University of Chicago Press
Evolution and Environment in Tropical America
Key Metrics
- Jeremy B C Jackson
- University of Chicago Press
- Hardcover
- 9780226389424
- 9.22 X 6.24 X 1.15 inches
- 1.66 pounds
- Science > Earth Sciences - Geology
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Recent discoveries show that dramatic changes in climate and ocean circulation can occur very quickly, and that ecological communities respond just as rapidly. Abrupt changes in the composition of fossil assemblages, formerly dismissed as artifacts of a poor fossil record, now are seen as accurate records of swift changes in the composition of ocean communities.
The twenty-four contributors use current work in paleontology, geology, oceanography, anthropology, ecology, and evolution to paint this challenging portrait of rapid environmental and evolutionary change. Their conclusions argue for a revision of existing interpretations of the fossil record and the processes--including invading Eurasian peoples--that have produced it.
Author Bio
Jeremy Jackson is the scientific director of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, senior advisor on coral reefs for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
He is also a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Jackson studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the environment and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has won numerous international prizes and awards.
He is the author of more than 170 scientific publications and eleven books, most recently Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental Crises and Shifting Baselines in Fisheries: Using the Past to Manage the Future.
Research Interests
I study the historical ecology and evolution of marine ecosystems and the ways that human activities have affected their biodiversity and function. I am currently working on a synthesis of my last thirty five years of paleobiological research on the evolution of Caribbean marine communities as affected by their isolation from the Pacific Ocean due to the uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, with particular emphasis on coral reefs and associated seafloor biota. Another major focus is the decline of coral reefs due to exploitation, pollution, and climate change and the potential for reef restoration. I am also working on a new book on the historical ecology of the global tropics.
Source: Smithsonian and National Academy of Sciences
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