Recounts how a broken specimen from the Corning Museum of Glass and the work of father-son glassmaking team Leopold and Ruldoph Blaschka prompted the author's in-depth investigation into the unusual biology of the world's fragile ocean ecosystems.
It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell's eye and inspired one of the greatest adventures of her life. From diving for dangerous jellyfish in the Mediterranean to searching for harpoon-backed sea slugs in Southeast Asia, A Sea of Glass recounts the author's quest to document the living invertebrates that inspired history's greatest father-son glassmaking team to spin their likeness into glass more than 160 years ago. The story of these artists, Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, whose menagerie of unusual marine creatures was packed away for decades in a Cornell University storage unit, provides a time capsule of life in earlier oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts.
A Sea of Glass takes readers beneath the surface to a rarely seen world, introducing them to the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the Blaschkas stunning living counterparts are indeed as fragile as glass.
Recenzijas
"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation." Library Journal "Harvell's encounters with rarer creatures of the deep are as exciting for the reader as they were for her, but the takeaway from A Sea of Glass is an SOS call for a change in human behavior." Hakai Magazine "Stunning photos ... contextualize the dramatic taxonomic and ecological shifts in ocean life over the past 150 years." Nature "Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas." The Guardian "A wonderful example of the intertwining of science and art where each expression of the wonders of the human mind sparks another." The Explorers Journal "Curator and marine ecologist Harvell recounts her quest to find the living versions of the creatures and the scientific insights the 150-year-old glass replicas still provide." - The Best "Art Meets Science" Books of 2016 Smithsonian.com "Both the Blaschka collection and Harvell's work certainly stand the test of time as a testimony to the beauty and magnificence of the oceans' majesty and wonder." CHOICE "Beautifully written, multifaceted book ... opens the doors of marine ecology to new audiences at a critical time." Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine "You will want this book and then you will want to give it to one and all for a delightful and stimulating introduction to our wonderful ocean creatures." The Quarterly Review of Biology
| Foreword |
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ix | |
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The Quest for the Living Blaschka Animals |
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1 | (18) |
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Rooted Lives of At-Risk Animals |
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19 | (24) |
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43 | (26) |
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Ecosystem Engineers Undercover |
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69 | (20) |
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Fire Stealers of the Deep |
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89 | (24) |
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Shape-Shifters under Pressure |
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113 | (24) |
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Keystone Species in Glass |
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137 | (16) |
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8 The Voyage of our Blaschka biodiversity |
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153 | (14) |
| Acknowledgments |
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167 | (4) |
| Appendix: A Primer on the Blaschka Tree of Life |
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171 | (20) |
| References |
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191 | (8) |
| List of Illustrations |
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199 | (4) |
| Index |
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203 | |
Drew Harvell is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and Curator of the Blaschka Marine Invertebrate Collection. Her research on the sustainability of marine ecosystems has taken her from the reefs of Mexico, Indonesia, and Hawaii to the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. She is a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, a winner of the Society of American Naturalist Jasper Loftus-Hills Award, and a lead author of the oceans chapter in the recent U.S. Climate Change Assessment. She has published over 120 articles in journals such as Science, Nature, and Ecology and is coeditor of The Ecology and Evolution of Inducible Defenses.
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