Crowley County Combined Library

"In this addition to the Scientists in the Field series, readers join scientists as they tackle something unusual in the world of ecosystems: colonization. Not a colonization by people, but one of cells, seeds, spores, and other life forms that blow in, fly in, float in, and struggle to survive on the beautiful but harsh new island of Surtsey."--

Thirty years ago, two young biologists named Robert MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson triggered a far-reaching scientific revolution. In a book titled The Theory of Island Biogeography, they presented a new view of a little-understood matter: the geographical patterns in which animal and plant species occur. Why do marsupials exist in Australia and South America, but not in Africa? Why do tigers exist in Asia, but not in New Guinea? Influenced by MacArthur...

The inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution, the Galápagos Islands are a living laboratory, a geological conveyor belt that has given birth to and seen the death of many species of plants and animals.

Take an epic adventure with intimate insight into the big, bold, and tenacious country of Australia. In the vast interior, a man transforms the struggle to survive into a game of pathos and humor; on the coast, a naval cadet dreams of a place in the sophisticated navy of the world's largest island; in the tropical North, a couple preserves a storehouse of culture over 40,000 years old; along the Gold Coast, a woman competes to win against nature's...

Standing almost alone in the great Southern Ocean, South Georgia Island plays host to some of the largest concentrations of animals anywhere on Earth during the spring and summer months.