Books
Below, I list books and papers that I have enjoyed reading and impacted my scientific career. I considered them foundational to the discipline of ecology and conservation of biodiversity (and some others). Each of them represent novel ideas and advances, and thus, valuable “food for thought” to invest some time reading them. Although these lists are by no means comprehensive, I made these readings available as a resource for others. In most cases, if you hover with your cursor over the titles, you will be able to access the papers and often the books. Enjoy the readings!
Boitani, L. & T.K. Fuller (eds.). 2000. Research techniques in animal ecology: Controversies and consequences. Columbia University Press, New York.
Carson, R. 1962. Silent spring. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
Craighead, J.J. & F.C. Craighead. 1956. Hawks, owls, and wildlife. Dover, New York.
Curio, E. 2012. The ethology of predation. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Darwin, C. 1860. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. A. Appleton and Company, New York.
Darwin, C. 1909. The voyage of the Beagle. P.F. Collier & Son Company, New York.
Dawkins, R. 1989. The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, New York.
Elton, C.S. 2001 (1927). Animal ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Feinsinger, P. 2001. Designing field studies for biodiversity conservation. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Frankl, V.E. 1995. Man’s search for meaning. Blackstone Publishing.
Gleick, J. 1987. Chaos. Penguin Books.
Hanski, I. 1999. Metapopulation ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kuhn, T. S. 1990. The structure of scientific revolutions. Second ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Lack, D. 1954. The natural regulation of animal numbers. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Leackey, R.E. & R. Lewin. 1978. Origins. Dutton Books, New York.
Leopold, A. 2020 (1949). A sand county almanac and sketches here and there. Oxford University Press, New York.
Lorenz, K. 1966. On aggression. Methuen and Co. Ltd, London.
Louv, R. 2005. Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Algonquin Press, Chapel Hill.
MacArthur, R.H. & E.O. Wilson. 2001 (1967). The theory of island biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
McCullough, D.R. 1996. Metapopulations and wildlife conservation. Island Press, Washington, D,C.
Morris, D. 1967. The naked ape: a zoologist’s study of the human animal. Dell Publishing, New York.
Perez Velasquez, J.L. 2019. The rise of the scientist-bureaucrat: survival guide for researchers in the 21st century. Springer, New York.
Pickett, S.T., C.G. Jones & J. Kolasa. 2007. Ecological understanding: the nature of theory and the theory of nature. Academic Press, Boston.
Popper, K.R. 1985. Popper selections. Princeton University Press. Princeton.
Real, L.A. & J.H. Brown. 2012 (1991). Foundations of ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Richardson, D.M. 2011. Fifty years of invasion ecology: the legacy of Charles Elton. Wiley-Blackwell.
Sagarin, R. & A. Pauchard. 2012. Observation and ecology: broadening the scope of science to understand a complex world. Island Press. Washington, D.C.
Samson, F.B. & F.L. Knopf (eds.). 1996. Prairie conservation: preserving North America’s most endangered ecosystem. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Simpson, G.G. 1983. Splendid isolation: the curious history of South American mammals. Yale University Press. (evolution in isolation)
Strong, D.R., D. Simberloff, L.G. Abele & A.B. Thistle. 1984. Ecological communities: Conceptual issues and the evidence. Princeton University Press, Princeton. (null models)
Soulé, M.E. & B.A. Wilcox. 1980. Conservation biology: An evolutionary-ecological perspective. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland.
Soulé, M. E. 1986. Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland.
Therborgh, J. & J. Estes. (ed.). 2009. Trophic cascades. Island Press, Washington, D.C. (top predators)
Wiens, J.A., M.R. Ross, M.G. Turner & D. Mladenoff. 2006. Foundation papers in landscape ecology. Columbia University Press, New York.
Wilson, E.O. 2013. Letters to a young scientist. Norton & Company, New York.