The Work of Nature: How The Diversity Of Life Sustains Us

by Yvonne Baskin, Paul R. Ehrlich (Foreword), Abigail Rorer (Illustrator)

"We do not question that flesh and bone and leaf litter will decay to dust, that seeds will sprout season after season and find renewed nourishment in the soil, that rivers can flow endlessly without running dry, that we can breathe a lifetime without depleting the air of oxygen.... What humans have not fully appreciated until recently is that these services are the work of nature, performed by the rich diversity of microbes, plants, and animals on the earth." --from The Work of Nature The lavish array of organisms known as "biodiversity" is an intricately linked web that makes the earth a uniquely habitable planet. Yet pressures from human activities are destroying biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. How many species can be lost before the ecological systems that nurture life begin to break down?In The Work of Nature , noted science writer Yvonne Baskin examines the threats posed to humans by the loss of biodiversity. She summarizes and explains key findings from the ecological sciences, highlighting examples from around the world where shifts in species have affected the provision of clean air, pure water, fertile soils, lush landscapes, and stable natural communities.As Baskin makes clear, biodiversity is much more than number of species -- it includes the complexity, richness, and abundance of nature at all levels, from the genes carried by local populations to the layout of communities and ecosystems across the landscape. Ecologists are increasingly aware that mankind's wanton destruction of living organisms -- the planet's work force -- threatens to erode our basic life support services. With uncommon grace and eloquence, Baskin demonstrates how and why that is so.Distilling and bringing to life the work of the world's leading ecologists, The Work of Nature is the first book of its kind to clearly explain the practical consequences of declining biodiversity on ecosystem health and function.

Genres: Nature, Environment, Ecology, Science

282 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1997

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yvonne Baskin is a skilled science writer who only seems to write about things I find really fascinating. There's a strangely institutional flavor to her works, since they're very explicitly hired out projects of SCOPE. It almost seems like this explicitly educational purpose has kept her from widely popularity, but maybe that's just because I imagine everyone would want to read about this stuff if they knew these books were around, and maybe that's not true.

In this work, Baskin sets out to present the then-new and burgeoning research on ecosystem services, the ways they are being assaulted and diminished, and the connection to biodiversity. I picked it up to review the breadth of ecosystem services in general, but more specifically because I had a few questions about conservation biology and restoration ecology and I knew this would be a good entry point.

My specific question stemmed from the recent trend in conservation towards "biodiversity," premised on the idea that species are valuable treasures and have a moral status that warrants against their blithe destruction, but more interestingly on the idea that there are serious consequences to losing too many species. That is the collapse concept: ecological degradation will trigger a rather sudden shift of state to a global situation that no longer supports industrial civilization. I wondered how well understood the connection between biodiversity (essentially, how many species are still around) and ecosystem services.

The Work of Nature undertakes to address that question. The answer, incidentally, is that diversity is correlated with stability and resilience. Communities with low diversity are more or less maximized for whatever set of conditions presently obtains. In high diversity communities, when conditions change, species groups better adapted to those conditions gain competitive advantage and take over the main work of the ecosystem; in low diversity communities, conditions adverse to whatever happens to be around directly impair functionality.

Beyond answering her basic question, however, Baskin surveys a vast array of interesting ecological research and paints a fairly thorough picture of the complex relationships involved. She chooses not to distract from her narrative by personifying the scientists at all, but she still always names them and places their research in the context of its region and biome. This brings home the fact that the research is extremely limited so far, and its conclusions generalize poorly: there are many relationships she describes that obtain in one place but not one I'd expect to behave similarly.

The overall impression is that this kind of research is fantastically productive and interesting, and infinitely necessary, though frustrating in its infinite complexity. It reassures me that agroecology is both a fertile and valuable field to enter!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a bit out of date, the information is still relevant. I enjoyed Baskin's writing style, clearly many topics from multiple disciplines in an easy to understand way. Though at points the message sounds bleak, this is a worthwhile read.

I wish books like this would be incorporated into high school curriculum instead of other books. Perhaps courses should read this instead of Darwin; let's put aside the evolution debate and worry about understanding and saving out only planet.