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| Title: | Coral Reefs
: Cities Under the Sea |
| Author: | Richard C Murphy PhD |
| ISBN: | 0878501398 : 9780878501397 |
| Illustrations: | colour photos |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Size: | 280x260mm |
| Pages: | 178 |
| Weight: | 1.055 Kg. |
| Published: | Darwin Press - January 2002 |
| List Price: | 23.5 Pounds Sterling |
| Availability: | In Print |
| Subjects: | Coral reefs: NATURAL HISTORY; COUNTRY LIFE & PETS |
The most fascinating aspects of coral reefs relate to how corals and reef residents meet the challenges of survival and live together. The focus of this book is on how a coral reef functions -- the jobs of individual residents and how they collectively create a sustainable community. The author explores how solar energy powers the reef, how raw materials are used efficiently and waste is recycled, why biodiversity is security, and how everything is connected. There are also many insights into the more personal lives of reef residents -- some are as strange as any science fiction. By viewing coral reefs in the context of a human city, one can more easily appreciate the creative ways reef communities operate; they neither undermine their own survival nor that of other communities elsewhere. In other words, a variety of species collectively enhances the survival of the entire community. Dr Murphy sees reef communities existing in a dynamic equilibrium where forces of competition, destruction, and decay are balanced by co-operation, repair, and rejuvenation. There are lessons for those of us who are concerned about making our own communities more sustainable. The subject matter is serious, but it is not taken so seriously that it isn't fun. The most fascinating aspects of coral reefs relate to how corals and reef residents meet the challenges of survival and live together.
"Here is a scientist, like very few, who you can understand, who dazzles his audience with the fascinating world of the coral reef." -- Jean-Michel Cousteau, Ocean Futures Society. "How pleased I am to see this marvelous work." -- Robert Ginsburg, Professor Of Marine Geology. "...is a gift to all generations who love nature and wish to preserve its beauty." -- Zale Parry, Ambassador of the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences. "...is the best illustrated and most informative book aimed at the general reader that I have read on the subject." -- Dr Gregor Hodgson, UCLA. "...photographs are consistently exquisite...fascinating and accurate..." -- Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Centre For Marine Studies, University Of Queensland. "...sophisticated, scientific and up-to-date...yet...readily accessible to school children and the general public..." -- Donald Potts, Professor Of Biology, University Of California. "...succeeds in providing a good introduction into reef ecology." -- Choice. "...people might make their own communities more sustainable if they imitated the Plato-like republics of coral reefs." -- Natural History. "Informative and attractive... it presents thereader with fascinating glimpses into the structural diversity of reef animals and of intriguing aspects of their biology, illustrated by many magnificent photographs" -- The Naturalist, Autumn 2004.
