Offering essential environmental wisdom for the twenty-first century, this lively, compact book explains more than sixty basic ecological concepts in an easy-to-use A-to-Z format. From Air and Biodiversity to Restoration and Zoos, Ecology: A Pocket Guide forms a dynamic web of ideas that can be entered at any point or read straight through. An accessible, informative guide to achieving ecoliteracy, it tells the story of the amazing interconnectivity of life on Earth and along the way provides the ecological understanding necessary for fighting environmental degradation. This new edition has been updated throughout and features five new essays on the topics of biotechnology, global warming, migration, smell, and tourism.
Ecology, Revised and Expanded A Pocket Guide
About the Book
Reviews
“An environmental science program would do well to put this volume into the hands of each student and teacher.“—NSTA Recommends: National Science Teaching Association
“Each entry is a small gem. . . . Callenbach’s short essays are enjoyable and thought-provoking reading.”—Science Scope
“Enjoyable and thought-provoking.”—Science Teacher"A graceful, lucid, and judicious book that belongs in the back pocket of every planetary citizen."—Evan Eisenberg, author of The Ecology of Eden
"For you readers who hate science and never read it, Ecology: A Pocket Guide excites your understanding and gently shows you what you have been missing. For the rest of us, this book confirms our love for and respect for scientific insight as a major way of knowing."—Lynn Margulis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Table of Contents
Ecology: Planetary to Microscopic Scales (drawings)
Introduction
Air
Algae
Bacteria
Biodiversity
Bioregion
Biosphere/Ecosphere
Biotechnology
Carbon
Carrying Capacity
Community
Conservation
Cycles
Decomposition
Deforestation/Desertification
Ecology
Ecosystem
Energy
Environment
Environmental Justice
Evolution
Extinction
Fire
Food Webs
Fungi
Gaia
Global Warming
Growth
Habitat
Impacts
Interdependence
Kingdoms
Land Use
Microbes
Migration
Niche
Nitrogen
Organic
Phosphorus
Photosynthesis
Pollution
Population
Predation
Protists
Quarantine
Restoration
Sex
Smell
Soil
Species
Succession
Sulfur
Sustainability
Symbiosis
Taxonomy
Time
Tourism
Toxics
Urban Ecology
Values
Viruses
Water
Wilderness/Wildness
Xeriscape
Yield
Zoos
A Postscript: The Power of Words
Recommended Reading
Acknowledgments
Index