One Planet: A Celebration of Biodiversity

Book Description

Our planet, with all its spectacular diversity, is a source of endless fascination-the stunning success of books like Earth from Above is proof of that. Now comes this spellbinding volume, filled with glorious images from the world's greatest nature photographers. This breathtaking work celebrates the amazing variety of species and ecosystems and how various forces affect them positively and negatively. In his absorbing, informative text, journalist Nicolas Hulot presents a lucid portrait of eight ecosystems (forests, oceans, deserts, poles, mountains, wetlands, grasslands, and cities), the species that inhabit them, and the role humans play in each. One Planet, just in time for Earth Day, is a loving photographic tribute to the beauty of the earth-it will remind us all how important it is to preserve this exquisite planet.

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommended top pick........2006-11-06

Eight biological ecosystems of the Earth are described in full here, but with a difference: an oversized presentation and vivid full-page color photos are as much the emphasis as natural history text, lending to a format which will please coffee table collectors of fine art and photography as much as natural history readers. OUR PLANET: A CELEBRATION OF BIODIVERSITY gathers a striking abundance of close-up images of flora and fauna alike, presenting gorgeous shots which are extraordinarily artistic and well detailed. While the natural history explanations are very well done, it's the vivid color photos which makes for a unique, highly recommended top pick.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

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Yellowstone to Yukon
Two hundred full color images showcase that landscape along with the people, animals, and plants that inhabit it

Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam

Manufacturer: Mountaineers Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nature & Wildlife | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0898869897

Book Description

"The great Yellowstone to Yukon corridor is a dream worthy of the North American peoples. The superb photographs by Florian Schulz and authoritative essays by leading naturalists that accompany them give substance to that dream and added hope that it can be realized."—Edward O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

The dream is a connected eco-system through North America's Wild Heart—see what this means and learn why it is important. ·200 full-color scenes of a landscape and its wild inhabitants by an award-winning photographer ·Original essays by noted writers, biologists, and conservationists including David Suzuki, David Quammen, Rick Bass, Ted Kerasote, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ·Illustrates the principles—and the viability—of the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) conservation initiative

A grizzly bear emerges, one small detail in an immense vista of field and mountains and sky. A shoreline, still and empty but for the telltale tracks of passing wildlife. Golden peaks that roll to the horizon, starkly beautiful in the morning light. This kind of space, of solitude—of simple wildness—still exists in North America, outside the boundaries of any park. Photographer Florian Schulz documents the landscape, plants, animals, and people of an eco-system that is surprisingly intact up and down the spine of the Rocky Mountains. There is still time to make a difference: to direct the path of encroaching development and establish connections between the national and provincial parks on this course.

Essay contributors tell of their travels through the region and their experience of the land. They explain the need for Y2Y, based on new findings that reveal isolated nature sanctuaries to be a recipe for extinction. They set the Y2Y conservation program in context: a grand vision grounded on science; a practical plan that provides for economic as well as environmental sustainability; a blueprint designating critical wildlife habitat. Environmental conservation does not mean that humans must be excluded from the land, but we must act thoughtfully.

Customer Reviews:

Yellowstone to Yukon.......2007-08-30

I first heard the phrase "wilderness corridor" when I lived in California's Bay Area in the early 1990s. At that time, the concept was used in conjunction with a bike trail linking the entire Bay Area from Antioch to Oakland. One of the benefits of such a trail, , we were told, would be allowing wildlife to roam freely throughout the suburbs.
I don't recall how that particular issue played out, but the idea was--and is--a good one. Animals don't understand or follow man-drawn boundaries. They roam in territory that most likely has been roamed by their ancestors for thousands of years. Animals are guided by instinct, and man's attempts to limit them to national parks and protected areas is doomed to failure.
And so the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, or Y2Y, was born. In her Publisher's Notes, Helen Cherullo explains the concept as a "dream of a small group of biologists and conservationists--to link the existing parks in the United States and Canada with connected corridors into one intact ecosystem," stretching from Yellowstone National Park, along the Rocky Mountains and through the Yukon. It is 460,000 square miles of untouched land--the last undisturbed parcel of land in the two countries, according to Cherullo, extending 1,990 miles from Cokeville, Wyo., to the Arctic Circle.
This area of land, the Y2Y Ecoregion, is the home of grizzlies, 118 fish species, 10,000 golden eagles and hundreds of bald eagles, to mention but a few of its inhabitants. It is the traditional land of 31 indigenous Native or First Nation (in Canada) peoples, who have inhabited the area for more than 10,500 years. Less than 3 million people occupy the land at this time, but that is changing rapidly.
Florian Schulz, a photojournalist who has long championed conservation, tells the reader that the United States and Canada are making the same mistakes his native Europe did--all of that continent's "true wilderness" is gone, cut down for human use and cleared to develop man's idea of civilization. It's a mistake, Schulz says, that should not be repeated.
So he rounded up some of the world's most noted scientists: geneticist David Suzuki, wildlife biologist Douglas H. Chadwick, and biologist Karsten Heuer, as well as authors and journalists, to document the vast resources, the wildlife and the dangers of approaching development. Interspersed with stunning photography and Schulz's observations, this oversize art book is both visually stunning and a good read.
While obviously a conservation treatise, the book is so filled with magnificent anecdotes, facts, scientific studies and theories, as well as marvelous pictures of Nature and her children in all their glory, that one cannot just plop it on the coffee table and forget it, as we do with most "art" books. This one begs to be read, to be perused carefully. The photos call for our attention and admiration, the stories and concerns of the writers compel us to pay attention and take a stand.
The current practice of isolating specific areas as "nature preserves," according to biologists Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson, actually contributes to extinction. In a book they published more than 40 years ago, they proved that "islands" of nature--small areas kept separate from other small areas--leads to insularity, which is detrimental to biodiversity and ecological health. Small "islands" harbor fewer species and fewer individuals of those species, and these small populations are more vulnerable to climate change, drought, inbreeding and food supply failure.
David Quammen, noted conservation journalist, points out the problems with bear management in the Lower 48 as an example of insularity leading to extinction.
This concept was one of the precursors to the Y2Y concept.
There's not room in this column to summarize the book--it's something you have to read, more than once, to fully digest. The overall idea of connectedness and attachment to nature is captured eloquently by Suzuki in the Foreword.
"For most of our 10,000-year existence, our species, Homo sapiens, lived in an intimate relationship with the natural world. ... predictable regularities were collected into a worldview, the sum of all observations, insights and speculations, in which everything, including the past, present and future, was part of a seamless whole. ... In such a world of elaborate interconnection, people understood that everything they did had consequences and therefore every deliberate act was laden with responsibility."
The words of all the contributors are as eloquent, as passionate, and as though-provoking.
But it is Schulz's photographs that catch the reader, mesmerizing us with the vision of mountains and lakes and rivers and animals. Schulz captures not only the images hew ants us to see, but imbues them with life: a grizzly eating a root, so close we can smell its breath; logging activities in British Columbia almost cause us to sneezed from the dust thrown up; the purple majesty of Mt. McKinley at dawn causes us to stop breathing for the sheer wonder of the beauty.
We humans are visual animals, so we will remember the images long after we've forgotten the text. But the views of this pristine land and its denizens should stay with us forever, and hopefully, we will embrace the Y2Y concept so we can see the actual places Schulz has immortalized in person, rather than as faded memories in dusty books, years after the original has been destroyed.
Readers interested in learning more about the Y2Y Conservation Initiative can visit www.y2y.net for information. Florian Schulz's images can be seen at www.visionsofthewild.com.

Two hundred full color images showcase that landscape along with the people, animals, and plants that inhabit it.......2005-12-05

Yellowstone To Yukon: Freedom To Roam is a coffee-table photography book that takes the reader along with Florian Schulz on a visual journey of the Northern Rocky Mountain landscape. Two hundred full color images showcase that landscape along with the people, animals, and plants that inhabit it. Enhanced with original thematically appropriate essays by Douglas Chadwick, Karsten Heuer, Ted Kerasote, David Quammen, Rick Bass, and others, Yellowstone To Yukon is a testament to the need for conservation of one of our country's still wild, free, and open places where "bison move across prairies, wolves converge on the hunt, elk bugle across valleys, river otters fish the streams, and grizzlies roam the mountains". Yellowstone To Yukon is a welcome and very highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library Environmental Studies and Photography collections.

Women and Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation

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Women and Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management and Conservation

Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Gender and Environment (Routledge Introductions to Environment)

ASIN: 1842771574

Book Description

This unique collection of in-depth case studies from Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America demonstrates the importance of women and gender relations in plant genetic resource management and conservation. It provides a state-of-the-art overview of the concepts, relationships and contexts explaining the relatively hidden gender dimensions of people-plant relations. The contributors come from a rich range of disciplines including ethnobotany, geography, agronomy, anthropology, plant breeding, nutrition and development economics. They demonstrate how crucial women are to plant biodiversity management and conservation at household, village, and community levels; and how gender relations have a strong influence on the ways in which local people understand, manage, and conserve biodiversity.

Valuing Crop Biodiversity: On-Farm Genetic Resources and Economic Change (Cabi Publishing)

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Valuing Crop Biodiversity: On-Farm Genetic Resources and Economic Change (Cabi Publishing)

Manufacturer: CABI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0851990835

Book Description

In agricultural systems, a diversity of crops and varieties in essential to combat the risks farmers face from pests, diseases and variations in climate. Crop biodiversity also underpins the range of dietary needs and services that consumers demand as economies change. There is growing concern, however, about declining services that consumers demand as ecomomies change. This book contributes to a better understanding of the challenges involved in maintaining local crop biodiversity within a rapidly changing global food system, and to policy debates related to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It provides empricial studies conducted in the field with farmers and crop scientists across a range of agricultural economies and income levels, applying economic tools and methods for valuing and managing crop biodiversity on farms.

Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management (People and Plants Conservation)

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Plant Identification: Creating User-Friendly Field Guides for Biodiversity Management (People and Plants Conservation)
Anna Lawrence , and William Hawthorne
Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844070794

Book Description

* Written by the leading experts in the field
for use by non-experts
* Practical guide with step-by-step explanations including clearly drawn diagrams and illustrations
* Universal principles that can be applied in all environments worldwide

In order to manage, use, and conserve plants, we need to improve communication of useful information about them. For this, accurate identification using field guides is important. This book provides potential authors of field guides with an understanding of the issues and methods suitable for producing user-friendly guides which help to identify plants for the purposes of conservation, sustainable use, participatory monitoring, or greater appreciation of biodiversity.
The book draws on both scientific and participatory processes, supported by the experience of contributors from across the tropics. It presents a core process for producing a field guide, setting out key steps, options, and techniques available to the authors of a guide, and, through illustration, helps authors choose methods and media appropriate to their context.

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The Conservation of Plant Biodiversity
Otto Herzberg Frankel , Anthony H. D. Brown , and Jeremy James Burdon
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521467314

Book Description

As in other areas of conservation, the crucial question concerning plant biodiversity isn't whether to conserve but how best to conserve diversity at the different levels of biological organization--the gene, the species and the community. Conservation biology is faced with several controversial issues, such as the dichotomy between the preservation of individual species versus a broader focus on the environment, the relative importance to give to endangered species, the design and management of reserves, and the drive for increasing agricultural productivity through plant improvement versus the drive to maintain traditional peasant varieties in cultivation. These and other issues are dealt with here by emphasizing and exploring the underlying scientific principles. The conservation of whole communities emerges as the paramount strategy for maintaining the evolutionary potential of plant life.

Biodiversity (Papers from the 1st National Forum on Biodiversity, September 1986, Washington, D.C.)

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First Class Service
May have changed my life

Biodiversity (Papers from the 1st National Forum on Biodiversity, September 1986, Washington, D.C.)

Manufacturer: National Academy of Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Biotechnology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0309037395

Customer Reviews:

First Class Service.......2005-09-05

I don't know anything about the book or E. O. Wilson. But the service I received from the vendor was first class, it arrived on-time and I saved a ton of money on this book.

May have changed my life.......2001-08-27

As we all know, E.O. Wilson is a giant of modern biology. Though his work has not always been quietly accepted, his ideas and opinions are undoubtedly an invaluble resorce to the world. In this huge book, Wilson presents what he believes are the 57 most important essays on the current state of Earth's biodiversity.

Being assigned summer reading, my teacher was convinced that I would love this book. He obviousely thought highly of it and so I began reading with an open mind. I'm so glad I did because the issues presented took my breath away. We are living in the middle of the largest mass extinction Earth has ever seen. Right now. These essays bring the reader completely up to speed on what is being destroyed, what efforts are being done to save the Earth, and what further efforts need to begin.

Book Description

Connecticut Wildlife is the lavishly illustrated, exhaustive overview of the ecosystems of Connecticut, its plants and animals, and the ecological links among the state's wildlife and their habitats--from butterflies to red foxes, jellyfish to double-crested cormorants, poison ivy to phytoplankton. It carefully traces Connecticut's daily, seasonal, annual, and long-term cycles, which range from the dynamics of natural communities to patterns of reproduction and behavior in major groups of organisms. Whether looking at individual species or broad ecosystems, Geoffrey A. Hammerson's conservationist perspective shines in Connecticut Wildlife. The book will become an essential part of the libraries of every naturalist, conservationist, and educator in Connecticut and the Northeast.

Customer Reviews:

A lot of info for a little state.......2004-08-21

This is a great reference book for Connecticut wildlife, from deer to aphids, and trees to lichens.

Many of the entries are written in a conversational tone, with the author sharing his experiences with that species in Connecticut. He will say something like, "I have often seen this species breeding in shallow pools of Milford in April" or "This species is limited to the traprock ridges of central Connecticut". That is what makes this book different from so many other reference books out there.

The book is not necessarily an identification key, although it would certainly be helpful when trying to identify a species. It is more a description of the species found in the state and how they live. That is certainly handy when all you've got is a guide for, say, trees of North America and many of the trees shown do not even live in Connecticut. Here you would find out that Chinquapin oak or yellow oak are rare on limestone ridges and ledges in western Connecticut, that scarlet oak is shade intolerant, and black oak is typical of dry, sandy soils.

There is also general information about wildlife and the many types of ecosystems found in Connecticut. You can use this book to learn about vernal pools, salt-marshes, or the Connecticut River. There is a discussion about how insects tolerate being frozen and another on how galls are made.

There are a lot of pictures in the book, but there is not a picture of each species listed, which I think is a drawback.

Entries are organized by biological classification, for example, 'segmented worms', with a brief introduction of that group.

Conserving Forest Biodiversity: A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach

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Conserving Forest Biodiversity: A Comprehensive Multiscaled Approach
David Lindenmayer , and Jerry F. Franklin
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559639350

Book Description

While most efforts at biodiversity conservation have focused primarily on protected areas and reserves, the unprotected lands surrounding those area?the "matrix"?are equally important to preserving global biodiversity and maintaining forest health. In Conserving Forest Biodiversity, leading forest scientists David B. Lindenmayer and Jerry F. Franklin argue that the conservation of forest biodiversity requires a comprehensive and multiscaled approach that includes both reserve and nonreserve areas. They lay the foundations for such a strategy, bringing together the latest scientific information on landscape ecology, forestry, conservation biology, and related disciplines as they examine:

the importance of the matrix in key areas of ecology such as metapopulation dynamics, habitat fragmentation, and landscape connectivity
general principles for matrix management
using natural disturbance regimes to guide human disturbance
landscape-level and stand-level elements of matrix management
the role of adaptive management and monitoring
social dimensions and tensions in implementing matrix-based forest management

In addition, they present five case studies that illustrate aspects and elements of applied matrix management in forests. The case studies cover a wide variety of conservation planning and management issues from North America, South America, and Australia, ranging from relatively intact forest ecosystems to an intensively managed plantation.

Book Description

The urgent need to ensure the conservation of biological diversity is now widely recognized, but practical measures to protect endangered species and habitats are still small-scale and generally limited to developed countries. This volume offers a detailed analysis of the economic and scientific rationales for biodiversity conservation. It discusses the justification for, and implementation of intellectual property rights regimes as incentive systems to encourage conservation. The contributions form an interdisciplinary approach encompassing fields of study such as evolutionary biology, chemistry, economics and legal studies. The arguments are presented through the case study of medicinal plant use in the pharmaceutical industry. The book will be of interest and relevance to a broad spectrum of conservationists from research students to policy makers.

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