The Insect Crisis

The Insect Crisis PDF Author: Oliver Milman
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1324050527
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A devastating examination of how collapsing insect populations worldwide threaten everything from wild birds to the food on our plate. From ants scurrying under leaf litter to bees able to fly higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, insects are everywhere. Three out of every four of our planet’s known animal species are insects. In The Insect Crisis, acclaimed journalist Oliver Milman dives into the torrent of recent evidence that suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable 400-million-year history. What is causing the collapse of the insect world? Why does this alarming decline pose such a threat to us? And what can be done to stem the loss of the miniature empires that hold aloft life as we know it? With urgency and great clarity, Milman explores this hidden emergency, arguing that its consequences could even rival climate change. He joins the scientists tracking the decline of insect populations across the globe, including the soaring mountains of Mexico that host an epic, yet dwindling, migration of monarch butterflies; the verdant countryside of England that has been emptied of insect life; the gargantuan fields of U.S. agriculture that have proved a killing ground for bees; and an offbeat experiment in Denmark that shows there aren’t that many bugs splattering into your car windshield these days. These losses not only further tear at the tapestry of life on our degraded planet; they imperil everything we hold dear, from the food on our supermarket shelves to the medicines in our cabinets to the riot of nature that thrills and enlivens us. Even insects we may dread, including the hated cockroach, or the stinging wasp, play crucial ecological roles, and their decline would profoundly shape our own story. By connecting butterfly and bee, moth and beetle from across the globe, the full scope of loss renders a portrait of a crisis that threatens to upend the workings of our collective history. Part warning, part celebration of the incredible variety of insects, The Insect Crisis is a wake-up call for us all.

The Insect Crisis

The Insect Crisis PDF Author: Oliver Milman
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1324050527
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
A devastating examination of how collapsing insect populations worldwide threaten everything from wild birds to the food on our plate. From ants scurrying under leaf litter to bees able to fly higher than Mount Kilimanjaro, insects are everywhere. Three out of every four of our planet’s known animal species are insects. In The Insect Crisis, acclaimed journalist Oliver Milman dives into the torrent of recent evidence that suggests this kaleidoscopic group of creatures is suffering the greatest existential crisis in its remarkable 400-million-year history. What is causing the collapse of the insect world? Why does this alarming decline pose such a threat to us? And what can be done to stem the loss of the miniature empires that hold aloft life as we know it? With urgency and great clarity, Milman explores this hidden emergency, arguing that its consequences could even rival climate change. He joins the scientists tracking the decline of insect populations across the globe, including the soaring mountains of Mexico that host an epic, yet dwindling, migration of monarch butterflies; the verdant countryside of England that has been emptied of insect life; the gargantuan fields of U.S. agriculture that have proved a killing ground for bees; and an offbeat experiment in Denmark that shows there aren’t that many bugs splattering into your car windshield these days. These losses not only further tear at the tapestry of life on our degraded planet; they imperil everything we hold dear, from the food on our supermarket shelves to the medicines in our cabinets to the riot of nature that thrills and enlivens us. Even insects we may dread, including the hated cockroach, or the stinging wasp, play crucial ecological roles, and their decline would profoundly shape our own story. By connecting butterfly and bee, moth and beetle from across the globe, the full scope of loss renders a portrait of a crisis that threatens to upend the workings of our collective history. Part warning, part celebration of the incredible variety of insects, The Insect Crisis is a wake-up call for us all.

Insect Ecology

Insect Ecology PDF Author: Timothy D. Schowalter
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080508812
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 575

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Book Description
Dr. Timothy Schowalter has succeeded in creating a unique, updated treatment of insect ecology. This revised and expanded text looks at how insects adapt to environmental conditions while maintaining the ability to substantially alter their environment. It covers a range of topics- from individual insects that respond to local changes in the environment and affect resource distribution, to entire insect communities that have the capacity to modify ecosystem conditions.Insect Ecology, Second Edition, synthesizes the latest research in the field and has been produced in full color throughout. It is ideal for students in both entomology and ecology-focused programs.NEW TO THIS EDITION:* New topics such as elemental defense by plants, chaotic models, molecular methods to measure disperson, food web relationships, and more* Expanded sections on plant defenses, insect learning, evolutionary tradeoffs, conservation biology and more* Includes more than 350 new references* More than 40 new full-color figures

Eco-evolutionary Dynamics

Eco-evolutionary Dynamics PDF Author: Andrew P. Hendry
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691204179
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
In recent years, scientists have realized that evolution can occur on timescales much shorter than the 'long lapse of ages' emphasized by Darwin - in fact, evolutionary change is occurring all around us all the time. This work provides an authoritative and accessible introduction to eco-evolutionary dynamics, a cutting-edge new field that seeks to unify evolution and ecology into a common conceptual framework focusing on rapid and dynamic environmental and evolutionary change.

Caterpillars

Caterpillars PDF Author: Nancy E. Stamp
Publisher: Springer
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
Caterpillars are excellent model systems for the investigation of insect-plant interactions, predator-prey interactions, and insect physiology. Despite this, however, there is at present only a limited understanding of the constraints on foraging patterns of caterpillars. A major problem is the difficulty of designing and analyzing experiments which account for multiple constraints. Caterpillars: Ecological and Evolutionary Constraints on Foraging reviews the present state of research into caterpillar biology while arguing for a multiple factor approach in studying insect herbivores. Written by leading authorities in entomology and ecology, it provides an explicit framework for carrying out such investigations. The book details the constraints of the foraging patterns of caterpillars, including phylogenetic constraints, the physical environment, nutritional supply and demand, predators, and plant chemical defenses. It also analyzes caterpillar adaptations, such as sociality, mutualism, aposematism, and cryptic morphology, and covers population dynamics and the influence of environmental factors upon tropical, temperate, and arctic caterpillars. The book concludes with a discussion of the implications of this material for pest management, forest systems, and agroecosystems.

Physiological Diversity

Physiological Diversity PDF Author: John Spicer
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444311425
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Ecologists have always believed, at least to a certain extent, that physiological mechanisms serve to underpin ecological patterns. However, their importance has traditionally been at best underestimated and at worst ignored, with physiological variation being dismissed as either an irrelevance or as random noise/error. Spicer and Gaston make a convincing argument that the precise physiology does matter! In contrast to previous works which have attempted to integrate ecology and physiology, Physiological Diversity adopts a completely different and more controversial approach in tackling the physiology first before moving on to consider the implications for ecology. This is timely given the recent and considerable interest in the mechanisms underlying ecological patterns. Indeed, many of these mechanisms are physiological. This textbook provides a contemporary summary of physiological diversity as it occurs at different hierarchical levels (individual, population, species etc.), and the implications of such diversity for ecology and, by implication, evolution. It reviews what is known of physiological diversity and in doing so exposes the reader to all the key works in the field. It also portrays many of these studies in a completely new light, thereby serving as an agenda for, and impetus to, the future study of physiological variation. Physiological Diversity will be of relevance to senior undergraduates, postgraduates and professional researchers in the fields of ecology, ecological physiology, ecotoxicology, environmental biology and conservation. The book spans both terrestrial and marine systems.

Seasonal Adaptations of Insects

Seasonal Adaptations of Insects PDF Author: Maurice J. Tauber
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195036352
Category : Adaptation (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This balanced comprehensive account traces the alterations in body form undergone by insects as they adapt to seasonal change, exploring both theoretical aspects and practical issues. Topics explored include natural history, genetics, evolution, and management of insect adaptations.

Environmental Physiology and Biochemistry of Insects

Environmental Physiology and Biochemistry of Insects PDF Author: K. H. Hoffmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642700209
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Of all the zoological classes the insects are the most numerous in species and the most varied in structure. Estimates of the number 18 of species vary from 1 to 10 million, and 10 individuals are es timated to be alive at any given moment. In their evolution, in sects are relatively ancient and, therefore, they have proved to be a phenomenally successful biological design which has survived unchanged in its basic winged form during the last 300 m. y. In sects were the first small animals to colonize the land with full suc cess. Their small size opened many more ecological niches to them and permitted a greater diversification than the vertebrates. What is it about this design that has made insects so successful in habitats stretching from arid deserts to the Arctic and Antarctic and from freshwater brooks to hot springs and salines? Is it due to the adapta bility of their behavior, physiology, and biochemistry to changing environmental conditions? Three features of insects are of particular importance in determin ing their physiological relationship with the environment: their small size, as mentioned above, the impermeability and rigidity of their exoskeleton, and their poikilothermy. Of course, as with any other animals, the insects' success in its environment depends on its ability to maintain its internal state within certain tolerable limits of temperature, osmotic pressure, pH or oxygen concentra tion (homoeostasis).

Bugged

Bugged PDF Author: Sarah Albee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802734227
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
A funny, insightful exploration of the clash between the human and insect worlds - to sometimes disastrous results

Planet of the Bugs

Planet of the Bugs PDF Author: Scott Richard Shaw
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616361X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Chronicles the evolution of insects and explains how evolutionary innovations have enabled them to disperse widely, occupy narrow niches, and survive global catastrophes. --Publisher's description.

Agroclimatology

Agroclimatology PDF Author: Jerry L. Hatfield
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0891183574
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
Can we unlock resilience to climate stress by better understanding linkages between the environment and biological systems? Agroclimatology allows us to explore how different processes determine plant response to climate and how climate drives the distribution of crops and their productivity. Editors Jerry L. Hatfield, Mannava V.K. Sivakumar, and John H. Prueger have taken a comprehensive view of agroclimatology to assist and challenge researchers in this important area of study. Major themes include: principles of energy exchange and climatology, understanding climate change and agriculture, linkages of specific biological systems to climatology, the context of pests and diseases, methods of agroclimatology, and the application of agroclimatic principles to problem-solving in agriculture.