Serendipity: An Ecologist's Quest to Understand Nature

"James Estes's career and writings have demonstrated repeatedly that a top-down, predator-mediated view of ecosystem dynamics can explain a lot about nature's structure and dynamics. Reading this book will reward any naturalist/ecologist/modeler."--Michael E. Soule, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz; cofounder and first president of the Society for Conservation Biology and the Wildlands Network "This is a phenomenal book! Filled with fascinating and insightful stories told without bravado, it offers excellent advice to young scientists in the context of the development of a distinguished career. Estes's compelling narrative makes ecosystems come alive, and the result is that we learn the details of phase shifts, otter physiology, and urchin gametes without even realizing that we are learning."--Loren McClenachan, Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Colby College "Serendipity does what few science books written for a general audience do: it reveals a preeminent marine ecologist's professional journey into science, and the astonishing turns that led to major breakthroughs and challenges along the way. Nobody could write this better--Estes has walked the walk."--Cristina Eisenberg, Chief Scientist, Earthwatch Institute, and author of The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America's Predators "If you like Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, you will relish Serendipity, a remarkable journey of discovery--the modern version of challenge, intellectual and physical. From mollusks to whales, predators to people, James Estes unearths the dynamics of ecological interaction in a remote and wild place. Rich, innovative, and insightful, this beautifully written account is reminiscent of tropical expeditions 150 years earlier. But its messaging is relevant to today--over-harvesting, climate change, human impacts. Whereas Wallace and Darwin brought us theory and natural history, Estes agitates deeply: how science is done, how discoveries are made, and why results are challenged. Anyone interested in understanding why science matters for the trials facing our planet should start here."--Joel Berger, Senior Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society, and author of The Better to Eat You With: Fear in the Animal World "An inspiring voyage to the end of the Earth: the Aleutian Islands and the Arctic, populated by sea otters, polar bears, and walruses. Incredibly crafted to show the inner workings of a great naturalist, this memoir reveals Estes's 'aha moments' during his discovery of a voracious keystone species in an underwater seascape as wild, but even colder, than where George Schaller worked on gorillas, lions, and pandas."--Drew Harvell, Associate Director of Atkins Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University, and author of A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk "Serendipity is the amazing story of one of the world's most respected marine ecologist's lifelong quest to understand trophic cascades and their ecological impacts. Intertwining his own personal history with that of the North Pacific Ocean, Jim Estes entertains readers and inspires young scientists, but he also provides wise and well-documented counsel to those who want to conserve large predators [and] the nature they sustain in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide."--Mary Power, Professor, University of Californioa, Berkeley; past president, Ecological Society of America