Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Major Ecosystems

by John C. Kricher

Genres: Science, Biology, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Ecology, Geology, Environment

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

John C. Kricher, Professor of Biology, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very introductory, but pretty good. He has a lot of ground to cover & gives great explanations of the subtle differences between some biomes such as the various prairies, deserts, & tundras. He goes into some detail & has fantastic examples. Not as much as I would like in some cases, though. My library doesn't seem to have any more advanced or even other lectures by him, though. Just this & The Modern Scholar: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur which was great, too.

He breaks this up nicely into 14 lectures which cover generalities to specific systems. (I wish I could find a table of contents, but couldn't.) He gives great examples having visited many of the places himself. He also makes sure to keep hypotheses separate from theories & facts. I really appreciate that.

Lectures aren't as clean as books, which is nice in some ways since they have a more, personal & spontaneous feel, but they do have their downsides. One is the damn metric-SAE unit mess wasn't properly edited. In most lectures, rainfall is given in inches, then suddenly he switches to cm in one. That's jarring. Yes, I know it's not difficult to multiply by 2.5 in my head (close enough for rainfall) but I had to pause, figure it out, & rewind to understand it. It's also a pet peeve. Both my pickup & my tractor were assembled in Canada, although they are made in the US. That means MOST nuts & bolts are SAE. I usually figure out which ones are metric the hard way. It's a PITA. Why can't we just switch to metric already?!!!

Worse, he does it constantly with temperature! I have real trouble with converting between Celsius & Fahrenheit except for a few basic points even with the help of xkcd's fantastic guide.

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complexity is my absolute favorite thing to study. There are fewer subjects more integral to complexity than ecology and cosmology. This lecture series in ecology was superb. Kricher masterfully guided his audience through how the earth function as a system, as well as through all of Earth's nested systems.

This is systems science at its best.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was good but was actually shocked not to hear anything
about the intricate dependency web between native plants/insects/animals
as so well documented in Bringing Nature Home. I can't imagine
that this author was unfamiliar with the work/book by Doug Tallamy.
I would only recommend this book in conjunction with Tallamy's
in order to get a more comprehensive picture of ecosystems.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not so much that the book is a basic overview of ecology. It's that there's so much packed into the eight and a half hour series of lectures that it's hard to glean everything, so it feels like an overview. Akin to an accelerated college course: three credit hours in 14 classes.

[bread · Rating 5 out of 5]

an audiobook from heaven. each chapter/lecture covers a biome. a great systems approach to the earth. i hate things that are too brief and i get bored by minute details so this was the perfect level of engaging for me. couldn't ask for more

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent lecture series. In terms of general science, I feel like it describes stuff at an almost remedial level, but I was interested in it more for an overview of different environments and the ecological relations in them, and in that regards it felt worth listening to. However, it was hard to get into at first because the lecturer's voice is really hard to hear, a problem exacerbated by the fact that the host has a really loud voice, so turning up the volume to hear the lecture results in sharp bursts of sound when the before and after chapter announcements take place. Over time, it became less bothersome, though I'm not sure if I acclimated to it, or if the audio on later CDs simply improved.

[Tony duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to Ecology. While I am very familiar with the subject, taking a overview course was very helpful, filling in particular details and some important principles that I didn't fully understand.
It was logically separated into the broad major ecosystem, keeping the more complicated tropical and ocean ones till last. Interesting presentation and not too simple or too complicated

[Todd Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of ecology and the planet's major ecosystems.

This is the second Modern Scholar lecture by John Kricher I've listened to, and each was very good. Kricher has a great conversational style and never fails to make the subject matter interesting.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

High level overview. Great for those unfamiliar with the subject, which most are. Didn't get into as much detail as I would have hoped. Fairly standard and straight forward.

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This partly inspired my blog post at https://l882.wordpress.com/2016/09/07... so go check it out.

[Cindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am loving listening to this. I am familiar with almost everything I've heard so far, but I listen while driving and forget to be so bored-to-death-driving-the-same-path-multiple-times-per-day! Will listen to more "Modern Scholar" Audio CD's.