Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Life Sciences - Biological Diversity

This book presents a wide range of contributions addressing diverse aspects of biodiversity exploitation and conservation. These collectively provide a snapshot of ongoing action and state-of-the-art research, rather than a series of necessarily more superficial overviews. Examples presented here derive from studies in 17 countries including Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. These reports will stimulate future work toward attaining a sustainable balance between the conservation and exploitation of biodiversity.

Hawaii's forest bird community is the most insular and most endangered in the world and serves as a case study for threatened species globally. Ten have disappeared in the past thirty years, nine are critically endangered, and even common species are currently in decline. Thane K. Pratt, his coeditors, and collaborators, all leaders in their field, describe the research and conservation efforts over the past thirty years to save Hawaii's forest birds. They also offer the most comprehensive look at the reasons for these extinctions and attempts to overcome them in the future.

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Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's The Theory of Island Biogeography, first published by Princeton in 1967, is one of the most influential books on ecology and evolution to appear in the past half century. By developing a general mathematical theory to explain a crucial ecological problem--the regulation of species diversity in island populations--the book transformed the science of biogeography and ecology as a whole. In The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, some of today's most prominent biologists assess the continuing impact of MacArthur and Wilson's book...

There is still a widespread belief that microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, protists, and small multicellulars, have a cosmopolitan distribution due to a presumed easy dispersal by wind and water. However, the contributions collected in this book - ranging from protists to rotifers and mosses - show that microorganisms have community structures and biogeographies similar to those found in animals and vascular plants, although the ranges of many can be wider and local endemism is rarer. Accordingly, the cosmopolitan distribution model of Finlay and Fenchel is to be replaced by...

Gene probes, whether RNA or DNA, have played a central role in the rapid development of molecular biology. The wide variety of applications is matched by a considerable diversity in the methods used for generating probes, a complete account of which would be very difficult to make. Instead, this second volume in the series combines a selection of newer gene probe procedures with a review of the most important established methods, together with some examples of the ways in which gene probes can be applied. In doing so, the book aims to act not only as an introductory manual for newcomers to...

This book brings together a selection of 22 original studies submitted to Biodiversity and Conservation that address aspects of methods and practice in biodiversity conservation. The contributions deal with a wide variety of approaches to site selection and management, especially the use of bioindicators, surrogates, and other approaches to site selection. As no complete inventory of all taxa in any one site has yet been achieved, alternative strategies are essential and bioindicators or surrogates come to the fore. The articles included cover a wide range of organisms used in such...

This book brings together a selection of 21 original studies submitted to Biodiversity and Conservation that address aspects of management for the conservation of biodiversity. The topics addressed include: lessons from the Northern spotted owl saga, hidden costs of implementing the EU Habitats Directive, the importance of recently created agricultural wetlands, cutting reeds to create a sustainable habitat, impacts and control of feral cats, selecting areas to complement existing reserve systems, beneficial effects of rabbit warrens, effects of fences on large predator ranges, spatial...

Immunology is vital to the understanding of infection and disease. Application of this information may lead to resistance and cures for higher animals and...