Life Between the Tides: In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore

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And then comes the third chapter, 'Winkle,' where we enter the territory of fractals. Long of interest to me, Nicolson reports on fractals in ways that leaned toward philosophy and had me shaking my head in wonder and delight. I really enjoyed the in-depth descriptions and creative storytelling, and the prose itself was very thought-provoking and intriguing. However, my enjoyment of this book was upset with the discussion of overpopulation as a fact. I understand that to many people a book about tide pools and the animals and plants that live in them may sound boring but that’s exactly what I wanted. And it’s NOT AT ALL what I found here. The first half of the book which is at least mostly about tide pools focuses on the authors DIY creations and how they filled up. Fine but why not have one chapter about that and the rest exploring mature tide pools in various marine environments around the world???

Memoirist, historian, and nature writer Nicolson brings capacious erudition and acute sensitivity to his intimate investigation of the ebb, the flow, and the teeming variety of life in tidal pools...Illustrated with photographs and delicate drawings, this book is a marvel.Paine’s epiphany — that ecosystems collapse without predators — upended ecology, and researchers later observed cascades in places such as the Aleutian Islands and Yellowstone. Like scientists before and after him, Paine had discovered a fundamental rule in the neat microcosm of a tide pool. For centuries, Adam Nicolson writes in his illuminating new book, “Life Between the Tides,” the shoreline has been “one of the most revelatory habitats on earth.” Foundational tenets of taxonomy, paleontology and evolution “first emerged from studying what was happening to animals and plants between the tides.” A lot more about life within the rhythm of sea and tides rather than what's happening amidst the tidal pools that the author created in the bay near his Scots summer residence. Surf grass is the only true plant within the Intertidal Zone. All the other “plants” are algae, commonly referred to as seaweed. Algae are neither plant nor animal.

How do sandhoppers inherit an inbuilt compass from their parents? How do crabs understand the tides? How can the death of one winkle guarantee the lives of its companions? What does a prawn know?Intertidal zones are marked by vertical zonation. Different organisms live in different zones in the tidal range, depending on how much water reaches them. This zonation can often be seen vertically, with dry plants near the top of the tidal zone and seaweeds near the bottom. All living things found in the area between the tides need to adapt to variations caused by tides, weather, sea conditions and varying degrees of exposure to: