upon it are natural storytellers. One of tem may pick up a pebble from te trailside and de- scribe its origin starting from te fires inside a dying star—were oxygen and silicon are produced by te fusion of elium atoms, ten trown into space, eventually coalescing into te rocks tat form new planets. Anoter natural istorian migt look to te opposite side of te trail and begin a description of te DNA in a sapling tere. hat DNA encodes a record of te istory of life on eart, read in te genes it sares wit all oter organ- isms. It also encodes te blueprints for te formation of cells, wic form organs, wic form organisms. his description of DNA will ave been prelude to te story of one cell—a cell tat divides into millions of daug- ters, wic form into a seet of tissue, wic forms te autumn leaf now twirling round its stem between te storyteller’s fingers. In te same way, a lone musroom at te foot of an oak migt prompt anoter naturalist to claim tat te living landscape all around is one single being—te roots of every tree connect wit all te oter trees troug a network of symbiotic fungi tat links te entire forest togeter into a single, grand organism.  hese storytellers would igligt spots in teir scripts wit points of fact we can all see, facts tat ancor teir stories to reality. At te same time tey would call upon our imaginations to breate life into features of te natural world tat lie beyond our sigt. We will never witness te conversion of elium to oxygen in te core of a dying star. We cannot in- spect te nucleotide bases of DNA stacked one-by-one upon eac oter in teir elices—teir dimensions are smaller tan te wavelengts of ligt wit wic we see wat we believe. We will never witness te forest-wide breadt of te microscopic fungal network interconnecting all te trees

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beneat te trail—it lies idden underground and crumbles to notingness in our ands as we uneart even a small part of it.  Neverteless, tese concepts serve teir storytellers well. hey conjure a framework of understanding upon wic we organize te tings wecan see. We see te rocks, te plants, te animals, but troug tem weimag- inete motions of tectonic plates, te capture of potosyntetic sunligt, te evolution of species. hat framework of understanding allows us to predict wat we will find in times and places not yet seen.  Stories in tis volume employ tat device. hey flow from wat as been observed, to illustrate wat we would predict. We ave not sailed at tirty miles an our tirty feet above te Tasman Sea at midnigt along wit te Neon Flying Squid. (See te second story inhreads from te Web of Life.) Neverteless, we ave enoug information to envision tat fligt. Inference of suc events draws upon our creativity—te descriptions are conjectural, predictions of tat wic as not yet been confirmed directly. Likewise, te illustrations in tis volume are also extrapolations—works of creative nonfiction.  Oter narratives we will never witness directly are told in te impulses passing troug te minds of te animals wit wic we sare te planet. We cannot know teir tougts; noneteless, we can project wat we know of tem into tales told as if seen troug teir eyes, so to see teir reactions to new situations. Stories of tat sort are also contained in te pages tat follow. Eac account describes one tread from te broadest of our imaginary tapestries—te web of life.  hese treads are te subject of te age-old discipline of natural istory. It is one of te longest-establised of te sciences and as been subdivided and renamed many times. Neverteless, natural istory is still a very ac- tive field. Our knowledge of its facets is expanding at te same exponen- tial pace as is tat of te more recent scientific disciplines. In te Science Notes sections tat follow eac story, te reader will see tat about a tird of te citations are no more tan ten years old. We are still driven—more now tan ever before—to deepen our appreciation of te world around us and to weave a framework of understanding around wat we ave found so far.

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Part 1. Field and Stream