Beyond the Sea: The Hidden Life in Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands

This fluent study from Strayer (The Hudson Primer), an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, explores the biodiversity found in inland bodies of water. Strayer explains that lakes are commonly created when landslides or humans create a blockage in a valley, and that waterfalls are usually produced when a river cuts through hard rock to reach softer rock beneath, which erodes with the current. Highlighting the impressive adaptations of freshwater life-forms, Strayer discusses how the African lungfish can survive for over a year after its home dries up by burrowing into the mud, and how hornleaf riverweed thrives in strong currents by producing seeds covered in a natural glue that stick to riverbed rocks. Elsewhere, he surveys strategies for saving species from human-made threats, advocating for the removal of dams that block the paths of migratory fish and for requiring that irrigation channels be lined with concrete to prevent leakage and reduce overall water diversion. The abilities of the freshwater organisms Strayer spotlights amaze (scientists have found alga capable of thriving in volcanic craters filled with water four times more acidic than battery acid), proving lakes and streams possess wildlife as wonderful and bizarre as the deep sea. It’s an enjoyable freshwater complement to Helen Czerski’s The Blue Machine. Photos. (Nov.)