Tropical Fruits and Frugivores


Book Description

In this book we undertake one of the first global-scale comparisons of the relationships between tropical plants and frugivorous animal communities, comparing sites within and across continents. In total, 12 primary contributors, including noted plant and animal ecologists, present newly-analyzed long-term datasets on the floristics and phenological rhythms of their study sites, identifying important seed dispersers and key plant taxa that sustain animal communities in Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, and the Neotropics.




The Common Marmoset in Captivity and Biomedical Research


Book Description

The Common Marmoset in Captivity and Biomedical Research is the first text dedicated exclusively to this species,filling an urgent need for an encyclopedic compilation of the existing information. Sponsored by the AmericanCollege of Laboratory Animal Medicine as part of its authoritative Blue Book series, the book covers the biology,management, diseases, and clinical and research applications of this important species. The common marmoset(Callithrix jacchus) has come of age in the scientific community as a behaviorally complex, cognitively advanced,small, prolific, and easily maintained nonhuman primate with many of the advantages of larger animals, such asmacaques, but without the attendant physical and zoonotic risks. Marmosets are currently being used in diverse areas of inquiry, including vision and auditory research, infectious disease, cognitive neuroscience, behavior, reproductive biology, toxicology and drug development, and aging. Themarmoset genome has been sequenced and there is currently an intensive effort to apply gene editing technologies to the species. The creation of transgenic marmosets will provide researchers with a small nonhuman primatemodel to study a number of poorly understood disorders, like autism. - Presents a complete view of the marmoset, covering their biology and management, diseases and clinical applications, and research applications - Includes contributions from renowned and international authors and editors - Provides the first authoritative and comprehensive treatment of marmosets in biomedical research as part of the ACLAM Series




The Ghosts Of Evolution


Book Description

A new vision is sweeping through ecological science: The dense web of dependencies that makes up an ecosystem has gained an added dimension-the dimension of time. Every field, forest, and park is full of living organisms adapted for relationships with creatures that are now extinct. In a vivid narrative, Connie Barlow shows how the idea of "missing partners" in nature evolved from isolated, curious examples into an idea that is transforming how ecologists understand the entire flora and fauna of the Americas. This fascinating book will enrich and deepen the experience of anyone who enjoys a stroll through the woods or even down an urban sidewalk. But this knowledge has a dark side too: Barlow's "ghost stories" teach us that the ripples of biodiversity loss around us now are just the leading edge of what may well become perilous cascades of extinction.




The Short-Tailed Fruit Bat


Book Description

As dusk settles over the Costa Rican forest, the short-tailed fruit bat, Carollia perspicillata, stirs from its cave roost. Flying out to search for ripe fruit, Carollia returns to a night roost in the forest vegetation to eat. After a few such flights Carollia rests, and the fruits pass through its short digestive tract. The seeds are excreted onto the ground, to be eaten in turn by mice and insects, but a few are pushed into crevices where they await the necessary conditions for germination. In The Short-tailed Fruit Bat, Theodore Fleming examines Carollia's role in the ecology of tropical forests. Based on more than ten years' research, this study provides the most detailed ecological and evolutionary account to date of the life history of a Neotropical mammal and includes striking photographs of the bats in flight.




The Ecology of Tropical East Asia


Book Description

An updated edition of the only book dedicated to the terrestrial ecology of the East Asian tropics, authored by a world-renowned tropical ecologist




Tropical Rain Forests


Book Description

The first edition of Tropical Rain Forests: an Ecological and Biogeographical Comparison exploded the myth of ‘the rain forest’ as a single, uniform entity. In reality, the major tropical rain forest regions, in tropical America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and New Guinea, have as many differences as similarities, as a result of their isolation from each other during the evolution of their floras and faunas. This new edition reinforces this message with new examples from recent and on-going research. After an introduction to the environments and geological histories of the major rain forest regions, subsequent chapters focus on plants, primates, carnivores and plant-eaters, birds, fruit bats and gliding animals, and insects, with an emphasis on the ecological and biogeographical differences between regions. This is followed by a new chapter on the unique tropical rain forests of oceanic islands. The final chapter, which has been completely rewritten, deals with the impacts of people on tropical rain forests and discusses possible conservation strategies that take into account the differences highlighted in the previous chapters. This exciting and very readable book, illustrated throughout with color photographs, will be invaluable reading for undergraduate students in a wide range of courses as well as an authoritative reference for graduate and professional ecologists, conservationists, and interested amateurs.




Fit for Life


Book Description

There is only one concept to grasp and only one action to take: Eat more living food than dead food. The simplicity of this message has eluded people up to now. In fact, it may seem oversimplified. Because of past frustrations and disappointments, people have come to believe that losing weight is complicated, difficult and expensive. Truth be told, all that is required to reap the myriad benefits of Harvey Diamond's program is to return to the fundamentals of life. The human body is intelligent and capable beyond anyone's comprehension, but in order to unleash this extraordinary intelligence-including that which normalizes body weight-the proper fuel is required. That fuel is living food. But for some inexplicable reason, people have allowed themselves to believe that they can give their bodies the wrong fuel and then have it operate at optimum efficiency. And that is why most people become overweight. This book offers not a diet, but a lifelong way of eating that allows the eating experience to remain a joyous one, rather than a clinical endeavor of measuring portions, counting calories, calculating grams of fat, carbohydrates and protein, or ingesting meal replacements. It teaches readers how to eat any food in the most healthful way so there is no feeling of deprivation. As readers embark on this life-changing journey, they will experience the surge of energy and well-being that only comes as the automatic result of properly fueling their bodies. Providing deliberate, gentle and forgiving guidance every step of the way, this book will become readers' trusted source and companion as they create a new way of eating and living, which will lead to both overweight and poor health becoming conditions of the past.




Seed Fate


Book Description

This book presents current knowledge of seed fate in both natural and human-disturbed landscapes, from various regions of the world. Habitats considered range from mountain and arid deserts in the temperate zone, to savanna and lowland rainforests in tropical regions of the world. Particular attention is paid to plant diversity conservation when seed removal is affected by factors such as hunting, habitat fragmentation or intensive logging. Contributors include leading scientists involved in research on seed ecology and on animal-plant relationships from the perspective of both primary and secondary seed dispersal, and predation.




The Ornaments of Life


Book Description

The average kilometer of tropical rainforest is teeming with life; it contains thousands of species of plants and animals. As The Ornaments of Life reveals, many of the most colorful and eye-catching rainforest inhabitants—toucans, monkeys, leaf-nosed bats, and hummingbirds to name a few—are an important component of the infrastructure that supports life in the forest. These fruit-and-nectar eating birds and mammals pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds of hundreds of tropical plants, and unlike temperate communities, much of this greenery relies exclusively on animals for reproduction. Synthesizing recent research by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, Theodore H. Fleming and W. John Kress demonstrate the tremendous functional and evolutionary importance of these tropical pollinators and frugivores. They shed light on how these mutually symbiotic relationships evolved and lay out the current conservation status of these essential species. In order to illustrate the striking beauty of these “ornaments” of the rainforest, the authors have included a series of breathtaking color plates and full-color graphs and diagrams.




Insect Ecology


Book Description

Dr. Timothy Schowalter has succeeded in creating a unique, updated treatment of insect ecology. This revised and expanded text looks at how insects adapt to environmental conditions while maintaining the ability to substantially alter their environment. It covers a range of topics- from individual insects that respond to local changes in the environment and affect resource distribution, to entire insect communities that have the capacity to modify ecosystem conditions.Insect Ecology, Second Edition, synthesizes the latest research in the field and has been produced in full color throughout. It is ideal for students in both entomology and ecology-focused programs.NEW TO THIS EDITION:* New topics such as elemental defense by plants, chaotic models, molecular methods to measure disperson, food web relationships, and more* Expanded sections on plant defenses, insect learning, evolutionary tradeoffs, conservation biology and more* Includes more than 350 new references* More than 40 new full-color figures