| Description |
1 online resource : illustrations |
| Contents |
Knobbed whelks, dwarf clams, and shorebirds -- The lost barrier islands of Georgia -- Georgia salt marshes, the places with the traces -- Rooted in time -- Coquina clams, listening to and riding the waves -- Ghost crabs and their ghostly traces -- Ghost shrimp whisperer -- Why horseshoe crabs are so much cooler than mermaids -- Moon snails and necklaces of death -- Rising seas and étoufées -- Burrowing wasps and baby dinosaurs -- Erasing the tracks of a monster -- Traces of toad toiletry -- Why do birds' tracks suddenly appear? -- Traces of the red queen -- Marine moles and mistaken science -- Tracking that is otterly delightful -- Alien invaders of the Georgia coast -- The wild cattle of Sapelo -- Your Cumberland Island pony, neither friend nor magic -- Going hog wild on the Georgia coast -- Redbays and ambrosia beetles -- Shell rings and tabby ruins -- Ballast of the past -- Riders of the storms -- Vestiges of future coasts |
| Summary |
"With this collection of essays, Anthony J. Martin invites us to investigate animal and human traces on the Georgia coast and the remarkable stories these traces, both modern and fossil, tell us. Readers will learn how these traces enabled geologists to discover that the remains of ancient barrier islands still exist on the lower coastal plain of Georgia, showing the recession of oceans millions of years ago. First, Martin details a solid but approachable overview of Georgia barrier island ecosystems-maritime forests, salt marshes, dunes, beaches-and how these ecosystems are as much a product of plant and animal behavior as they are of geology. Martin then describes animal tracks, burrows, nests, and other traces and what they tell us about their makers. He also explains how trace fossils can document the behaviors of animals from millions of years ago, including those no longer extant. Next, Martin discusses the relatively scant history-scarcely five thousand years-of humans on the Georgia coast. He takes us from the Native American shell rings on Sapelo Island to the cobbled streets of Savannah paved with the ballast stones of slave ships. He also describes the human introduction of invasive animals to the coast and their effects on native species. Finally, Martin's epilogue introduces the sobering idea that climate change, with its resultant extreme weather and rising sea levels, is the ultimate human trace affecting the Georgia coast. Here he asks how the traces of the past and present help us to better predict and deal with our uncertain future"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 22, 2020) |
| Subject |
Natural history -- Georgia -- Atlantic Coast
|
|
Barrier island ecology -- Georgia
|
|
Barrier islands -- Georgia -- History
|
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Nature -- Effect of human beings on -- Georgia -- Atlantic Coast
|
|
Barrier island ecology
|
|
Barrier islands
|
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Ecology
|
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Natural history
|
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Nature -- Effect of human beings on
|
| SUBJECT |
Atlantic Coast (Ga.) -- Environmental conditions
|
| Subject |
Georgia
|
|
Georgia -- Atlantic Coast
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780820356976 |
|
0820356972 |
|
