Overview

“This engaging book explores the reasons we need big predators and explains the most revolutionary idea found in contemporary ecology: trophic cascades. For nearly a century ecologists have believed that nature is democratic, governed from the bottom up by the amount of solar energy converted to green biomass, the food of herbivores. Eisenberg makes the case for the alternative view—top-down control of ecosystems by predators and other keystone species—while diplomatically exploring a path for reconciling these disparate views.” — The Huffington Post

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9781597263986

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This engaging book explores the reasons we need big predators and explains the most revolutionary idea found in contemporary ecology: trophic cascades. For nearly a century ecologists have believed that nature is democratic, governed from the bottom up by the amount of solar energy converted to green biomass, the food of herbivores. Eisenberg makes the case for the alternative view top-down control of ecosystems by predators and other keystone species while diplomatically exploring a path for reconciling these disparate views. --Michael Soule Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz

A scientist with a poet''s command of language, Cristina Eisenberg writes with precision and passion . . . takes her reader on a breathtaking, sometimes heartbreaking tour of the planet from the Gulf of Maine to the Amazonian rain forests, the tropical coral reefs to old growth forests of the Northwest as well as rivers, lakes, and wetlands. I found the wealth of information not only accessible but riveting . . . Eisenberg''s powerful, beautifully written book . . . has the potential to open many people''s eyes, minds, and hearts. --Elizabeth Cunningham Huffington Post

A scientist with a poet''s command of language, Cristina Eisenberg writes with precision and passion...takes her reader on a breathtaking, sometimes heartbreaking tour of the planet from the Gulf of Maine to the Amazonian rain forests, the tropical coral reefs to old growth forests of the Northwest as well as rivers, lakes, and wetlands... I found the wealth of information not only accessible but riveting... Eisenberg''s powerful, beautifully written book... has the potential to open many people''s eyes, minds, and hearts. --Elizabeth Cunningham Huffington Post

Author Information

Cristina Eisenberg is a conservation biologist at Oregon State University, College of Forestry, and Boone and Crockett Fellow who studies how wolves affect forest ecosystems throughout the West.

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