Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource depletion, new emerging diseases: scientists have raised awareness on the ecological and societal consequences of the unbridled development of human activities for a long time. Why do we keep destroying nature when science makes it clear that in doing so we risk our own destruction? How can we stop destroying our life-support system and reach some kind of harmony between humans and nature? This book seeks to answer these questions. It describes the inability of modern society to fundamentally modify its relationship with nature, instead engaging in collective fictions such as subject-object duality, matter-mind duality, the primacy of rationality, and the superiority of the human species over all other life. Subsequent chapters identify avenues which could allow human societies to break the current deadlock and forge a relationship with the natural world. This path is rooted in a simple observation: humans have a nature that defines them as a unique species beyond their cultural differences, and at the foundation of this nature we share a set of fundamental needs. The expression and satisfaction of these needs provide an opportunity to reconnect humans with nature in all its forms. Nature That Makes Us Human combines recent scientific discoveries in biology and psychology with deep philosophical inquiry—in addition to economic, political, and historical considerations—to understand what motivates us to keep destroying nature today and how we can engage in a new relationship with nature tomorrow. This book is for anyone interested in understanding and overcoming the current ecological crisis.

How will biodiversity loss affect ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, and human well-being?
In an age of accelerating biodiversity loss, this timely and critical volume summarizes recent advances in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and explores the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The book starts by summarizing the development of the basic science and provides a meta-analysis that quantitatively tests several biodiversity and ecosystem functioning hypotheses. It then describes the natural science foundations of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research including: quantifying functional diversity, the development of the field into a predictive science, the effects of stability and complexity, methods to quantify mechanisms by which diversity affects functioning, the importance of trophic structure, microbial ecology, and spatial dynamics. Finally, the book takes research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning further than it has ever gone into the human dimension, describing the most pressing environmental challenges that face humanity and the effects of diversity on: climate change mitigation, restoration of degraded habitats, managed ecosystems, pollination, disease, and biological invasions.
However, what makes this volume truly unique are the chapters that consider the economic perspective. These include a synthesis of the economics of ecosystem services and biodiversity, and the options open to policy-makers to address the failure of markets to account for the loss of ecosystem services; an examination of the challenges of valuing ecosystem services and, hence, to understanding the human consequences of decisions that neglect these services; and an examination of the ways in which economists are currently incorporating biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research into decision models for the conservation and management of biodiversity. A final section describes new advances in ecoinformatics that will help transform this field into a globally predictive science, and summarizes the advancements and future directions of the field. The ultimate conclusion is that biodiversity is an essential element of any strategy for sustainable development.

The major subdisciplines of ecology--population ecology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and evolutionary ecology--have diverged increasingly in recent decades. What is critically needed today is an integrated, real-world approach to ecology that reflects the interdependency of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. "From Populations to Ecosystems" proposes an innovative theoretical synthesis that will enable us to advance our fundamental understanding of ecological systems and help us to respond to today's emerging global ecological crisis.

Michel Loreau begins by explaining how the principles of population dynamics and ecosystem functioning can be merged. He then addresses key issues in the study of biodiversity and ecosystems, such as functional complementarity, food webs, stability and complexity, material cycling, and metacommunities. Loreau describes the most recent theoretical advances that link the properties of individual populations to the aggregate properties of communities, and the properties of functional groups or trophic levels to the functioning of whole ecosystems, placing special emphasis on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Finally, he turns his attention to the controversial issue of the evolution of entire ecosystems and their properties, laying the theoretical foundations for a genuine evolutionary ecosystem ecology.

"From Populations to Ecosystems" points the way to a much-needed synthesis in ecology, one that offers a fuller understanding of ecosystem processes in the natural world.

Determining the scientific relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has now emerged as one of the most important challenges in ecological and environmental science. This book provides a timely synthesis and critical assessment in order to generate a consensus on the main issues involved and stimulate new perspectives for future research.

How will biodiversity loss affect ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, and human well-being?
In an age of accelerating biodiversity loss, this timely and critical volume summarizes recent advances in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and explores the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The book starts by summarizing the development of the basic science and provides a meta-analysis that quantitatively tests several biodiversity and ecosystem functioning hypotheses. It then describes the natural science foundations of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research including: quantifying functional diversity, the development of the field into a predictive science, the effects of stability and complexity, methods to quantify mechanisms by which diversity affects functioning, the importance of trophic structure, microbial ecology, and spatial dynamics. Finally, the book takes research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning further than it has ever gone into the human dimension, describing the most pressing environmental challenges that face humanity and the effects of diversity on: climate change mitigation, restoration of degraded habitats, managed ecosystems, pollination, disease, and biological invasions.
However, what makes this volume truly unique are the chapters that consider the economic perspective. These include a synthesis of the economics of ecosystem services and biodiversity, and the options open to policy-makers to address the failure of markets to account for the loss of ecosystem services; an examination of the challenges of valuing ecosystem services and, hence, to understanding the human consequences of decisions that neglect these services; and an examination of the ways in which economists are currently incorporating biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research into decision models for the conservation and management of biodiversity. A final section describes new advances in ecoinformatics that will help transform this field into a globally predictive science, and summarizes the advancements and future directions of the field. The ultimate conclusion is that biodiversity is an essential element of any strategy for sustainable development.