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Countless ants transport and deposit seeds and thereby influence the survival, death, and evolution of many plant species. In higher plants, seed dispersal by ants (myrmecochory) has appeared many times independently in different lineages. More than 3000 plant species are known to utilize ant assistance to be planted. Myrmecochory is a very interesting and rather enigmatic form of mutualistic ant-plant associations. This phenomenon is extremely complex, because there are hundreds of ant species connected with hundreds of plant species. This book effectively combines a thorough approach to investigating morphological and physiological adaptations of plants with elegant field experiments on the behaviour of ants. This monograph is a first attempt at collecting information about morphology, ecology and phenology of ants and plants from one ecosystem. The book gives readers a panoramic view of the hidden, poorly-known interrelations not only between pairs of ants and plant species, but also between species communities in the ecosystem. The authors have considered not just one aspect of animal-plant relationships, but have tried to show them in all their complexity. Some aspects of the ant-plant interactions described in the book may be of interest to botanists, others to zoologists or ecologists, but the entire work is an excellent example of the marriage of these biological disciplines.
This important work explores the natural history, experimental approach, and integration of evolutionary and ecological literature of ant-plant mutualisms.
This is the second edition of a multi-author book first published in 1992. It deals with all aspects of plant regeneration by seeds, including reproductive allocation, seed dispersal and predation, longevity, dormancy and germination. All chapters have been updated, and four new chapters added on seed size, seedling establishment, the role of gaps, and regeneration from seed after fire.
Originally published in paperback in 1990, this book's purpose was the accurate identification of all British plants.
Most flowering plants, including wild species and many food crops, are pollinated by animals and are vital, therefore, for biological production and the maintenance of biodiversity. Pollinators benefit from diverse natural habitats for forage and nesting, especially when these are limited in plant production systems. Landscape and forest management practices can help ensure the continued availability of pollinators and thereby increase resilience and the productivity of forestry and agriculture. The extent of forests and other natural habitats in a landscape plays a role in determining the species composition of pollinators. Agricultural landscapes adjoining fragmented forests and natural areas benefit from pollinator services, and animal-pollinated crops therefore achieve higher fruit set. Forest management practices can have significant effects on pollinator abundance and diversity. They affect forest variables such as structure, species composition, soil dynamics, hydrology and light availability, all of which can affect pollinator species composition and diversity and plant–pollinator networks. Indigenous and local knowledge can contribute to the conservation of pollinators through traditional management practices. This working paper, which is aimed at forest practitioners, landscape planners and land-use decision-makers, reviews published literature on the impacts of forest and landscape management practices on pollinators. It also addresses the implications of climate change, collates 36 case studies, and makes recommendation on measures for maintaining pollinator diversity and abundance in forests and landscapes
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Basic laws of nature are rather simple, but observed biological structures and their dynamic behaviors are unbelievably complicated. This book is devoted to a study of this “strange” relationship by applying mathematical modeling to various structures and phenomena in biology, such as surface patterns, bioadhesion, locomotion, predator-prey behavior, seed dispersal, etc. and revealing a kind of self-organization in these phenomena. In spite of diversity of biological systems considered, two main questions are (1) what does self-organization in biology mean mathematically and (2) how one can apply this knowledge to generate new knowledge about behavior of particular biological system? We believe that this kind of “biomimetics” in computer will lead to better understanding of biological phenomena and possibly towards development of technical implications based on our modeling.
This book is about the regeneration of plants from seed under field conditions. It attempts to give a reasonably balanced overview of the many aspects of this broad topic. The first chapter introduces some general ideas about reproduction in plants. Subsequent chapters deal with the early stages in the life of a plant, from ovule to established seedling, in a more or less chronological order. The final chapter shows how the data on regeneration requirements of different species can be used to explain a number of important characteristics of whole plant communities. The study of the ecological aspects of reproduction by seed touches on a range of issues of current interest in biology. A discussion of seed size and number involves a consideration of the concepts of resource allocation, life cycles and strategies. The in teractions between plants and animals seen in pollination, seed dispersal and predation provide excellent material for the study of coevolution. Investigations on regeneration from seed have greatly our understanding of the causes and maintenance of species added to diversity. The reader will find that virtually all the experiments and field observations described in this book are conceptually very simple. Many of them merely required numerous careful measurements.
The massive grasslands of Brazil -- known as the cerrados -- which cover roughly a quarter of its land surface and are among the most threatened regions in South America, have received little media attention. This book brings together leading researchers on the area to produce the first detailed account in English of the natural history and ecology of the cerrado/savanna ecosystem. Given their extent and threatened status, the richness of their flora and fauna, and the lack of familiarity with their unique ecology at the international level, the cerrados are badly in need of this important and timely work.