Learn and Grow | Author Interviews | Book Summaries | Book lists | Summaries | Author Interviews | Shop Nonfiction books | Booklists | Non-fiction books | Book Reviews | Best Business Books | Best Management Books | Best Leadership Books | Best Business Strategy Books | Best Finance Books | Best Investment Books | Best History Books | Best World History Books | Best China History Books | Best India History Books | Best British India Books | Best American History Books | Best Science Books | Best Technology Books | Best Slavery Books | Best Economics Books | Best Macroeconomics Books | Best Health Books | Best Medicine History Books | Best Travel Books | Book Events | Author Events | Virtual Book Launch | Latest nonfiction books | Upcoming nonfiction books | Best University Presses | Harvard University Press | Yale University Press | Stanford University Press | Columbia University Press | Oxford University Press | Cambridge University Press | Chicago University Press | Pulitzer Prize | Recommended Books | Readara Book Experts | Readara Booklists | Readara Book summaries | Best Author Interviews | Best Nobel Prize Winners Books | Connect with Book Editors | Book Designers | Book Printers | Book Cover Designers | Best Book Agents List | Book PR and Marketing Agencies List | Book Wholesalers List Nonfiction books | Booklists | Non-fiction books | Book Reviews | Best Business Books | Best Management Books | Best Leadership Books | Best Business Strategy Books | Best Finance Books | Best Investment Books | Best History Books | Best World History Books | Best China History Books | Best India History Books | Best British India Books | Best American History Books | Best Science Books | Best Technology Books | Best Slavery Books | Best Economics Books | Best Macroeconomics Books | Best Health Books | Best Medicine History Books | Best Travel Books | Book Events | Author Events | Virtual Book Launch | Latest nonfiction books | Upcoming nonfiction books | Best University Presses | Harvard University Press | Yale University Press | Stanford University Press | Columbia University Press | Oxford University Press | Cambridge University Press | Chicago University Press | Pulitzer Prize | Recommended Books | Readara Book Experts | Readara Booklists | Readara Book summaries | Best Author Interviews | Best Nobel Prize Winners Books | Connect with Book Editors | Book Designers | Book Printers | Book Cover Designers | Best Book Agents List | Book PR and Marketing Agencies List | Book Wholesalers List | Book lists, Summaries, Author Interviews, Shop

Expedite your nonfiction book discovery process with Readara interviews, summaries and recommendations, Broaden your knowledge and gain insights from leading experts and scholars

In-depth, hour-long interviews with notable nonfiction authors, Gain new perspectives and ideas from the writer’s expertise and research, Valuable resource for readers and researchers

Optimize your book discovery process, Four-to eight-page summaries prepared by subject matter experts, Quickly review the book’s central messages and range of content

Books are handpicked covering a wide range of important categories and topics, Selected authors are subject experts, field professionals, or distinguished academics

Our editorial team includes books offering insights, unique views and researched-narratives in categories, Trade shows and book fairs, Book signings and in person author talks,Webinars and online events

Connect with editors and designers,Discover PR & marketing services providers, Source printers and related service providers

James A Estes

James Estes is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California at Santa Cruz. Estes is a wildlife ecologist, recognized for his work on the ecosystem-level influences of large predators. He is known especially for studies of sea otters and kelp forest ecosystems, from which he demonstrated the enhancing influence of predators on the distribution and abundance of plants through what has since come to be widely known as a “trophic cascade. 

Estes was born in Sacramento, California, in 1945. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in zoology in 1967, subsequently obtaining a Masters in Biology from Washington State University in 1969 and a PhD in biology and statistics from the University of Arizona in 1974. 

He was employed as a research scientist by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey from 1974 to 2007, after which he joined the faculty at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In recognition of his work’s scientific and societal impacts, 

Estes received the U.S. Geological Survey’s Schumaker Award for excellence in science communication, the Western Society of Naturalists’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Society of Mammalogists’ C. Hart Merriam Award.

 

Research Interests


James Estes’ laboratory is interested in the behavioral ecology of large predators and the impacts of these animals on other species and ecological processes. They have explored the effects of sea otter predation on temperate reef ecosystems by first defining the food web’s structure through observational studies and then documenting the dynamic consequences of various consumer-prey interactions by contrasting islands of the Aleutian archipelago as sea otter populations waxed and waned following their near-extinction by the Pacific maritime fur trade. 

They have shown that sea otters enhance kelp forests by limiting populations of herbivorous sea urchins; that the effects of this trophic cascade extend widely through coastal ecosystems to other species and ecological processes; that predation by sea otters and their recent ancestors decoupled the coevolution of defense and resistance by marine plants and their herbivores; and that North Pacific kelp forests have been further influenced by events in the open sea that caused killer whales to begin preying on sea otters, thus driving otter populations downward and altering their effects on coastal ecosystems through the otter-urchin-kelp trophic cascade. 

Using this system as a model, they have helped identify the ecological and evolutionary influences of large predators across global ecosystems and the resulting consequences of widespread losses of these species on numerous features of the world we live in.

 

 

Source: National Academy of Sciences 

Books by Author

Videos

Play Icon

Play Icon

Play Icon

Play Icon

Play Icon

Play Icon