Plant Ecology

No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience. Raised in the ...forests of British Columbia, Simard 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. Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity. In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.
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Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mos...ses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.
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"The bodies of 29 men are still entombed in the collapsed Pike River mine, more than a year after the tragic explosion and fire of 19 November 2010. What do their deaths mean for workplace health and safety? Is there a future for coalmining in this era of climate change? How has ...the Coast changed from the centre of radicalism it represented in the early 20th century? What is the way forward for a region that has felt betrayed by a succession of political decisions and developments over several decades? Playwright and film director Paul Maunder lives in Blackball, and was one of the first emergency respondents to Pike River, within minutes of the first explosion. He kept a diary, and has since been talking to locals and reflecting on the big issues at stake."--Back cover.
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From the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Sting In The Tale comes this practical guide to creating a paradise for pollinators. There are twenty six different species of bumblebees to be found in the UK, of around 250 species worldwide.

This title is an analysis of the contemporary political interest in the position of women. The author critically assesses much of the literature examining the rapidly changing lives of women and contributes to it by offering an explanation of women's labour-market participation.