Gulf of California Coastal Ecology ─ Insights from the Present and Patterns from the Past

This handbook on ecology and paleoecology is infused with insights on the origins and development of Mexico’s Sea of Cortes during a span of more than 12 million years. It makes the connection between a beautiful shell washed onto a beach with the discovery of the same or a similar fossil shell from a nearby limestone cliff. The concept of natural history appears less often in increasingly specialized literature, nowadays, failing to draw a connection between the present and the distant past. This book makes the connection and brings the past alive. It deals with multiple and interlocking ecosystems and their fossil counterparts, providing a holistic overview on geography, ecology, and geology. Students, scholars, and outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds will find this guide an indispensable resource for exploration of virtually any stretch of coastline on the Gulf of California.

Markes E. Johnson is the Charles L. MacMillan Professor of Natural Science, Emeritus, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he taught courses in historical geology, paleontology, and stratigraphy in the Geosciences Department over a 35-year career. His undergraduate education in geology concluded with a BA degree (1971) from the University of Iowa and his advanced training in paleoecology culminated with a PhD degree (1977) through the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. With 25 years of field experience in Baja California, Johnson has been a semi-annual visitor to the frontier states of Mexico where he habitually led field courses and supervised thesis projects for students from Williams College. He is an authority on the geology of ancient shorelines and the evolution of inter- tidal life through geologic time based on studies conduced around the world from Western Australia to China’s Inner Mongolia to the fringe of Arctic lands across Siberia, Norway, and Canada, as well as comparatively young island groups such as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and the Azores, Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verde archipelagos in the North Atlantic.Jorge Ledesma-Vazquez taught undergraduate and graduate courses in oceanography and coastal sedimentology as a member of the Facultad de Ciencias Marinas (Area de Geologia) in Ensenada over a 36-year career. He holds a degree in engineering geology from the Instituto Politenico Nacional (IPN) in Mexico City (1977), a MA from San Diego State University (1991), and a PhD from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (2000). He also holds the distinction of Invesigador Nacional in Mexico, a rating associated with high performance by federal research agencies. His earliest visit to Baja California occurred in 1975 as part of a field trip with classmates from IPN, for which he obtained funding through a personal appeal to the president of Mexico. He has co-led many research expeditions and field courses involving students from UABC, Williams College, UNAM and other institutions. He has participated in field studies regarding island groups in the Cape Verde, Canary, and Madeira archipelagos that share similarities with Gulf of California islands. Recently he has collaborated with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia on several archeological sites in Baja California, as well as with Natural Protected Areas.