This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“Deer have a love-hate relationship with trees. Deer don’t actually like forests, but we think of them as forest animals, because that’s where we find them most often. Like all large animals that eat plants, deer have a problem: they can only eat vegetation they can reach. And usually, the vegetation available to them has armed itself against herbivorous attack. The usual arsenal of vegetative defensive weapons includes thorns and barbs, toxins, or thick, hard bark, but trees in Central European forest have developed none of these defenses.” – Peter Wohlleben, Chapter 4: Why Deer Taste Bad to Trees, Page 53
“Dead animals are often the cause of fights, and wolves lose out when brown bears turn up. Then it’s best for the pack to head for the hills, particularly if they have pups, which a bruin could easily scarf down as a snack. Ravens have a role to play here: they spot bears from afar and help wolves by alerting the pack to approaching danger. In return, wolves allow ravens to help themselves to a share of the booty – something the birds wouldn’t be able to do without the wolves’ permission. Wolves would have no difficulty making a meal of ravens, but they teach their offspring that these birds are their friends. Wolf pups have been observed playing with their black companions; the young wolves imprint on the smell of the ravens and come to regard the birds as members of their community.” – Peter Wohlleben, Chapter 7: The Funeral Feast, Pages 88-89
“In my opinion, the much-vaunted
supposed benefits of releasing nutrients by flames and recycling dead biomass
through fire are myths that downplay the disruption caused to this sensitive
ecosystem by people playing with fire since prehistoric times. In the normal course of events, it is not
fire that releases stored nutrients and makes them available to new plant
growth in the form of ash; it is the billion-strong army of animal sanitary
engineers that undertakes the drudgery of decomposition (and they are
completely incinerated in large forest fires, because, unfortunately, the
little fellows are thin skinned).” – Peter Wohlleben, Chapter 13: It
Doesn’t Get Any Hotter Than This, Page 183
Is This An Overview?
Everything in nature is interconnected. A species effects the ecosystem around them. A cycle of life as nutrients from the dead feed the living. Many animals fight for nutrients provided by other dead animals. Nitrogen is a reactive compound that enables the growth of vegetation, but is rare in nature. Nitrogen can be provided by dead animals around them, or alternatively, the winds can carry it. Nitrogen is a by-product of burning fossil fuels that can be carried long distances on the wind, to come down when it rains. Trees have been aware of the emissions as they have been growing faster when emissions rose. But growing too fast makes them vulnerable to fungi and other predators. Fires have been a way to recycle dead biomass, but that also incinerates the natural sanitation army of animals that decompose and release nutrients. Rain can provide sustenance, but heavy rain can carry away valuable soil and nutrients.
Animals communicate, between their own species and other
animals. Even vegetation has a
communication method, a wood wide web.
Much like animals have defenses against predators, vegetation has
defenses on those that prey on them.
Reproduction is attuned to winter losses, but humans can intervene to
feed animals and prevent losses, which means more animals available after
winter. Increased population of a
species effects how they compete with other animals, and how much vegetation
there is. Hunters have participated in
feeding animals, to have more animals to hunt.
People can also protect animals, a desire usually fostered when people
engage and connect with animals, such as through zoos.
Caveats?
The ecosystem is complex. Complexity that makes it difficult to
understand how everything is interconnected.
This book shares some connections that are known, with different
interpretations. There are many
connections not yet known or understood.
