Tree Biology

In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.

There are redwoods in California that were ancient by the time Columbus first landed and pines still alive that germinated around the time humans invented writing. There are Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big as a football field. From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in all of us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world - throughout the United States, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China, and most of Europe - bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us.

Trouet, a leading tree-ring scientist, takes us out into the field, from remote African villages to radioactive Russian forests, offering listeners an insider's look at tree-ring research, a discipline formally known as dendrochronology. Tracing her own professional journey while exploring dendrochronology's history and applications, Trouet describes the basics of how tell-tale tree cores are collected and dated with ring-by-ring precision, explaining the unexpected and momentous insights we've gained from the resulting samples.

One of the world's first tree-top scientists, Meg Lowman is both a pioneer in her field - she invented one of the first treetop walkways - and a tireless advocate for the planet. In a voice as infectious in its enthusiasm as in its practical optimism, The Arbornaut chronicles her irresistible story.

Renowned scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger presents an unforgettable and highly original work of natural history with The Global Forest. She explores the fascinating and largely untapped ecological and pharmaceutical properties of trees: leaves that can comb the air of particulate pollution, fatty acids in the nuts of hickory and walnut trees that promote brain development, the compound in the water ash that helps prevent cancer, aerosols in pine trees that calm nerves. In precise, imaginative, and poetic prose, she describes the complexity and beauty of forests, as well as the environmental dangers they face.

Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.

In The Secret Wisdom of Nature, master storyteller and international sensation Peter Wohlleben takes listeners on a thought-provoking exploration of the vast natural systems that make life on Earth possible. In this tour of an almost unfathomable world, Wohlleben describes the fascinating interplay between animals and plants.

The biggest redwood trees are over 1,000 years old, rising more than 35 stories in what's left of the once-vast, ancient redwood forest. Believed to be impossible to ascend, these majestic giants have remained unexplored until recently, when a tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists discovered a lost, dangerous, and hauntingly beautiful world high above California.

In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way.

How can you use a tree as a compass? What on earth makes maple trees explode? Where is the tallest tree in the world? And how can a tree own itself? Narrator Charles King talks us through the answers to all of these questions and more as we discover over 100 amazing facts about the trees in our environment. So whether you're a dedicated arborist or are just interested in this often overlooked yet wonderful area of nature, then this is the perfect audiobook for you.

Embark on a thrilling journey into the fascinating world of apple cultivation with "The Apple Grower's Handbook". This groundbreaking eBook is a comprehensive guide that encompasses the depth and breadth of knowledge about apple cultivation, from roots to fruit. From exploring the rich history of apple cultivation to the advanced techniques in apple tree propagation, this eBook is brimming with engaging information that weaves a captivating narrative for both beginners and seasoned orchardists alike. Discover the diverse apple varieties to start planting in your orchard and understand the ...

A leaf can be a...shade spiller, mouth filler, tree topper, rain stopper. Find out about the many roles leaves play in this poetic exploration of leaves throughout the year.

Acclaimed author Joyce Sidman has received multiple awards for her books of poetry, including a Caldecott Honor for Red Sings from Treetops. Itself a Newbery Honor, Book, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night features several spellbinding poems about “the feast of sound and spark” that awakens with the raccoons, snails, owls, and crickets each night after sunset.

Carbon is everywhere. It is constantly moving between the air, water, rocks, and living things. But did you know that none of these things would exist without the carbon cycle? Or that humans have caused the carbon cycle to be out of balance? Learn more about the carbon cycle in this fascinating book.