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The realms of conservationists and entomologists are brought together.
This book takes a non-technical approach in covering the evolution of South American mammalian fauna throughout geological history, and discusses how South America has changed due to mammalian invasions. Unlike other works on the subject, this book attempts to answer several crucial questions that often go unmentioned together in one cohesive monograph. What was the fauna like before the American interchange? What were the origins of the now-extinct groups when northern species arrived and out-competed them? How did the modern mammalian fauna come into being with such disparate animal groups? This information is given from a historical perspective throughout the book's 15 chapters, and is presented in an easily graspable fashion by mostly avoiding technical language. The book is written for academics, scientists and scholars engaged in paleontology, zoology and evolutionary biology, but may also appeal to a larger audience of general readers interested in mammalian evolution. The book begins with an introduction, describing the tools necessary to interpret the evolutionary history of South American mammals in geological terms and some of the early people who helped found South American mammalian paleontology. Chapter 2 describes the Mesozoic first mammals of Gondwana and what we are learning about them, dominant before the K/T extinction event. Then chapters 3 through 8 cover the Cenozoic, or "Age of Mammals", highlighting the major mammalian groups of South America that replaced the earlier mammals of Gondwana. These groups include the marsupials, native ungulates, the xenarthrans (armadillos, anteaters, sloths), the caviomorphs (rodents), and the platyrrhine monkeys. Chapters 9 and 10 address the Antarctic La Meseta fossils and the Colombian La Venta fossil faunal assemblages. Chapter 11 discusses the neotropical mammals that invaded the Caribbean Islands, and illustrates the influence South America has had on adjacent faunas. Chapter 12 describes the origin of the Amazon River and the role it has played in the evolution of the mammals and other flora and fauna. Chapter 13 tells the story of the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), and chapter 14 follows this up with a discussion of the Pleistocene mammal communities and their eventual extinction. Chapter 15 concludes the text by discussing the modern mammals of South America, and how despite the extensive Pleistocene extinctions there is still a lot of mammalian diversity in South America.
This handbook outlines the main methods and techniques, both modern and traditional, used to measure insect diversity. With the growing relevance of insect conservation in nature, this guide should assist students in understanding a complicated field.
This book focuses on central themes related to the conservation of bats. It details their response to land-use change and management practices, intensified urbanization and roost disturbance and loss. Increasing interactions between humans and bats as a result of hunting, disease relationships, occupation of human dwellings, and conflict over fruit crops are explored in depth. Finally, contributors highlight the roles that taxonomy, conservation networks and conservation psychology have to play in conserving this imperilled but vital taxon. With over 1300 species, bats are the second largest order of mammals, yet as the Anthropocene dawns, bat populations around the world are in decline. Greater understanding of the anthropogenic drivers of this decline and exploration of possible mitigation measures are urgently needed if we are to retain global bat diversity in the coming decades. This book brings together teams of international experts to provide a global review of current understanding and recommend directions for future research and mitigation.
This groundbreaking book is a contemporary global synthesis of the rapidly developing and important field of insect conservation biology. Insects play important roles in terrestrial ecological processes and in maintaining the world as we know it. They present particular conservation challenges, especially as a quarter face extinction within the next few decades. This textbook addresses the ethical foundation of insect conservation, and asks why should we concern ourselves with conservation of a butterfly, beetle or bug? The success of insects and their diversity, which have survived glaciers, is now facing a more formidable obstacle: the meteoric impact of humans. After addressing threats, from invasive alien plants to climate change, the book explores ways insects and their habitats are prioritised, mapped, monitored and conserved. Landscape and species approaches are considered. This book is for undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and managers in conservation biology or entomology, and the wider biological and environmental sciences.
This volume offers extensive information on insect life in dying and dead wood. Written and reviewed by leading experts from around the world, the twenty-five chapters included here provide the most global coverage possible and specifically address less-studied taxa and topics. An overarching goal of this work is to unite literature that has become fragmented along taxonomic and geographic lines. A particular effort was made to recognize the dominant roles that social insects (e.g., termites, ants and passalid beetles) play in saproxylic assemblages in many parts of the world without overlooking the non-social members of these communities. The book is divided into four parts: · Part I “Diversity” includes chapters addressing the major orders of saproxylic insects (Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera and Blattodea), broadly organized in decreasing order of estimated global saproxylic diversity. In addition to order-level treatments, some chapters in this part discuss groups of particular interest, including pollinators, hymenopteran parasitoids, ants, stag and passalid beetles, and wood-feeding termites. · Part II “Ecology” discusses insect-fungal and insect-insect interactions, nutritional ecology, dispersal, seasonality, and vertical stratification. · Part III “Conservation” focuses on the importance of primary forests for saproxylic insects, offers recommendations for conserving these organisms in managed forests, discusses the relationships between saproxylic insects and fire, and addresses the value of tree hollows and highly-decomposed wood for saproxylic insects. Utilization of non-native wood by saproxylic insects and the suitability of urban environments for these organisms are also covered. · Lastly, Part IV “Methodological Advancements” highlights molecular tools for assessing saproxylic diversity. The book offers an accessible and insightful resource for natural historians of all kinds and will especially appeal to entomologists, ecologists, conservationists and foresters.
This book provides a concise and readable summary of the ecology and behaviour of bumblebees, with a particular focus on practical issues such as conservation strategies, management of bumblebees for crop pollination, and the possible impacts of bumblebees as non-native invasive species.
From its inception, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been charged with a conflicting mission. One set of statutes demands that the department must develop America's lands, that it get our trees, water, oil, and minerals out into the marketplace. Yet an opposing set of laws orders us to conserve these same resources, to preserve them for the long term and to consider the noncommodity values of our public landscape. That dichotomy, between rapid exploitation and long-term protection, demands what I see as the most significant policy departure of my tenure in office: the use of science-interdisciplinary science-as the primary basis for land management decisions. For more than a century, that has not been the case. Instead, we have managed this dichotomy by compartmentalizing the American landscape. Congress and my predecessors handled resource conflicts by drawing enclosures: "We'll create a national park here," they said, "and we'll put a wildlife refuge over there." Simple enough, as far as protection goes. And outside those protected areas, the message was equally simplistic: "Y'all come and get it. Have at it." The nature and the pace of the resource extraction was not at issue; if you could find it, it was yours.
This is the first comprehensive synopsis of the biodiversity of Diptera, with chapters on all regional faunas, Diptera as ecological indicators, statistical techniques for estimating species diversity based on the known fauna, molecular tools and trends in digital publication.