Biology Research Resources

This comprehensive Dictionary brings together an extensive range of definitive terms in ecological economics. Assembling contributions from distinguished scholars, it provides an intellectual map to this evolving subject ranging from the practical to the philosophical. Encompassing a broad overview of the field, this Dictionary will be a useful reference for students at all levels, alongside faculty and researchers. It will also be an informative resource for government and NGO professionals in environmental conservation to better understand the crucial vocabulary that governs their field.

An invaluable reference, this comprehensive encyclopedia brings together information on marine science from its component and affiliate sciences, along with information on technology, commerce, business, society, history, and more. Detailed entries cover concepts, technologies, phenomena, organisms, treaties and legal issues, research stations, places and geographical features, vessels, experiments, marine sanctuaries, scientists and lawmakers, programmes, organisations, occupations and careers, and other subjects related to marine science. Spanning 1872 to the present, this resource concentrates on developments since World War II, including organisations, people, concepts, and laws of international or regional importance.

The Gardener's Botanical contains definitions of more than 5,000 plant names--from abbreviatus ("shortened") to zonatus ("with bands")--along with more than 350 color illustrations. Scientific plant names are an invaluable tool for those who understand them. Each word is listed with a pronunciation guide, definition, example plant, and, where appropriate, etymology. Also included in this illuminating guide are special features on important plant genera, fact boxes, essays focusing on the history and importance of Latin names and botanical illustrations, and an index of common names with more than 2,000 popular plants, cross-referenced with their binomial name in Latin.

Integrating & the latest science with the results of intensive fieldwork, institutional collaboration, and the efforts of hundreds of contributing authors, this new edition is an essential reference on California's native and naturalized vascular plants. This edition includes treatments of many newly described or discovered taxa and recently introduced plants, and it reflects major improvements in plant taxonomy. Nearly two-thirds of the 7,600 species, subspecies, and varieties that the volume describes are now illustrated with diagnostic drawings. Geographic distributions, elevation ranges, flowering times, nomenclature, and the status of non-natives and native taxa of special concern have all been updated throughout. The second edition also allows for identification of 240 alien taxa that are not fully naturalized and features a new chapter on geologic, climatic, and vegetation history of California.

Detailing a mysterious realm that's as vital to our existence as the air we breathe, this new atlas immerses readers in the wonders of the deep through more than 250 up-to-the-minute maps, photographs, and satellite images.

Practical guidance for wildlife professionals working to improve study design, data analysis, and the application of results to habitat and population management. Building from its companion volume, Foundations for Advancing Animal Ecology, this practical book presents readers with the principal methods used to observe animal behavior. Teaching them to assess resource abundance categories of species-environmental relationships models, it also explores * major aspects of measuring animal habitat: what to measure and how to measure it; * common sampling and estimation methods to assess population parameters; * when to measure and how to analyze data; * problems that will confront ecologists in the coming years--and how to gather information to adequately address them; and * how the experimental approach can be used to advance the science of animal ecology. Throughout the book, the authors stress the importance of speaking a common and well-defined language. Avoiding vague and misleading terminology, they assert, will help ecologists translate science into meaningful and lasting actions in the environment. Taking the perspective of the organism of interest in developing concepts and applications, the authors always keep the potentially biased human perspective in focus. They also provide a selection of suggested research projects, cautions, and caveats.

These charismatic mammals, which include dogs, cats, hyenas, weasels, mongooses, seals, sea lions and bears, have always held special importance to humans throughout history and continue to do so today. In recent decades, the emergence of new technologies has completely transformed our knowledge of how carnivorans interact with their environments and consequently reshaped our view of carnivoran ecology.This unique synthesis uses examples from a diverse and expanding carnivoran literature, drawing from all carnivoran families and spanning the world's oceans and continents, to produce a clearly written and richly illustrated book that reviews our current state of knowledge of carnivoran ecology. It addresses all levels of biological organization and function, from genes to enzymes, organisms, populations, and ecosystems. Special attention is given to how carnivoran species interact with their prey, each other, and humans. There is an emphasis on community interactions and their importance in carnivoran evolution, showing how evolutionary constraints (morphological, physiological, and behavioral) structure communities today. The book's approach is strongly comparative, contrasting herbivores with carnivores, predators with scavengers, and cats with dogs. Carnivorans play important roles in many high-profile conservation cases, either as species of concern or agents of endangerment, and their importance is demonstrated in both contexts.

If forests are the lungs of the planet, then animals migrating across oceans, streams, and mountains--eating, pooping, and dying along the way--are its heart and arteries, pumping nitrogen and phosphorus from deep-sea gorges up to mountain peaks, from the Arctic to the Caribbean. Without this conveyor belt of crucial, life-sustaining nutrients, the world would look very different. The dynamics that shape our physical world--atmospheric chemistry, geothermal forces, plate tectonics, and erosion through wind and rain--have been explored for decades. But the effects on local ecosystems of less glamorous forces--rotting carcasses and deposited feces--as well as their impact on the global climate cycle, have been largely overlooked. The simple truth is that pooping and peeing are daily rituals for almost all animals, the ellipses of ecology that flow through life. We eat, we poop, and we die.

This book provides syntheses of ecological theories and overarching patterns of urban bird ecology that have only recently become available. The numerous habitats represented in this book ranges from rows of trees in wooded alleys, to wastelands and remnants of natural habitats encapsulated in the urban matrix. Birds are among the most conspicuous and fascinating residents of urban neighborhoods and provide urban citizens with everyday wildlife contact all over the world. However, present urbanization trends are rapidly depleting their habitats, and thus knowledge of urban bird ecology is urgently needed if birds are to thrive in cities. The book is unique in its inclusion of examples from all continents (except Antarctica) in an effort to arrive at a more holistic perspective. Among other issues, the individual chapters address the censusing of birds in urban green spaces; the relationship between bird communities and the structure of urban green spaces; the role of exotic plant species as food sources for urban bird fauna; the influence of artificial light and pollutants on bird fauna; trends in long-term urban bird research, and transdisciplinary studies on bird sounds and their effects on humans. Several chapters investigate how our current knowledge of the ecology of urban bird fauna should be applied in order to achieve better management of urban habitats so as to achieve conservation of species or even increase species diversity. The book also provides a forward-looking summary on potential research directions.

Since the 1500s, scientists have documented the plants and fungi that grew around them, organizing the specimens into collections. Known as herbaria, these archives helped give rise to botany as its own scientific endeavor. Herbarium is a fascinating enquiry into this unique field of plant biology, exploring how herbaria emerged and have changed over time, who promoted and contributed to them, and why they remain such an important source of data for their new role: understanding how the world's flora is changing.

Regular daily exercise will help your body to regulate blood sugar levels and reduce inflammation, and many of these benefits are a consequence of reducing the amount of body fat you carry around. Your body clearly benefits in many ways from regular exercise. Does your brain benefit as well? Does regular exercise positively affect brain function? Does our thinking become faster because we exercise? Does running a marathon make us smarter? Dr. Gary Wenk's goal is to provide a realistic perspective on what benefits your brain should expect to achieve from exercise. Your Brain on Exercise skillfully blends scholarship with illuminating insights and clarity.

A guide to the rapidly progressing Age of Biotechnology, Brutes or Angels provides basic information on a wide array of new technologies in the life sciences, along with the ethical issues raised by each Brutes or Angels will facilitate informed choice making about the personal use of biotechnologies and the formulation of public policies governing their development and use. Ten biotechnologies that impact humans are considered: stem cell research, embryo selection, human genomics, gene therapies, human reproductive cloning, age retardation, cognition enhancement, the engineering of nonhuman organisms, nanobiology, and synthetic biology. With deft and assured use of metaphors, analogies, diagrams, and photographs, James T. Bradley introduces important biological principles and the basic procedures used in biotechnology. Various ethical issues--personhood, personal identity, privacy, ethnic discrimination, distributive justice, authenticity and human nature, and the significance of mortality in the human life cycle--are presented in a clear and unbiased manner. Standing at the beginning of the twenty-first century, with burgeoning abilities to enhance and even create life in ways unimaginable just a few decades ago, humans have an awesome responsibility to themselves and other species.

In The Conversation on Biotechnology, editor Marc Zimmer collects essays from The Conversation U.S. by top scholars and experts in the field, who present a primer on the latest biotechnology research, the overwhelming possibilities it offers, and the risks of its abuse. Topics range from the spectacular use of light to fire individual neurons in the brain to making plant-based meats; from curbing diseases with genetically modified mosquitoes to looking back on 40 years of opinions on IVF babies.

Humanity can make short work of the oceans' creatures. In 1741, hungry explorers discovered herds of Steller's sea cow in the Bering Strait, and in less than thirty years, the amiable beast had been harpooned into extinction. It's a classic story, but a key fact is often omitted. While today's fishing industry is ruthlessly efficient, intense exploitation began not in the modern era, or even with the dawn of industrialization, but in the eleventh century in medieval Europe. Drawing on firsthand accounts of early explorers, pirates, merchants, fishers, and travelers, the book recreates the oceans of the past: waters teeming with whales, sea lions, sea otters, turtles, and giant fish. The story does not end with an empty ocean. Instead, Roberts describes how we might restore the splendor and prosperity of the seas through smarter management of our resources and some simple restraint.