Product Description: The variety of social systems among the New World blackbirds (Family Icteridae) and the structural simplicity of their foraging environment provide excellent opportunities for testing theorics about the adaptive significance of their behavior...read more

Product Description: Human activities are threatening the extinction of a substantial number of species living on earth. The immense scale of the impending "extinction crisis" means that hard choices must be made about what to conserve with limited resources...read more

Product Description: Describes the transformation/movement of chemical substances in a global context and is designed for courses dealing with some aspects of biogeochemical cycles. Organized in three sections, it covers earth sciences, element cycles and a synthesis of contemporary environmental issues...read more

Product Description: Drawing on detailed data from their sixteen-year study of red-winged blackbirds in the marshes of Washington's Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, Beletsky and Orians analyze the information redwings use to make breeding-season decisions and the consequences these decisions have for lifetime reproductive success...read more

Product Description: Over the last decade, the study of cycles as a model for the earth's changing climate has become a new science. Earth Systems Science is the basis for understanding all aspects of anthropogenic global change, such as chemically forced global climate change...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

"Life" integrates scholarship, an engaging narrative style, effective pedagogy, and art-work into a cohesive presentation of biological data and ideas that should interest students. The third edition features a new co-author - H.Craig Heller and new information - from new molecular techniques in biotechnology, immunology, and systematics. New chapters have been added on conservation biology and on recombinant DNA. Organized differently, the text addresses evolution before diversity and physiology. The artwork blends scientific precision and visual impact.

One of the fastest growing scientific disciplines in recent history is conservation biology. A response of the scientific community to the massive environmental changes taking place on Earth, its goal is to enable society to anticipate, prevent, and reduce ecological damage, and to generate the scientific information from which effective conservation strategies and policies can be designed and implemented.In 1989, the Society for Conservation Biology and Island Press produced Research Priorities for Conservation Biology, a slim volume that set forth the findings of experts who had gathered to outline research needs for the near future, and which served as a guidepost for the field throughout the 1990s. In January 2000, leaders of the Society for Conservation Biology convened a similar group to reach consensus on where the field now stands and to determine the major, compelling research priorities for the next decade. Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade presents the results of that gathering.The book: notes progress or changes in the state of global biodiversity over the past decade and discusses overarching themes that influence all areas of conservation offers ten chapters by leading experts that summarize the status of knowledge in key areas ranging from marine conservation to ecological restoration to conservation medicine sets forth research priorities for each area describes gaps in current knowledge that are impeding the ability of conservation practitioners to carry out their workA final synthesis chapter brings together cross-cutting themes that integrate the diverse topics within the context of global biodiversity loss, and presents a call to action for scientists and others working in the field.Conservation Biology: Research Priorities for the Next Decade represents an indispensable guide to the research that is most urgently needed to support effective conservation, and will be must reading for anyone involved with the field of conservation biology. (view table of contents)