Biodiversity

E.O. Wilson. The Future of Life. (2002)

Harvard biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Wilson draws on two decades of research on biological diversity to describe vividly the richness of our biosphere and the damage humankind has caused and increasingly continues to cause to it. Emphasizing the need to understand fully the biodiversity of our planet and the value of the ecosystem services it supports, as well as making the case to adopt a global land ethic, he proposes a variety of strategies that seek common ground between economic progress and conservation. Although the challenges are large, he is ultimately optimistic that Earth’s living history can be preserved.

Yvonne Baskin. The Work of Nature: How the Diversity of Life Sustains Us. (1997)

“How many species can be lost before the ecological systems that nurture life begin to break down?” While not always readily obvious, the complex relationships of biodiversity are crucial to maintaining the basic life support systems of our planet in the ways they provide clean air, pure water, and fertile soils, among other things. Science journalist Yvonne Basking surveys the work of leading ecologists and explains clearly the practical consequences of biodiversity loss for the health, stability, and functioning of ecosystems, as well as the extraordinary challenges involved in ecological restoration.

Dave Forman. Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century. (2004)

“The central reality of our era is extinction. Nothing is more important. Mass extinction is our legacy as a species so far. No other moral challenge is so great as controlling our destructive power over nature,” writes Dave Forman, director of The Rewilding Institute. But he remains hopeful that the causes of extinction and ecological wounds can be halted. In response to the challenge, he lays out a bold vision and a practical strategy for restoring and reconnecting wilderness areas across North America based on recent insights from conservation biology and the historical experiences of the citizen conservation movement.

Cristina Eisenberg. The Wolf’s Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity. (2010)

Based on her fieldwork with wolves and on research findings by other scientists around the world in recent decades, Eisenberg surveys the latest thinking on trophic cascades, or the effects created in an ecosystem when top-level predators or other keystone species are removed. Examples from Yellowstone, the Aleutian Islands, Amazon rain forests, and coral reefs show how such effects can be complex, wide-ranging, and unexpected with potentially catastrophic implications for local biodiversity. She also looks at how resource managers are using this knowledge to guide ecosystem recovery, including how it could be applied to move forward a vision of rewilding the North American continent.

Niles Eldredge. Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis. (1998)

Paleontologist and Curator in the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History, Niles Eldredge brings an evolutionary perspective to the present-day biodiversity crisis in which the yearly loss of species is approaching the scale of the mass global extinctions of the distant past. Written for a general audience, he focuses on four questions: “What is biodiversity?”, “Why should we care about biodiversity?”, “What threatens biodiversity?”, and “What can we do?” An appendix listing animal species that have become extinct since 1600 is a sobering indicator of how human activity had radically transformed the ecosystems of the planet.

E.O. Wilson & Frances M. Peter, eds. Biodiversity. (1988)

This book collects papers from the National Forum on BioDiverstiy, held in Washington, D.C., on September 21-24, 1986, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and Smithsonian Institution. The forum featured over 60 leading biologists, economists, agricultural experts, philosophers, representatives of assistance and lending agencies, and other professionals, and it did much to popularize the concept. It is a comprehensive overview of the science, still relevant today, and an urgent warning about the rapid alteration and destruction of the environments that have fostered the diversity of life forms on the planet for more than a billion years.

Bruce A. Stein, Lynn S. Kutner, & Jonathan S. Adams, eds. Precious Heritage: The Status of Biodiversity in the United States. (2000)

This work is a joint project of The Nature Conservancy, the Association for Biodiversity Information, and natural heritage programs in all fifty states, collecting together for the first time ever over twenty-five years of research and information gathered by state biodiversity inventories. With over 200,000 species of animals, plants, and microbes, the United States is biologically rich and has the most diverse flora and fauna of any largely temperate zone nation. However, up to one-third of these species are at risk and more than 500 have already disappeared, largely as a result of habitat destruction. To address these threats, the authors review the fundamental strategies underlying most biodiversity conservation efforts and suggest a blueprint for the future.

Jack Ahearn, Elizabeth Leduc, and Mary Lee York. Biodiversity Planning and Design: Sustainable Practices. (2006)

This work explores the role of landscape architects and planners in influencing land use decisions for the promotion of biodiversity conservation, particularly with regard to minimizing habitat loss and degradation. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from around the United States, the authors examine the issues, concepts, and methods involved, and illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach led by planners and designers working with conservation biologists, restoration ecologists, and natural and social scientists can advance sustainable practices.

Nancy Knowlton. Citizens of the sea: wondrous creatures from the Census of Marine Life. (2010)

This book was released near the conclusion of the Census of Marine Life, an unprecedented and comprehensive ten year international effort to assess the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life globally. 2,700 scientists from over 80 nations around the globe participated in 540 expeditions and countless hours of land-based research to identify more than 1,200 new marine species, with another 5,000 or more still awaiting formal description. Authored by Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Citizens of the Sea reveals some of this diversity through skilled underwater photography from National Geographic and Census researchers.

Living Planet Report

From the WWF, the Living Planet Report relates the Living Planet Index – a measure of the health of the world’s biodiversity – to the Ecological Footprint and the Water Footprint – measures of humanity’s demands on the Earth’s natural resources.