"In the intertidal zone-the space between low and high tide-a rich and complex ecosystem thrives. It's an easily overlooked space, but the porcelain crabs, ochre stars, and other curious species that call this place home provide a window into the hidden workings of the natural world. Drawing on the authority of two leading scientists and the storytelling power of a science writer, this guidebook to the coasts of Washington and Oregon offers general readers a highly-accessible overview of the rich and surprising ways that water and land interact to create seashore ecologies. The authors systematically take readers along the coast, highlighting what makes each location fascinating and unique. (For example, pointing out where to find bioluminescent dinoflagellates, the single-celled algae that light up and trace any disturbance in the shallow water.) At the heart of this richly-illustrated book is a desire to help readers understand the scientific forces that shape the plants, animals, and landscapes at each location; it's the essential guidebook to keep in the car for the reader who wants to know why"--

Between the ebb and flow of high and low tide exist some of the most vibrant ecosystems on Earth. A spectacular variety of life flourishes at the edge of the beach: anemones talk to each other through chemical signaling, clingfish grip rocks and resist the surging tide, and bioluminescent dinoflagellates?a kind of single-celled alga?light up disturbances in the shallow water like glowing fingerprints. This guidebook helps readers uncover the hidden workings of the natural world of the shoreline. Richly illustrated and accessibly written, Between the Tides in Washington and Oregon illuminates the scientific forces that shape the diversity of life at each beach and tidepool?perfect for beachgoers who want to know why. Features include: ? Profiles of popular and off-the-beaten-track sites to visit along the Greater Salish Sea, Puget Sound, and Washington and Oregon coasts ? The fascinating stories behind both common and less familiar species ? A lively introduction to how coastal ecosystems work and why no two beaches are ever alike

San Francisco Bay is the largest and most productive estuary on the Pacific Coast of North America. It is also home to the oldest and densest urban settlements in the American West. Focusing on human inhabitation of the Bay since Ohlone times, Down by the Bay reveals the ongoing role of nature in shaping that history. From birds to oyster pirates, from gold miners to farmers, from salt ponds to ports, this is the first history of the San Francisco Bay and Delta as both a human and natural landscape. It offers invaluable context for current discussions over the best management and use of the Bay in the face of sea level rise.

In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture—the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.

The Pacific Northwest coast is home to one of the most diverse displays of intertidal marine life in the world, including sponges, clams, snails, crabs, sea stars, sea anemones, jellies, fishes, seaweeds and more. The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest is a portable and easy-to-use reference for searching out and identifying the hundreds of species of seashore life found on the beaches of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Southeast Alaska. Covering the Pacific Northwest’s most common shoreline-dwelling flora and fauna, the guide gives in each entry a detailed description of appearance and habitat accompanied by colour photos for easy identification of any creature you might encounter as you explore your local beach. Simple but essential information on tides and the various habitats within the intertidal zones is also provided to assist beachcombers in exploring safely with minimal ecological impact. The New Beachcomber’s Guide even contains up-to-date descriptions of the best beachcombing sites and when to visit them—you may even find your new favourite exploration grounds! Thoroughly revised and packed with handy and accessible information, this guide belongs in the beach bag or backpack of any avid naturalist, amateur beachcomber or adventurous family.

Adam Nicolson explores the marine life inhabiting seashore rockpools with a scientist’s curiosity and a poet’s wonder in this beautifully illustrated book. The sea is not made of water. Creatures are its genes. Look down as you crouch over the shallows and you will find a periwinkle or a prawn, a claw-displaying crab or a cluster of anemones ready to meet you. No need for binoculars or special stalking skills: go to the rocks and the living will say hello. Inside each rock pool tucked into one of the infinite crevices of the tidal coastline lies a rippling, silent, unknowable universe. Below the stillness of the surface course different currents of endless motion—the ebb and flow of the tide, the steady forward propulsion of the passage of time, and the tiny lifetimes of the rock pool’s creatures, all of which coalesce into the grand narrative of evolution. In Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson investigates one of the most revelatory habitats on earth. Under his microscope, we see a prawn’s head become a medieval helmet and a group of “winkles” transform into a Dickensian social scene, with mollusks munching on Stilton and glancing at their pocket watches. Or, rather, is a winkle more like Achilles, an ancient hero, throwing himself toward death for the sake of glory? For Nicolson, who writes “with scientific rigor and a poet’s sense of wonder” (The American Scholar), the world of the rock pools is infinite and as intricate as our own. As Nicolson journeys between the tides, both in the pools he builds along the coast of Scotland and through the timeline of scientific discovery, he is accompanied by great thinkers—no one can escape the pull of the sea. We meet Virginia Woolf and her Waves; a young T. S. Eliot peering into his own rock pool in Massachusetts; even Nicolson’s father-in-law, a classical scholar who would hunt for amethysts along the shoreline, his mind on Heraclitus and the other philosophers of ancient Greece. And, of course, scientists populate the pages; not only their discoveries, but also their doubts and errors, their moments of quiet observation and their thrilling realizations. Everything is within the rock pools, where you can look beyond your own reflection and find the miraculous an inch beneath your nose. “The soul wants to be wet,” Heraclitus said in Ephesus twenty-five hundred years ago. This marvelous book demonstrates why it is so. Includes Color and Black-and-White Photographs