Annual Cycles of Diving Behavior and Ecology of the Weddell Seal

Annual Cycles of Diving Behavior and Ecology of the Weddell Seal
Author: Michael Angelo Castellini
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780520097797

This work details more than ten years of study in the Antarctic on the diving biology of Weddell seals, a species capable of diving over 600 meters and for as long as 82 minutes. The authors focus on seasonal diving patterns and geographical differences and discuss how diving patterns are influenced by the physical and ecological environment of the seals.

Ecological Studies in the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone

Ecological Studies in the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone
Author: Wolf E. Arntz
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642594190

Ten years ago Polar Biology published the book, Weddell Sea Ecology, containing the European "Polarstern" study EPOS in the Weddell Sea and Peninsula waters 1988/89. In certain respects, the present collection of papers, first published in Polar Biology in 2001, is a follow-up as it combines papers partly based on three "Polarstern" expeditions to the same region. Further articles relate to both land-based and shipborne studies, again primarily in the Atlantic sector and around the Antarctic Peninsula. The SCAR programme, "Ecology of the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone" (EASIZ), served as an umbrella for a truly international cooperation. Although funding came exclusively from national sources, 40% of the scientists on board "Polarstern" were foreigners. Out of the 35 papers of the present volume not less than 14 papers have multinational authorship. The scope of EASIZ is wider ilian the Southern Ocean Studies in JGOFS and GLOBEC. The Contents reflect emphasis on the study of benthos, which hitherto had not received the necessary attention in the attempt to understand key questions of evolution and zoogeography of fauna from the Southern Hemisphere. The information collected under EASIZ enhanced greatly our recognition of the rather high biodiversity of ilie Antarctic shelf benthos. In order to extend these studies to ilie deeper continental slopes and the deep sea, "Polarstern" is presently on her way for ilie first international survey of deep-sea benthos in the Atlantic sector of ilie Southern Ocean.

Antarctic Communities

Antarctic Communities
Author: International Council of Scientific Unions. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 912
Release: 1997-08-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780521480338

The study of Antarctic communities can provide a valuable step forward in investigating the control of community development, the utilization of habitats and the interaction among species in both species rich and species poor communities. This book contains chapters characterizing the present approaches to both aquatic and terrestrial communities in the Antarctic. From biodiversity to trophic flows, from ecophysiological strategies to the impacts of environmental change and the effects of human disturbance, this volume provides an up to the minute overview of community studies in an area covering ten percent of the Earth's surface.

The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals

The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals
Author: Carolyn King
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 1027
Release: 2021-01-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1486306306

The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals is the only definitive reference on all the land-breeding mammals recorded in the New Zealand region (including the New Zealand sector of Antarctica). It lists 65 species, including native and exotic, wild and feral, living and extinct, residents, vagrants and failed introductions. It describes their history, biology and ecology, and brings together comprehensive and detailed information gathered from widely scattered or previously unpublished sources. The description of each species is arranged under standardised headings for easy reference. Because the only native land-breeding mammals in New Zealand are bats and seals, the great majority of the modern mammal fauna comprises introduced species, whose arrival has had profound effects both for themselves and for the native fauna and flora. The book details changes in numbers and distribution for the native species, and for the arrivals it summarises changes in habitat, diet, numbers and size in comparison with their ancestral stocks, and some of the problems they present to resource managers. For this third edition, the text and references have been completely updated and reorganised into Family chapters. The colour section includes 14 pages of artwork showing all the species described and their main variations, plus two pages of maps.

Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Phocids

Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Phocids
Author: Daniel P. Costa
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 651
Release: 2022-03-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030889238

Phocid (or earless or true) seals are ecologically diverse, occupying habitats from the tropics to the poles in marine and freshwater and feeding on anything from tiny zooplankton to other marine mammals. There are 18 species of phocid seals, the smallest species (ringed seal) is more than 20 times smaller than the largest (southern elephant seal), with marked sexual dimorphism present in some species. This book examines the behavior, ecology, and physiology that allow phocid seals to inhabit such a wide range of habitats. The book is composed of 16 chapters written by 37 authors from 8 countries. The book first describes the general patterns of phocid behavior, followed by descriptions of what is known about well-studied species. We have taken a holistic approach, focusing not only on the behaviors themselves but also on the factors that constrain the expression of behavior and the proximate mechanisms driving behavior. In many cases, the chapters represent collaborations between well-established researchers and early-mid career individuals who bring new perspectives to help carry the field of phocid behavioral ecology well into the future.

Diving Physiology of Marine Mammals and Seabirds

Diving Physiology of Marine Mammals and Seabirds
Author: Paul J. Ponganis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2015-11-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1316431991

Analysing the physiological adaptations of marine mammals and seabirds, this book provides a comprehensive overview of what allows these species to overcome the challenges of diving to depth on a single breath of air. Through comparative reviews of texts on diving physiology and behaviour from the last seventy-five years, Ponganis combines this research into one succinct volume. Investigating the diving performance of marine mammals and seabirds, this book illustrates how physiological processes to extreme hypoxia and pressure are relevant to the advancement of our understanding of basic cellular processes and human pathologies. This book underscores the biomedical and ecological relevance of the anatomical, physiological and molecular/biophysical adaptations of these animals to enable further research in this area. An important resource for students and researchers, this text not only provides an essential overview of recent research in the field, but will stimulate further research into the behaviour and physiology of diving.

Sensorimotor Life

Sensorimotor Life
Author: Ezequiel Di Paolo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2017-06-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0191090468

How accurate is the picture of the human mind that has emerged from studies in neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science? Anybody with an interest in how minds work - how we learn about the world and how we remember people and events - may feel dissatisfied with the answers contemporary science has to offer. Sensorimotor Life draws on current theoretical developments in the enactive approach to life and mind. It examines and expands the premises of the sciences of the human mind, while developing an alternative picture closer to people's daily experiences. Enactive ideas are applied and extended, providing a theoretically rich, naturalistic account of meaning and agency. The book includes a dynamical systems description of different types of sensorimotor regularities or sensorimotor contingencies; a dynamical interpretation of Piaget's theory of equilibration to ground the concept of sensorimotor mastery; and a theory of agency as organized networks of sensorimotor schemes, as well as its implicatons for embodied subjectivity. Written for students and researchers of cognitive science, the authors offer a fuller view of the mind, a view better attuned to the experiences of people who live, work, love, struggle, and age, thrown into a world of meaningful relations they help create. Additionally, the book is of interest to neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and philosophers of science.

Linguistic Bodies

Linguistic Bodies
Author: Ezequiel A. Di Paolo
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2023-05-09
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262547864

A novel theoretical framework for an embodied, non-representational approach to language that extends and deepens enactive theory, bridging the gap between sensorimotor skills and language. Linguistic Bodies offers a fully embodied and fully social treatment of human language without positing mental representations. The authors present the first coherent, overarching theory that connects dynamical explanations of action and perception with language. Arguing from the assumption of a deep continuity between life and mind, they show that this continuity extends to language. Expanding and deepening enactive theory, they offer a constitutive account of language and the co-emergent phenomena of personhood, reflexivity, social normativity, and ideality. Language, they argue, is not something we add to a range of existing cognitive capacities but a new way of being embodied. Each of us is a linguistic body in a community of other linguistic bodies. The book describes three distinct yet entangled kinds of human embodiment, organic, sensorimotor, and intersubjective; it traces the emergence of linguistic sensitivities and introduces the novel concept of linguistic bodies; and it explores the implications of living as linguistic bodies in perpetual becoming, applying the concept of linguistic bodies to questions of language acquisition, parenting, autism, grammar, symbol, narrative, and gesture, and to such ethical concerns as microaggression, institutional speech, and pedagogy.

Marine Mammals

Marine Mammals
Author: Randall W. Davis
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2019-11-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331998280X

This comprehensive book provides new insights into the morphological, metabolic, thermoregulatory, locomotory, diving, sensory, feeding, and sleep adaptations of Cetacea (whales and dolphins), Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions and walrus), Sirenia (manatees and dugongs) and sea otters for an aquatic life. Each chapter reviews the discoveries from previous studies and integrates recent research using new techniques and technology. Readers will gain an understanding of the remarkable adaptations that enable marine mammals to spend all or most of their lives at sea, often while hunting prey at depth.