Listen free for 30 days
-
Serendipity
- An Ecologist's Quest to Understand Nature (Organisms and Environments, Book 14)
- Narrated by: Tim Danko
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $31.27
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
To newly minted biologist James Estes, the sea otters he was studying in the leafy kelp forests off the coast of Alaska appeared to have an unbalanced relationship with their greater environment. Gorging themselves on the sea urchins that grazed among the kelp, these small charismatic mammals seemed to give little back in return. But as Estes dug deeper, he unearthed a far more complex relationship between the otter and its underwater environment, discovering that otters play a critical role in driving positive ecosystem dynamics. While teasing out the connective threads, he began to question our assumptions about ecological relationships.
Serendipity tells the story of James Estes’s life as a naturalist and the concepts that have driven his interest in researching the ecological role of top-level predators. Using the relationships between sea otters, kelp, and sea urchins as a touchstone, Estes retraces his investigations of numerous other species, ecosystems, and ecological processes in an attempt to discover why ecologists can learn so many details about the systems in which they work and yet understand so little about the broader processes that influence these systems. Part memoir, part natural history, and deeply inquisitive, Serendipity will entertain and inform listeners as it raises thoughtful questions about our relationship with the natural world.
The book is published by University of California Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
"A rare and delightful insight into timely science." (Nature)
"An absorbing and introspective read that is equal parts memoir, ecological textbook, and motivational guidebook for young ecologists." (Science)
"A remarkable journey of discovery...” (Joel Berger, Senior Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society)