Tree Ecology

Trees can survive without humans, but we can't live without trees. Even if human-caused climate change devastates our planet, the trees will return – as they do, always and everywhere, even after ice ages, catastrophic fires, destructive storms and deforestation. It would just be nice if we could be around to see them flourish. A love letter to the forest and a passionate argument for protecting nature's boundless diversity – not only for the trees, but also for ourselves, The Power of Trees is forester Peter Wohlleben's follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees.

Our understanding of the ‘tree of life’, with powerful implications for human genetics, human health and our own human nature, has recently completely changed. This book is about a new method of telling the story of life on earth - through molecular phylogenetics. It involves a fairly simple method - the reading of the deep history of life by looking at the variation in protein molecules found in living organisms. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection.

Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.

Stephanie Kaza's heartfelt meditations on the singular presence of trees have helped thousands of listeners feel a sense of spiritual connection to our ancient relatives. Through her attentive, loving encounters with trees, Kaza asks vital questions about what it means to reinhabit place, live simply, and speak from the truth of experience. More pertinent now than ever, her intimate exploration of the lives of individual trees demonstrates the possibility of personal and ecological sanity in our time.

A forester's fascinating stories backed by the latest scientific research illustrate how trees nurture and talk to each other. Are trees social beings? In this international best seller - which has sold more than 320,000 copies in Germany alone - forester and author Peter Wohlleben convincingly makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families.

No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.

David Haskell's award-winning The Forest Unseen won acclaim for eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world. Now Haskell brings his powers of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans. Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world, exploring the trees' connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals and other plants.

In ten short and accessible essays, science and nature writer Carolyn Fry takes us on an awe-inspiring journey of the Earth's lungs. From what makes a plant a tree and the incredible impact of forests, to how trees are under attack and what we can do to save them, this book will enthral and inform on the monumental power of the humble tree. Trees: 10 Things You Should Know is an essential introduction to why trees are so important, and why our lives depend on them!

Ancient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization began, “even the pine tree stood on its own very hills” but when civilization took over, “the mountain oak, the pine were felled.” This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill these roles for a good portion of the world’s population.

Drawing upon a lifetime of scientific expertise and an abiding love of nature, Richard Fortey uses his small wood to tell a wider story of the ever-changing British landscape, human influence on the countryside over many centuries and the vital interactions between flora, fauna and fungi. The trees provide a majestic stage for woodland animals and plants to reveal their own stories.

Find out how animals survive Earth's most extreme regions! From the rain-drenched treetops to the sun-starved forest floor, the rain forest is a tough place to live. But many animals from geckos to jaguars thrive in this environment. Discover the amazing body parts and behaviors that make living there possible.  

In this entertaining young readers edition of the environmental studies classic, Michael Pollan demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a reciprocal relationship. He links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, energy, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, coffee, 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 helped them to thrive.

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. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.

O grande pesquisador e contador de histórias leva os ouvintes numa instigante jornada pelos imensos sistemas naturais que tornam a vida na Terra possível.

Charney’s stories and lessons will provide anyone with the necessary investigative skills to look at a landscape, interpret it, and tell its story—from its start as rock or soil to the plants and animals that live on it. Ultimately, Charney argues, by critically engaging with the landscape we will become better at connecting with nature and ourselves.

Discover your body's full potential with nature's most powerful superfood! Here is a sneak peak of the most powerful superfood, revealed: Moringa oleifera as the most powerful detox diet - how and why you lose weight effortlessly after starting a daily moringa protocol; the complete nutritional value of moringa - you'll understand why it's called the world's most powerful superfood; how moringa oleifera, "the miracle tree", can prevent and heal diseases in your body with its incredible natural healing properties.

Earth is dominated by plants, which outweigh all other life - from tiny duckweed floating in our ponds to giant sequoia trees towering above us. It's easy to take plants for granted, but we depend on these light-eaters, oxygen-generators and rain-makers for every breath of air and mouthful of food we take.

They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers, rain forest royalty, more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Gods, Wasps and Stranglers tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our prehuman ancestors, influenced diverse cultures, and played key roles in the dawn of civilization.

Twelve Trees introduces us to a dozen species of trees that epitomize the challenges facing the planet, and the ways that scientists and others are working with a growing sense of urgency to save them. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are studying trees and their workings, using a host of new tools, to learn how trees function individually and collectively, and why they do what they do. 

Amanda Lewis was an overachieving, burned-out book editor most familiar with trees as dead blocks of paper. A dedicated "indoorswoman," she could barely tell a birch from a beech. But that didn't stop her from pledging to visit all of the biggest trees in British Columbia, a Canadian province known for its rugged terrain and gigantic trees.