Ecological science, the Biosphere

‘Fascinating’ Greta Thunberg‘Extraordinary’ Merlin Sheldrake‘A must-read’ New Scientist‘Enthralling’ George Monbiot‘Brilliant’ Philip Hoare Wildlife filmmaker Tom Mustill had always liked whales. But when one breached onto his kayak, nearly killing him,...

The follow-up to the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Other MindsA Times and Sunday Times Book of the YearA Waterstones Best Book of 2020The scuba-diving philosopher explores the origins of animal consciousness. Dip below the ocean’s surface and you are...

Thirty years ago, a bomb landed in the field of Australian consciousness of itself and its land in the form of Eric Rolls' A Million Wild Acres. The ensuing explosion has caused extensive and heated debate ever since amongst historians, ecologists,...

Many of us gain inspiration, solace, beauty and a sense of wonder from our interactions with nature, and writers have long plumbed and explored these depths.At the same time as many of us tune in to natural landscapes, our environment is imperilled as...

Victoria's South-West is an iconic region of Australia that includes the exceptional landscape features of the Grampians-Gariwerd, the Victorian Volcanic Plain with crater lakes and cones, the forests of the Great Dividing Range, and Melbourne...

If you've ever walked along a beach or rocky shore and peered, poked or wondered at the things cast upon it by the waves, this book is for you. Beaches are our windows to the ocean, and the objects we find on them tell stories about life, death and...

Charles Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle was a journey that would revolutionise our understanding of the natural world and our place in it.The magisterial work it spawned, The Origin of Species, is widely associated with the flora and fauna of the...

This is a book of the discovery of birds and the places they live. Everywhere we go there are birds, and they all have mysteries to be unravelled. These mysteries include the way they look, from bizarre to apparently mundane, why they live where they...

An in-depth look at the role of plant spirits in shamanic rituals from around the world • Shows how shamans heal using their knowledge of plant spirits as well as the plant’s “medical properties” • Explores the core methods of plant shamanism--soul...

A richly illustrated guide to wasps around the world.Wasps have been around since before the dinosaurs and are one of the world's largest insect groups. More than 150,000 species have been identified, and while the black-and-yellow insect with a cinched...

Linking literature, philosophy, art, and personal experience, a moving exploration of the wooded landscape's power.In 1985 Boria Sax inherited an area of forest in New York State, which had been purchased by his Russian, Jewish, and Communist...

The graphic novel adaptation of Peter Wohlleben's international bestseller, with breathtaking illustrations and easy-to-follow text that will delight readers young and old.Are trees social beings? For forester Peter Wohlleben, the answer has always been...

This full-color illustrated textbook offers the first comprehensive introduction to all major aspects of tropical ecology. It explains why the world's tropical rain forests are so universally rich in species, what factors may contribute to high species...

England's Green explores how environmental concerns have shaped and reflected English national identity since the 1960s. David Matless covers themes including agriculture, nature, leisure, climate change, the Anthropocene, the folkloric, the...

In this richly illustrated book, Victoria Dickenson explores the natural and cultural history of this most familiar creature, from the giant extinct rabbits of Minorca to the tiny endangered Volcano rabbits of Mexico...

In 1811, architect, stone mason and shell obsessive George Perry published a lavishly illustrated volume, his Conchology or the Natural History of Shells, featuring 348 beautifully illustrated mollusc shells with descriptions of species, many of which...

Timely and provocative reflections on the future of the wild in an increasingly human world.The Heart of the Wild brings together some of today's leading scientists, humanists, and nature writers to offer a thought-provoking meditation on the urgency of...

A beautifully illustrated guide to the natural history and breathtaking diversity of spiders around the world.Spiders are dominant predators in virtually every terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. A marvel of evolution with species numbering in the tens...

A lavishly illustrated, large-format reference book by two preeminent experts on North American shorebirdsMore than half a century has passed since the publication of The Shorebirds of North America, Peter Matthiessen's masterful natural history of what...

Plankton are the unsung heroes of planet Earth. Passive drifters through the world's seas, oceans, and freshwater environments, most are invisible or very small, but some are longer than a whale. They are the global ocean's foundation food, supporting...

A richly illustrated guide to the world's frogs that includes species from every family.With more than 7,600 known species, frogs exhibit an extraordinary range of forms and behaviours, from those that produce toxins so deadly that they could kill a...

A charming, richly illustrated, pocket-size exploration of the world's trees.Packed with surprising facts, this delightful and gorgeously designed book will beguile any nature lover. Expertly written and beautifully illustrated throughout with colour...

An eye-opening volume of research andphotographs exploring one of North America's most persistent-and misunderstood-predators.The coyote. Even its image conjures up more myth than fact. From its depictions as the "trickster" in ancient fables to its...

An authoritative, marvelously illustrated field guide to the velvet ants of North AmericaVelvet Ants of North America is a beautiful photographic guide to the species of the wasp family Mutillidae found in the United States and Canada. Featuring hundreds...

The Lives of Seaweeds presents an inside look at the remarkable world of seaweeds and other algae. Coming in all colours, shapes, and sizes, from unicellular and bioluminescent algae to giant kelps, seaweeds and algae are omnipresent, forming the basis...

Documents the artworks of the exhibition Repair, Australian Pavilion, 16th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, under the creative direction of Baracco+Wright Architects in collaboration with Linda Tegg. It shares the thinking...

Power has many dimensions, from individual attributes such as strength and speed to the collective advantages of groups. The Evolution of Power takes readers on a breathtaking journey across history and the natural world, revealing how the concept of...

A confrontation with the destruction of the Amazon by a writer who moved her life into the heart of the forest.In lyrical, impassioned prose, Eliane Brum recounts her move from Sao Paulo to Altamira, a city along the Xingu River that has been devastated...

A richly illustrated and comprehensive introduction to the world's sharks.Sharks are the top predators in many marine ecosystems. But tales of the killer instincts and fearsomely sharp senses of these hunters can obscure their full life histories. In...

An engaging and beautifully illustrated introduction to some of the world's most interesting and charismatic marine creatures.Dive deep into the fascinating world of cephalopods - octopuses, squid, cuttlefish, and the mysterious nautilus - to discover...

With an astounding 3.5 million species occupying virtually every habitat on Earth, insects are one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, from the humble bee to the agile praying mantis. Taking you inside the extraordinary world of insects,...

Beetles make up about a quarter of known animal species and are arguably the most diverse group of organisms on Earth: almost 400,000 species have been formally described so far, and it is likely that this number merely scratches the surface. In Beetles...

Orchids are one of the largest plant families, with an estimated 28,000 species worldwide, they occur on all major landmasses except Antarctica.Full of a variety of colour and form, this new Kew Pocketbook offers a snapshot into the diverse world of...

It is rare for life to change Earth, yet three organisms have profoundly transformed our planet over the long course of its history. Elemental reveals how microbes, plants, and people used the fundamental building blocks of life to alter the climate, and...

From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning historian, the colourful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.When...

A lavishly illustrated look at how evolution plays out in selective breedingUnnatural Selection is a stunningly illustrated book about selective breeding-the ongoing transformation of animals at the hand of man. More important, it's a book about...

'The Sacred Balance has a beautiful spirit.' - E.O. WilsonWith a new foreword from Robin Wall Kimmerer, New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass - andan afterword from Bill McKibben - this special 25th anniversary...

Shells have captivated humans from the dawn of time: the earliest known artwork was made on a shell. As well as containers for food, shells have been used as tools, jewellery and decorations for dwellings, and to bring good luck or to ward off spirits...

Projective Ecologies takes stock of the diversity of contemporary ecological research and theory - embracing Felix Guattari's broader definition of ecology as at once environmental, social, and existential - and speculates on potential paths forward for...

Marianne North was a remarkable Victorian traveller and painter, who traversed the globe recording the world's flora with her paintbrush and writing her experiences in her journal.In 1879 she offered her painting collection numbering over 800 to the...

Described by William Morris as 'Most Unimaginably Strange', the landscape of Iceland has fascinated and inspired travellers, scientists, artists and writers throughout history. This book provides a contemporary understanding of the landscape as a whole,...

Elegant and beautiful, rich in history and supremely useful, the ash tree has played an extraordinary yet largely unrecognised part in shaping both our natural environment and the material culture and beliefs of millions of people around the world. Ash...

Fear and fascination set wasps apart from other insects. Despite their iconic form and distinctive colours, they are surrounded by myth and misunderstanding. Often portrayed in cartoon-like stereotypes bordering on sad parody, wasps have an unwelcome and...

Polar bears are truly majestic animals: the largest land-dwelling carnivore on earth, they can measure up to 3 metres in length, and weigh up to 700 kilograms. They are also iconic in other ways - a symbol of the climate change debate, with their...

At once reptilian and avian, dinosaurs enable us to imagine a world far beyond the usual boundaries of time, culture and physiology. We have envisioned them in diverse and contradictory ways, reflecting, in part, our changing conceptions of ourselves...

Richard Seymour is one of the UK's leading public intellectuals. A regular contributor to a range of periodicals including the Guardian, The New York Times, Financial Times and the London Review of Books, he combines an incisive and well-honed...

Common and exotic, glamorous and ferocious, sociable and sullen: zebras mean many things to many people. The extraordinary beauty of their striped coats makes them one of the world's most recognisable animals. They have been immortalised in paint by...

For millennia corals were a marine enigma confounding classification and occupying a space between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Ultimately their animal and symbiotic natures were recognized, and they remain the focus of intense fascination and...