Best Ecology Books
Here you will get Best Ecology Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
1. This Is Your Mind on Plants
Author: by Michael Pollan
English
288 pages
0593296907
Expert storytelling … [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways. New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plantsand the equally powerful taboos.
Of all the things humans rely on plants forsustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fibersurely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience.
Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable.
So, then, what is a drug? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugsopium, caffeine, and mescalineand throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief.
2. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Author: by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Milkweed Editions
English
408 pages
A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Named a “Best Essay Collection of the Decade” by Literary Hub As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beingsasters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrassoffer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.
3. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Author: by Merlin Sheldrake
English
368 pages
052551032X
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Merlin Sheldrake’s marvelous tour of these diverse and extraordinary life forms is eye-opening on why humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth’s marvels….Wondrous. Time A mind-bending journey into the hidden universe of fungi, one of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk).
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time BBC Science Focus The Daily Mail Geographical The Times The Telegraph New Statesman London Evening Standard Science FridayWhen we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree.
Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake’s vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the Wood Wide Web, to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.
4. The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
Author: by Douglas W. Tallamy
English
200 pages
1643260448
A timely and much needed call to plant, protect, and delight in these diverse, life-giving giants. David George Haskell, author of The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees With Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy changed the conversation about gardening in America.
His second book, the New York Times bestseller Nature’s Best Hope, urged homeowners to take conservation into their own hands. Now, he is turning his advocacy to one of the most important species of the plant kingdomthe mighty oak tree.
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards.
He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
5. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Author: by Charles C. Mann
Vintage
English
541 pages
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492. Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them.
The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering.
Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.
6. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Author: by Elizabeth Kolbert
Picador
English
336 pages
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZEONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW’S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALISTA major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyesOver the last half-billion years, there have been Five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted.
Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before.
Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes.
7. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Author: by Robin Wall Kimmerer
English
168 pages
0870714996
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book is not an identification guide, nor is it a scientific treatise. Rather, it is a series of linked personal essays that will lead general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings, from salmon and hummingbirds to redwoods and rednecks.
Kimmerer clearly and artfully explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her diverse experiences as a scientist, mother, teacher, and writer of Native American heritage, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing.
8. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
Author: by Terence McKenna
Bantam
English
311 pages
An exploration of humans’ symbiotic relationships with plants and chemicals presents information on prehistoric partnership societies, the roles of spices and spirits in the rise of dominator societies; and the politics of tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, and alcohol. Why, as a species, are humans so fascinated by altered states of consciousness?
Can altered states reveal something to us about our origins and our place in nature? In Food of the Gods, ethnobotanist Terence McKenna’s research on man’s ancient relationship with chemicals opens a doorway to the divine, and perhaps a solution for saving our troubled world.
McKenna provides a revisionist look at the historical role of drugs in the East and the West, from ancient spice, sugar, and rum trades to marijuana, cocaine, synthetics, and even televisionillustrating the human desire for the food of the gods and the powerful potential to replace abuse of illegal drugs with a shamanic understanding, insistence on community, reverence for nature, and increased self-awareness.
9. The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life
Author: by Arthur Firstenberg
Chelsea Green Publishing
English
576 pages
50,000 copies sold!Cell towers, Wi-fi, 5G: Electricity has shaped the modern world. But how has it affected our health and environment? Over the last 220 years, society has evolved a universal belief that electricity is safe’ for humanity and the planet.
Scientist and journalist Arthur Firstenberg disrupts this conviction by telling the story of electricity in a way it has never been told beforefrom an environmental point of viewby detailing the effects that this fundamental societal building block has had on our health and our planet.
In The Invisible Rainbow, Firstenberg traces the history of electricity from the early eighteenth century to the present, making a compelling case that many environmental problems, as well as the major diseases of industrialized civilizationheart disease, diabetes, and cancerare related to electrical pollution.
10. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
Author: by Paul Stamets
Ten Speed Press
English
356 pages
Mycelium Running is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet. That’s right: growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment, and in this groundbreaking text from mushroom expert Paul Stamets, you’ll find out how.
The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called mycelium-the fruit of which are mushrooms-recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What Stamets has discovered is that we can capitalize on mycelium’s digestive power and target it to decompose toxic wastes and pollutants (mycoremediation), catch and reduce silt from streambeds and pathogens from agricultural watersheds (mycofiltration), control insect populations (mycopesticides), and generally enhance the health of our forests and gardens (mycoforestry and myco-gardening).
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll find chapters detailing each of these four exciting branches of what Stamets has coined mycorestoration, as well as chapters on the medicinal and nutritional properties of mushrooms, inoculation methods, log and stump culture, and species selection for various environmental purposes.
11. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Author: by Michael Pollan
English
271 pages
0375760393
The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in AmericaEvery schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide.
In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desiressweetness, beauty, intoxication, and controlwith the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato.
In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?
12. All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms
Author: by David Arora
Ten Speed Press
English
263 pages
An illustrated guide to identifying 200 Western mushrooms – whether edible, poisonous, or medicinal – by their key features.”In leafing through these pages, you may wonder what all the ‘fanciful,’ ‘foolish,’ or (shudder) ‘extraneous’ material is doing in a factual guide.
After all, it is the practical, hands-on, how-to-identify information that makes this book useful and gives it substance. But I ask: is it any stranger or less desirable to sprinkle the facts with flakes of fancy than it is to liven up solemn, substantial fare like potatoes with something fancier and more flavorful, like wild mushrooms?” – David Arora”[All That the Rain Promises and More] is certainly the best guide to fungi, and may in fact be a long lasting masterpiece in guide writing for all subjects.” – Roger McKnight, New York Times
13. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes
Author: by Dan Egan
English
384 pages
0393355551
New York Times Bestseller Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Award “Nimbly splices together history, science, reporting and personal experiences into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative. Egan’s book is bursting with life (and yes, death).” Robert Moor, New York Times Book ReviewThe Great LakesErie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superiorhold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans.
But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.
20 illustrations, maps
14. Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition
Author: by Jeff Lowenfels
Timber Press
English
220 pages
A breakthrough book. No comprehensive horticultural library should be without it. American Gardener When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants, and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle, and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web.
You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with lifenot just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. This must-have guide is for everyone, from those devoted to organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy plants without resorting to chemicals.
15. Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest
Author: by Richard K. Nelson
English
308 pages
0226571637
“Nelson spent a year among the Koyukon people of western Alaska, studying their intimate relationship with animals and the land. His chronicle of that visit represents a thorough and elegant account of the mystical connection between Native Americans and the natural world.”Outside “This admirable reflection on the natural history of the Koyukon River drainage in Alaska is founded on knowledge the author gained as a student of the Koyukon culture, indigenous to that region.
He presents these Athapascan views of the landprincipally of its animals and Koyukon relationships with those creaturestogether with a measured account of his own experiences and doubts…. For someone in search of a native American expression of ‘ecology’ and natural history, I can think of no better place to begin than with this work.”Barry Lopez, Orion Nature Quarterly “Far from being a romantic attempt to pass on the spiritual lore of Native Americans for a quick fix by others, this is a very serious ethnographic study of some Alaskan Indians in the Northern Forest area….
16. A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
Author: by Aldo Leopold
Oxford University Press
English
240 pages
Few books have had a greater impact than A Sand County Almanac, which many credit with launching a revolution in land management. Written as a series of sketches based principally upon the flora and fauna in a rural part of Wisconsin, the book, originally published by Oxford in 1949, gathersinformal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere; a final section addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation.
Beloved for its description and evocation ofthe natural world, Leopold’s book, which has sold well over 2 million copies, remains a foundational text in environmental science and a national treasure.
