Eorgia Coastales

The Georgia Coastal Environment

This report represents an effort on part of the Wilmington District Corps of Engineers to facilitate the availability of information relating to the coastal environemnt. The Corps has many responsibilities on the coast including navigation, shore protection, hurricane protection, flood control, recreation and the permitting program. The author has concentrated his efforts herein to Georgia, yet references to North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida are frequent. It is recognized that environments conform to the boundaries of nature more so than to the boundaries of man's institutions. In this light, information relating to the Georgia coastal environment can be effectively utilized in other areas of the Atlantic Coast either by gaining regional perspective or through application of relevant principles contained in the work. It is hoped that by the collective use of this and other similar works, interested citizens, the academic community and governmental bodies can begin to achieve a common knowledge of published information relating to the coastal environment. (Author).

Georgia Coastal Management Program

Life Traces of the Georgia Coast

Have you ever wondered what left behind those prints and tracks on the seashore, or what made those marks or dug those holes in the dunes? Life Traces of the Georgia Coast is an up-close look at these traces of life and the animals and plants that made them. It tells about how the tracemakers lived and how they interacted with their environments. This is a book about ichnology (the study of such traces) and a wonderful way to learn about the behavior of organisms, living and long extinct. Life Traces presents an overview of the traces left by modern animals and plants in this biologically rich region; shows how life traces relate to the environments, natural history, and behaviors of their tracemakers; and applies that knowledge toward a better understanding of the fossilized traces that ancient life left in the geologic record. Augmented by illustrations of traces made by both ancient and modern organisms, the book shows how ancient trace fossils directly relate to modern traces and tracemakers, among them, insects, grasses, crabs, shorebirds, alligators, and sea turtles. The result is an aesthetically appealing and scientifically grounded book that will serve as source both for scientists and for anyone interested in the natural history of the Georgia coast.