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All organisms depend on the ability to obtain and react
appropriately to information from the environment. Because the manifestations
of this ability are as diverse as bioluminescence in fireflies and Pacific Islander's
navigational talent, our knowledge of the mechanisms governing its use has been
scattered among various disciplines, and our understanding has consequently been
fragmentary -- until now. In a unique synthesis of knowledge from physics, microbiology,
botany, animal behaviour, and psychology, Sensory Ecology provides a universal
approach to understanding how organisms acquire and use environmental information.
To
illustrate the basic principles that determine the flow of sensory information
in all organisms, Sensory Ecology emphasizes strategies for obtaining and
responding to information, such as sounding and communication, which are employed
throughout the phylogenic spectrum, rather than individual behaviours which are
often species-specific. Sensory Ecology presents the first universally
applicable terminology based on these fundamental strategies shared by bacteria,
plants, and animals. Well-crafted and gracefully written,
Sensory Ecology incorporates previously unassociated data from ecology
and physiology in an innovative conceptual framework that will stimulate new research
and prompt reinterpretation of old experiments. The exceptionally clear exposition
of physical principles and mathematical equations invites quantitative predictions,
and original graphs engender a nonmathematical appreciation of ecological phenomena.
An interdisciplinary perspective of extraordinary breadth expressed in lucid,
enjoyable prose makes Sensory Ecology appealing and appropriate for readers
in a range of disciplines -- including behavioural ecology, ethology and behaviour,
sensory physiology, applied environmental science, neurobiology, sensory psychology,
entomology, microbiology, agriculture, and mathematics concerned with biological
applications of information theory. David B. Dusenbery
is a professor of biology and physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
His work on the mechanisms of animal and plant orientation is widely known and
highly respected. |
