by DK
Prey A species that is hunted by another species.
Primary producer Any organism that makes its own food from nonorganic sources, namely light and/or chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide and sulfur, and thus sustains the animals that feed on it.
Primary vegetation The vegetation that has prevailed in a given area since the start of its current climatic conditions.
Recycling The process of converting waste into new objects or materials, or burning it to generate energy.
Renewables Fuel sources that are not finite, such as solar power, hydropower, and wind power.
Species A group of organisms capable of exchanging genes with one another through reproduction.
Stochasticity Unpredictable fluctuations in environmental conditions that affect populations and ecological processes.
Succession The process by which a biological community evolves over time, from a few simple species to a complex ecoystem, through species’ impact on the environment.
Taxonomy The science of naming and classifying different organisms.
Tectonic plates Pieces of Earth’s crust and uppermost mantle that gradually shift over time, causing seafloor spreading, continental drift, and mountains, rift valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes at plate boundaries.
Thermoregulation The internal processes that occur within an organism to ensure it maintains a stable temperature, a function that is crucial for survival.
Transmutation The process of evolutionary divergence by which one species transforms into an entirely new one.
Trophic cascade The impact that the removal of a trophic level of a food chain with at least three levels has on the wider ecosystem as a whole.
Trophic level The place of an organism within an ecosystem’s hierarchy; organisms that are on the same level of the food chain are on the same trophic level.
Tropics The region of Earth that surrounds the equator, between the lines of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and does not experience the same seasonal changes as the rest of Earth.
Urbanization The process which occurs when rural areas are built upon intensively, almost always with negative consequences for the natural environment.
Urban sprawl The outward growth of a previously concentrated urbanized area, often with negative consequences for the environment.
Variation Differences within a species, caused either by genetic or environmental factors.
Vascular plant A type of plant with conductive tissue for the movement of water and minerals throughout, such as a fern or a flowering plant.
CONTRIBUTORS
JULIA SCHROEDER, CONSULTANT
Julia Schroeder received her Ph.D. in Animal Ecology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. From 2012 to 2017, she headed a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany, studying social behavioral ecology. Julia currently researches and teaches evolutionary biology at Imperial College London.
CELIA COYNE
Celia Coyne is a freelance writer and editor living in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is the author of Earth’s Riches and The Power of Plants and writes and edits articles on science and natural history for magazines, newspapers, journals, websites, and books in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Her aim is to make scientific subjects accessible to lay readers.
JOHN FARNDON
The author of hundreds of books on science and nature for both children and adults, John Farndon studied geography at Cambridge University. He has written extensively on earth sciences and the environment, focusing in particular on conservation and ecology. His books include The Oceans Atlas, The Wildlife Atlas, How the Earth Works, and The Practical Encyclopedia of Rocks and Minerals.
TIM HARRIS
After studying Norwegian glaciers in college, Tim Harris traveled the world in search of unusual wildlife and extraordinary landscapes. He has explored the dunes of the Namib Desert, climbed Popocatépetl in central Mexico, camped in the Sumatran rain forest, and searched the frozen Sea of Okhotsk in Russia. He is a former Deputy Editor of Birdwatch magazine in the UK and has written books about nature for adults and children.
DEREK HARVEY
A naturalist and teacher with a particular interest in evolutionary biology, Derek Harvey graduated in zoology from Liverpool University in the UK. He has taught a generation of biologists and led student expeditions to Costa Rica, Madagascar, and Australasia. Derek now concentrates on writing and consulting for science and natural history books.
TOM JACKSON
A writer for 25 years, Tom Jackson is the author of about 200 nonfiction books for adults and children and has contributed to many more. Tom studied zoology at Bristol University, UK, and worked in zoos and as a conservationist before turning to writing about natural history and all things scientific.
ALISON SINGER
Alison Singer is a Ph.D. candidate in Community Sustainability at Michigan State University, US, where she studies storytelling and science communication. She has a broad educational background in writing, ecology, and the social sciences. Alison has worked as an educator for environmental charities, and for the US Environmental Protection Agency.
QUOTE ATTRIBUTIONS
THE STORY OF EVOLUTION
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Georges Cuvier
James Hutton
Charles Darwin
Haruki Murakami
Francis Crick
ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES
Vito Volterra
Joseph Grinnell
Georgy Gause
Joseph Connell
Daniel Janzen
Kevin D. Lafferty and Thomas Suchanek
Eric Charnov, H.R. Pulliam, and Graham Pyke
Liana Zanette
ORDERING THE NATURAL WORLD
Aristotle
Robert Hooke
Carl Linnaeus
Ernst Mayr
George Fox and Carl Woese
E.O. Wilson
Norman Myers
THE VARIETY OF LIFE
Louis Pasteur
A.B. Frank
Charles Elton
Konrad Lorenz
Louis Leakey
ECOSYSTEMS
Richard Bradley
Tyler Miller and Scott Spoolman
Stephen Hubbell
Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network
Michel Loreau
ORGANISMS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
Alexander Von Humboldt
Pierre François Verhulst
Stephen Alfred Forbes
David Attenborough
Henry David Thoreau
Frederic E. Clements
Henry Allan Gleason
R.B. Root
Brent Mitchell
Lev R. Ginzburg
James Brown
Richard Levins
John Odling-Smee, Kevin Laland, and Marcus Feldman
THE LIVING EARTH
Louis Agassiz
James Hansen
Vladimir Vernadsky
Eugene Odum
Seth Shostak
James Lovelock
Walter Alvarez and Frank Asaro
James Hansen
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Barry Commoner
John Muir
Ralph Keeling
Rachel Carson
Gene Likens
Garrett Hardin
Tim Hunter
Chico Mendes
Carl Sagan
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Margaret Atwood
Thomas Austin
Jonathan Banks
Stephen Price
Elizabeth Kolbert
Maude Barlow
ENVIRONMENTALISM AND CONSERVATION
Francis Bacon
Gilbert White
Henry David Thoreau
George Perkins Marsh
Werner von Siemens
Aldo Leopold
UNESCO
Mark L Shaffer
Barac
k Obama
William Nordhaus
Vandana Shiva
Gretchen Daily
Paul Connett
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dorling Kindersley would like to thank Professor Fred D. Singer for his help in planning this book, Monam Nishat and Roshni Kapur for design assistance, and Anita Yadav for DTP assistance.
PICTURE CREDITS
Disclaimer: Page numbers and positions correspond to the print book.
The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:
(Key: a-above; b-below/bottom; c-center; f-far; l-left; r-right; t-top)
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