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    The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity
    Unavailable
    The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity
    Unavailable
    The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity
    Ebook414 pages5 hours

    The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity

    By Cristina Eisenberg

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Animals such as wolves, sea otters, and sharks exert a disproportionate influence on their environment; dramatic ecological consequences can result when they are removed from—or returned to—an ecosystem.

    In The Wolf's Tooth, scientist and author Cristina Eisenberg explores the concept of "trophic cascades" and the role of top predators in regulating ecosystems. Her fascinating and wide-ranging work provides clear explanations of the science surrounding keystone predators and considers how this notion can help provide practical solutions for restoring ecosystem health and functioning.

    Eisenberg examines both general concepts and specific issues, sharing accounts from her own fieldwork to illustrate and bring to life the ideas she presents. She considers how resource managers can use knowledge about trophic cascades to guide recovery efforts, including how this science can be applied to move forward the bold vision of rewilding the North American continent. In the end, the author provides her own recommendations for local and landscape-scale applications of what has been learned about interactive food webs.

    At their mfundamental level, trophic cascades are powerful stories about ecosystem processes—of predators and their prey, of what it takes to survive in a landscape, of the flow of nutrients. The Wolf's Tooth is the first book to focus on the vital connection between trophic cascades and restoring biodiversity and habitats, and to do so in a way that is accessible to a diverse readership.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIsland Press
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781597268189
    Unavailable
    The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity

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    Reviews for The Wolf's Tooth

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      48 of 75 for 2015. It took me a while to get through this book, but I do consider it a very important read for anyone interested in ecology and the interplay of species in the health of our world. It is especially topical here in the northern Rockies where wolves and their reintroduction remains controversial. I had never heard the terms Trophic Cascades pr Keystone Predators before beginning to read this study, but I had read about how recent studies in Yellowstone National Park show that wolves have had major, positive impacts on both animal and plant life in that area. Eisenberg talks about what has happened in Yellowstone, and cites her own work in Glacier National Park, as well as work done by other scientists around the world. Keystone Predators are not just wolves or Grizzly Bears, but even such cute and lovable creatures as Sea Otters whose presence or absence determines just how healthy the near shore regions of our oceans can be. If, like me, you believe that Little Red Riding Hood lied, or if you're at all interested in the health of the world around us, you need to read this book. While Eisenberg is a scientist, and uses scientific terminology, not all of which is immediately accessible to the layman, she includes a very extensive glossary at the back of the tome, just so you can make sure you understand such terms as irruption, trophic, and, yes, biodiversity. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      This is a useful and interesting overview of the state of ecosystem management science, its history, complexities, and uncertainties. Eisenberg interlaces accounts of her own research on wolves, elks, aspens, and songbirds in Colorado, Wyoming, and elsewhere, with accounts of what others are doing or have done in similar settings and in very different ones. These include the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch in Montana, a working ranch that operates as a demonstration of how conservation and ranching can work in harmony, making a productive ranch in a wild landscape that includes bears, wolves, cougars, elk, mule deer, and other wildlife normal absent or barely hanging on in ranching territory.

      The main point here is to explain the current state and history of ecological science. Eisenberg lays out the evidence of the importance of keystone predators, such as wolves in North America and sharks in the oceans, in maintaining a healthy level of biodiversity. One example: In the absence of wolves, elk overbrowse aspen saplings, leading to a lack of aspen in the middle age ranges, leading to a lack of the songbirds for whom a healthy density of mature and near-mature aspens are the preferred habitat. Over the last couple of decades, field research has strongly reinforced the importance of these keystone predators in maintaining the diversity that we need in order to continue to live comfortably on this planet.

      But the top-down effects of keystone predators aren't the whole story. Food supply, disease, climate change, and other "bottom up" effects are also important, and interact with the top-down effects of keystone predators. In some circumstances one is more important, in other circumstances the other is more important--and the same ecosystem can flip from one to the other as its major force due to disruptions such as fires, volcanic eruptions, or human habitat destruction.

      At times this is a bit dry, but other parts are lively and interesting, and overall this is very useful background for understanding environmental issues that make the news and affect our daily lives.

      Recommended.