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Nature All Around Us: A Guide to Urban Ecology
It’s easy to stand in awe of a city’s impressive skyline, marveling at its buildings reaching for the clouds and its vast network of roadways and train lines crisscrossing in every direction. It can often seem like everything in a city is man-made, all concrete, steel, and glass. But even the asphalt jungle is not all asphalt—a sidewalk’s cracks are filled with nature, if we know where and how to look. To aid us in this quest is Nature All Around Us, which will help us to recognize (and look after) the natural world we traipse through in our daily lives.
Nature All Around Us uses the familiar—such as summer Sundays humming with lawn mowers, gray squirrels foraging in planters, and flocks of pigeons—in order to introduce basic ecological concepts. In twenty-five short chapters organized by scale, from the home to the neighborhood to the city at large, it offers a subtle and entertaining education in ecology sure to inspire appreciation and ultimately stewardship of the environment. Various ecological concepts that any urban dweller might encounter are approachably examined, from understanding why a squirrel might act aggressively towards its neighbor to how nutrients and energy contained within a discarded apple core are recycled back into the food chain. Streaming through the work is an introduction to basic ecology, including the dangers of invasive species and the crucial role played by plants and trees in maintaining air quality.
Taken as a whole, Nature All Around Us is an unprecedented field guide to the ecology of the urban environment that invites us to look at our towns, cities, and even our backyards through the eyes of an ecologist. It is an entertaining, educational, and inspiring glimpse into nature in seemingly unnatural settings, a reminder that we don’t have to trek into the wild to see nature—we just have to open our eyes.
Nature All Around Us uses the familiar—such as summer Sundays humming with lawn mowers, gray squirrels foraging in planters, and flocks of pigeons—in order to introduce basic ecological concepts. In twenty-five short chapters organized by scale, from the home to the neighborhood to the city at large, it offers a subtle and entertaining education in ecology sure to inspire appreciation and ultimately stewardship of the environment. Various ecological concepts that any urban dweller might encounter are approachably examined, from understanding why a squirrel might act aggressively towards its neighbor to how nutrients and energy contained within a discarded apple core are recycled back into the food chain. Streaming through the work is an introduction to basic ecology, including the dangers of invasive species and the crucial role played by plants and trees in maintaining air quality.
Taken as a whole, Nature All Around Us is an unprecedented field guide to the ecology of the urban environment that invites us to look at our towns, cities, and even our backyards through the eyes of an ecologist. It is an entertaining, educational, and inspiring glimpse into nature in seemingly unnatural settings, a reminder that we don’t have to trek into the wild to see nature—we just have to open our eyes.
147 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 13, 2023
Très chouette livre expliquant très concrètement des notions d’écologie appliquées au milieu urbain. C’est accessible aux non-initiés, mais tout aussi intéressant pour une écologiste de formation comme moi.
December 21, 2012
This is a lovely little book: small in size but great in scope.
It is subtitled a ‘guide to urban ecology’ but since ecology is the same everywhere it is a guide to ecology which has been approached through the everyday sights and sounds that surround those people who might think that they are most divorced from the ecological world. It’s a good idea and it’s well done in this book.
Written by a variety of authors the 25 chapters take the reader through the ideas of niches, competition, ecological services, predator/prey relationships, evolution by natural selection and a host of other ideas by way of cats, lichens, spiders, dandelions, gulls and pigeons.
The authors live in North America so the gulls are ring-billed gulls and the squirrels are gray squirrels but those slight differences won’t detract at all from the enjoyment of a European reader.
Jargon-free but ideas-rich this book would appeal to anyone from the age of about 15 upwards.
This review first appeared at www.markavery.info/blog/ on 6 December 2012
It is subtitled a ‘guide to urban ecology’ but since ecology is the same everywhere it is a guide to ecology which has been approached through the everyday sights and sounds that surround those people who might think that they are most divorced from the ecological world. It’s a good idea and it’s well done in this book.
Written by a variety of authors the 25 chapters take the reader through the ideas of niches, competition, ecological services, predator/prey relationships, evolution by natural selection and a host of other ideas by way of cats, lichens, spiders, dandelions, gulls and pigeons.
The authors live in North America so the gulls are ring-billed gulls and the squirrels are gray squirrels but those slight differences won’t detract at all from the enjoyment of a European reader.
Jargon-free but ideas-rich this book would appeal to anyone from the age of about 15 upwards.
This review first appeared at www.markavery.info/blog/ on 6 December 2012
June 26, 2018
Cool little book. Nicely illustrated and well explained. The book approaches teaching the general principles of ecology through studying an urban setting. So they cover topics like niche, carrying capacity, nutrient cycling, invasive species, etc through examples from an urban setting: Street trees, pigeons, house sparrows, lichen, etc.
I'd still like to find a book that's a field guide to the specific ecology of cities, and this book wasn't quite that. But it was still a great concept and book.
I'd still like to find a book that's a field guide to the specific ecology of cities, and this book wasn't quite that. But it was still a great concept and book.
October 21, 2017
It’s an easy and entertaining read that will entice you to enquire and keep learning.
June 26, 2019
Little book with a lot of information! Chapters include simple yet helpful illustrations and conclude with “homework” or questions for reflection. It’s a fun and easy read.
September 14, 2016
Not exactly what I expected (I thought it was going to be more anecdotes/memoir based), but an interesting read nonetheless. It's a basic introduction to ecology and ecological principles, using the creatures of urban and suburban houses, neighborhoods and streets as examples. It's occasionally a bit pedantic - I think the essays/chapters could have been greatly expanded and/or edited for readability and style. The whole thing reads a bit too much like a textbook!
August 1, 2017
Quick and easy read. I read it in an evening for an outdoor education class I'm preparing for high school students. Quick tidbits on different plants and animals and covers basic ecological concepts.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews