Product Description: Biological homogenization is the dominant process shaping the future global biosphere. As global transportation becomes faster and more frequent, it is inevitable that biotic intermixing will increase. Unique local biotas will become extinct only to be replaced by already widespread biotas that can tolerate human activities...read more

 Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have both signed bills into law with their left hands. And being left-handed certainly did not hold back the artistic achievements of Michelangelo or Raphael. And the dexterous guitar playing of Jimmi Hendrix may only have been aided by his southpaw tendencies. Left-handedness, in fact, would appear to be no big deal. Yet throughout history, it has been associated with clumsiness and generally dubious personality traits like untrustworthiness and insincerity. Even the Latin word for left, sinister, has ominous connotations. In The Puzzle of Left-handedness, Rik Smits uncovers why history has been so unkind to our lefthanded forebears. He carefully puts together the pieces of the puzzle, presenting an array of historical anecdotes, strange superstitions, and weird wives’ tales. Smits explains how left-handedness continues to be associated with maladies of all kinds, including mental retardation, alcoholism, asthma, hay fever, cancer, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and criminality. Even in the enlightened twenty-first century, left-handedness still meets with opposition—including from one prominent psychologist who equates it with infantile negativism, similar to a toddler’s refusal to eat what’s on his plate, and another who claims that left-handed people have average lifespans that are nine years shorter than those who favor the right hand. As Smits reminds us, such speculation is backed by little factual evidence, and the arguments presented by proponents of right-handedness tend to be humorously absurd. The Puzzle of Left-handedness is an enlightening, engaging, and entertaining odyssey through the puzzles and paradoxes, theories and myths, of left-handed lore. Chock full of facts and fiction, it’s a book to be read with both hands.

Although biologists have directed much attention to estimating the extent and causes of species losses, the consequences for ecosystem functioning have been little studied. This book examines the impact of biodiversity on ecosystem processes in tropical forests - one of the most species-rich and at the same time most endangered ecosystems on earth. It covers the relationships between biodiversity and primary production, secondary production, biogeochemical cycles, soil processes, plant life forms, responses to disturbance, and resistance to invasion. The analyses focus on the key ecological interfaces where the loss of keystone species is most likely to influence the rate and stability of ecosystem processes.

As human populations expand and have increasing access to technol­ ogy, two general environmental concerns have arisen. First, human pop­ ulations are having increasing impact on the earth system, such that we are altering the biospheric carbon pools, basic processes of elemental cycling and the climate system of the earth. Because of time lags and feedbacks, these processes are not easily reversed. These alterations are occurring now more rapidly than at any time in the last several million years. Secondly, human activities are causing changes in the earth's biota that lead to species extinctions at a rate and magnitude rivaling those of past geologic extinction events. Although environmental change is potentially reversible at some time scales, the loss of species is irrevo­ cable. Changes in diversity at other scales are also cause for concern. Habitat fragmentation and declines in population sizes alter genetic di­ versity. Loss or introduction of new functional groups, such as nitro­ gen fixers or rodents onto islands can strongly alter ecosystem processes. Changes in landscape diversity through habitat modification and frag­ mentation alter the nature of processes within and among vegetation patches. Although both ecological changes altering the earth system and the loss of biotic diversity have been major sources of concern in recent years, these concerns have been largely independent, with little concern for the environmental causes the ecosystem consequences of changes in biodiversity. These two processes are clearly interrelated. Changes in ecological systems cause changes in diversity.

Product Description: Biological diversity, or biodiversity, refers to the universal attribute of all living organisms that each individual being is unique - that is, no two organisms are identical. The biology of biodiversity must include all the aspects of evolutionary and ecological sciences analyzing the origin, changes, and maintenance of the di­ versity of living organisms...read more

Product Description: The best protection against environmental mutagens is to identify them before they ever come into general use. But it is always possible that some substance will escape detection and affect a large number of persons without this being realized until later generations...read more

Product Description: Volume 8 of Chemical Mutagens covers a wide range of topics in this continuously changing field. This volume includes chapters on the detection of genetic damage in mammalian sperm both at specific loci and over the entire genome...read more

Argues against popular conceptions about the nature of progress and evolution, and shows how variety is the essence of life

Product Description: Volume 9 of Chemical Mutagens consists mainly of chapters discussing the development and validation of short-term assays to detect the mutagenic effects of environmental chemicals. These chapters include an assay with the grasshopper neuroblast, a comparison of mutagenic responses of human lung-derived and skin-derived diploid fibroblasts, a forward-mutation assay in Salmonella, a multigene sporulation test in Bacillus subtilis, a specific locus assay in mouse lymphoma cells, a study of the induction of bacteriophage lambda, and the granuloma pouch assay...read more

Product Description: This book provides a synthesis of the current knowledge in this area and its application to contemporary land management. A key topic is the exploration of the concept of the fire regime, the cumulative pattern of fires and their individual characteristics of fire type, frequency, intensity, and season, and its interactions with biodiversity...read more

Product Description: Biodiversity, sometimes simply understood as "diversity of species", is a specific quality of life on our planet, the dimensions and importance of which have just lately been fully realized. Today we know that "biological diversity is a global asset of incalculable value to present and future generations" (Kofi Annan)...read more

Product Description: There are mounting concerns that the management of our natural global heritage is failing to arrest the rapid extinction of enormous numbers of "specialized" species, especially in the tropics. This book is about specialization and generalization in the use of resources and habitats...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) has been widely recognized since his own time as one of the most influential writers in the history of Western thought. His books were widely read by specialists and the general public, and his influence had been extended by almost continuous public debate over the past 150 years. New York University Press's new paperback edition makes it possible to review Darwin's public literary output as a whole, plus his scientific journal articles, his private notebooks, and his correspondence.This is complete edition contains all of Darwin's published books, featuring definitive texts recording original pagination with Darwin's indexes retained. The set also features a general introduction and index, and introductions to each volume.

Product Description: Plants produce a considerable number of structures of one kind, like leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds, and this reiteration is a quintessential feature of the body plan of higher plants. But since not all structures of the same kind produced by a plant are identical—for instance, different branches on a plant may be male or female, leaf sizes in the sun differ from those in the shade, and fruit sizes can vary depending on patterns of physiological allocation among branches—a single plant genotype generally produces a multiplicity of phenotypic versions of the same organ...read more

This book presents the issues surrounding the conservation of wild species and ecosystems used by people. It is aimed at final year undergraduate and master's students taking courses in conservation, environmental management, ecological economics and related subjects, as well as conservation professionals, including managers, policy-makers and researchers. The structure of the book is ideal for a course in conservation, comprising a theoretical section written by the authors, and a set of ten contributed case studies intentionally diverse in discipline, geographical region and system of study. The theoretical section provides the knowledge that is needed to understand the issues, while the case studies can form the basis of seminars. Readers will emerge with a clear recognition of the difficulties of limiting the harvesting of biological resources to sustainable levels, and of the boundaries of sustainable use as a conservation tool. The authors, an ecologist and an anthropologist, have both worked on the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife for several years, including the ivory and rhino horn trades. The first book to examine the issues underlying the sustainable use debate in a fully interdisciplinary manner. Both the theoretical section and the case studies approach the issues using methods from economics, ecology, anthropology and other fields Designed as a course textbook, combining a theoretical section with invited case studies written by expert practitioners in the field Outlines the new direction that conservation biology (and thus conservation biologists) must take if it is to be successful

This text is intended as a quick reference guide providing a description of all living organisms, from bacteria and single-celled organisms to complex plants and animals. It is a descriptive rather than a definitive guide, and provides an overview of the five kingdoms, defining the terminology and structure of the classification. There is a general description of each phylum, its main members (displayed in the form of a taxonomic tree), distinguishing/diagnostic features, ecology and physiology. Individual classes within phyla merit a brief description, but orders are displayed in list form only. Overall, the aim is to provide the (student) reader with a clear mental picture of the organism he or she has chosen to investigate.