Biology

The purpose of this book is to encourage and facilitate focused research, and provide a forum for scholarly exchange about the status of Mayfly and Stonefly science. Professor John Brittain, whose research is focused on freshwater entomology, especially egg development and life-cycle strategies of Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera, presents a chapter reflecting on the quality of mayflies as good indicators of global warming and the quality of streams and lakes. Professor Emeritus Andrew Sheldon, whose interests have encompassed community and population ecology of aquatic animals over a span of more than 40 years, especially insects and fishes, explores topics of scale and hierarchy and the ecology of Plecoptera, discussing how studies emphasizing scale and perspective reveal the importance of stoneflies to ecosystems. Other topics cover a broad base of disciplines including morphology, physiology, phylogeny, taxonomy, ecology, and conservation. The chapters have been compiled into three sections: Ecology, Zoogeography, and Systematics.

This book features detailed species accounts; gives information on horned lizard biology, ecology, and evolution; and describes the role of these reptiles in mythology, culture, and art. It covers the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and includes all species of horned lizards.

Guana, in the British Virgin Islands, is home to a remarkably diverse assortment of animal and plant life: mangroves, flamingos, iguanas, frogs, birds, snakes, spiders, tortoises, grasshoppers, and bats, to name but a few. What is so surprising about Guana's astonishing panoply is that, according to prevailing ecological theories, the island's diversity should be much lower than it actually is. This book describes Guana's flora and fauna against the backdrop of islands worldwide and their ecology, evolution, and conservation. Much more than a book about one island, it raises important challenges to prevailing dogma of island biogeography and theoretical ecology. The author demonstrates that meaningful conservation and avoiding tragic loss of biodiversity demand we know far more about biological interactions, physiographic and geological structure, meteorology, and other factors. He presents compelling evidence that high levels of natural biodiversity underpin ecosystem resilience and stability. The narrative, containing many asides and personal reflections, widens into a commentary about the nature of life on earth.

Physics and chemistry are distinguished from biology by the way generalizations are codified into theories tested by observation and experimentation. Some theories have been sufficiently tested to qualify as laws. In ecology, generalizations worthy of being called theories are less common because observations and experimentation are difficult and exceptions are more common. This book enumerates generalizations in ecology. Introductory material describes how the practice of science in general, and ecology specifically, yields theories and laws. The text also discusses why such ideas are only useful if they have predictive ability, and delineates the scope of these generalizations and the constraints that limit their application.

Always a controversial and compelling topic, the origin of life on Earth was considered taboo as an area of inquiry for science as recently as the 1950s. Since then, however, scientists working in this area have made remarkable progress, and an overall picture of how life emerged is coming more clearly into focus. We now know, for example, that the story of life's origin begins not on Earth, but in the interiors of distant stars. This book brings a summary of current research and ideas on life's origin to a wide audience. The contributors, all of whom received the Oparin/Urey Gold Medal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, discuss their life's work: understanding the what, when, and how of the early evolution of life on Earth.

Fire, both inevitable and ubiquitous, plays a crucial role in North American ecosystems. But as necessary as fire is to maintaining healthy ecosystems, it threatens human lives and livelihoods in unacceptable ways. This volume explores the rich yet largely uncharted terrain at the intersection of fire policy, fire science, and fire management in order to find better ways of addressing this pressing dilemma. This book aims to help scientists, policy makers, and the general public, especially residents of fire-prone areas, better understand where we are today in regard to coping with wildfires, how we got here, and where we need to go. Drawing on abundant historical and analytic information to shed new light on current controversies, this book offers a dynamic new paradigm for coping with fire that recognizes its critical environmental role. The book also tells how we can rebuild the important ecological and political processes that are necessary for finding better ways to cope with fire and with other complex policy dilemmas.

From tiny to gigantic, from drab to remarkably beautiful, from harmless to venomous, lizards are spectacular products of natural selection. This book provides a comprehensive reference on lizards around the world. It covers species evolution, diversity, ecology, and biology. The authors of this book have studied and photographed members of almost all lizard families worldwide, and they bring to the book a deep knowledge based on extensive first-hand experience with the animals in their natural habitats. Part One explores lizard lifestyles, answering such questions as why lizards are active when they are, why they behave as they do, how they avoid predators, why they eat what they eat, and how they reproduce and socialize. In Part Two the text takes us on a tour of the world's manifold lizard species, beginning with iguanians, an evolutionary group that includes some of the most bizarre lizards, the true chameleons of Africa and Madagascar. We also meet the glass lizard, able to break its tail into many highly motile pieces to distract a predator from its body; lizards that can run across water; and limbless lizards, such as snakes. Part Three gives an unprecedented global view of evolutionary trends that have shaped present-day lizard communities and considers the impact of humans on their future.

Adaptive radiation—which results when a single ancestral species gives rise to many descendants, each adapted to a different part of the environment—is possibly the single most important source of biological diversity in the living world. One of the best-studied examples involves Caribbean Anolis lizards. With about 400 species, Anolis has played an important role in the development of ecological theory and has become a model system exemplifying the integration of ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral studies to understand evolutionary diversification. This major work, written by one of the best-known investigators of Anolis, reviews and synthesizes an immense literature. The author illustrates how different scientific approaches to the questions of adaptation and diversification can be integrated, and examines evolutionary and ecological questions of interest to a broad range of biologists.

The widespread appearance of frogs with deformed bodies has generated much press coverage over the past decade. Frogs with extra limbs or digits, missing limbs or digits, or misaligned appendages raise an alarming question: “Are deformed humans next?” Taking a fresh look at this disturbing environmental problem, this book provides a balanced overview of the science behind the malformed frog phenomenon. Bringing together data from ecology, parasitology, and other disciplines, the author considers the possible causes of these deformities, tells which frogs have been affected, and addresses questions about what these malformations might mean to human populations. Featuring high-quality radiographic images, the book suggests that our focus should be on finding practical solutions, a key component of which will be controlling chemical, nutrient, and pesticide runoff into wetlands.

This book combines a series of research papers with more informal recollections of James L. Patton, who served as Curator of Mammals in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and as Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1969 until 2001. As a curator and a member of the Berkeley faculty, Patton made an indelible mark on vertebrate evolutionary biology. In addition to significantly advancing studies of mammalian evolutionary genetics, systematics, and phylogeography, he was instrumental in shaping the careers of vertebrate biologists throughout the Americas. This book brings to life both the career and personality of this evolutionary biologist.