Explores the many kinds of plant-eating animals in our world, from grass-eating hippos to wood-eating termites.

This book provides an overview of the current knowledge of herbivory. This book contains chapters from a wide variety of topics that fall into the following broad sections: (I) "Plant Defense Mechanisms and Herbivore Adaptations," (II) "Herbivory and Food Processing of Grazing Animals," and (III) "Herbivory Effects on Plant Communities." More specifically, the contributions of this book, written by experts in their respective fields, focus on topics including the chemical plant defense against herbivores as well as herbivore adaptions to plant cyanide defenses, the utilization of biomarkers to study grazing behavior of ruminants, modeling for describing ruminant herbivory, as well as improving grain processing to improve dairy cow performance. Contributions on positive indirect interactions in marine herbivores and algae are included, as is one focusing on herbivory by lizards. These chapters represent recent contributions showing the diversity of ongoing research in this field of study. This book targets a wide audience of general biologists as well as botanists, ecologists, and zoologists including both teachers and students in gaining a better appreciation of this rapidly growing field.

This book contains a bit of science, philosophy, nature, and beauty. It provides some concepts of life involving the source of all energythe sunand how its energy is utilized through basic chemistry to form various food sources from vegetation. From these various forms of vegetationthe most abundant food source available on earthall life is able to flourish. Numerous animals including aquatics, fowl, and a wide variety of mammals are able to utilize this vegetation to sustain life, give beauty to the world, and live in harmony with nature. The book lists a number of great men who were visionaries and understood the natural laws of the universe. These visionaries of centuries past shared their ideas on vegetarianism, respect for animals, and life in general. The book alludes to an interconnectedness of life and tries to convey that our world can become a better place when there is care and concern for all creatures capable of sensation.

Simple text and detailed photographs and illustrations bring reluctant readers into a world of massive herbivores from the Mesozoic era. This book includes photos and descriptions of the size, bodies, and lifestyle of some of the most famous plant-eating dinosaurs. Habitats, diet, and extinction are also covered. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. A&D Xtreme is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Far from being passive elements in the landscape, plants have developed many sophisticated chemical and mechanical means of deterring organisms that seek to prey on them. This volume draws together research from ecology, evolution, agronomy, and plant pathology to produce an ecological genetics perspective on plant resistance in both natural and agricultural systems. By emphasizing the ecological and evolutionary basis of resistance, the book makes an important contribution to the study of how phytophages and plants coevolve. Plant Resistance to Herbivores and Pathogens not only reviews the literature pertaining to plant resistance from a number of traditionally separate fields but also examines significant questions that will drive future research. Among the topics explored are selection for resistance in plants and for virulence in phytophages; methods for studying natural variation in plant resistance; the factors that maintain intraspecific variation in resistance; and the ecological consequences of within-population genetic variation for herbivorous insects and fungal pathogens. "A comprehensive review of the theory and information on a large, rapidly growing, and important subject."—Douglas J. Futuyma, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Variable Plants and Herbivores in Natural and Managed Systems examines individual, population, species, and community responses of herbivores to plant variation, with emphasis on insects, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. It is divided into five parts encompassing 18 chapters that discuss variability as a mechanism of defense used by plants against their parasites and the effects of variability on herbivores at several different levels of complexity. After a brief discussion on plant-herbivore interactions, the first part of this book considers sources of within-plant variation and effects on the distribution and abundance of herbivores. Part II examines interplant variation, the co-evolutionary problems it poses for herbivores, and the ecological and evolutionary responses of these animals. It discusses the effects of host-plant variability on the fitness of sedentary herbivorous insects. Part III discusses the role of host variability in the evolution of feeding specialization, genetic differentiation, and race formation. The importance of host variation to the organization of herbivore communities and the manipulation of host-plant variability for the management of herbivore pest populations are presented in the remaining parts. This book will be helpful to agriculturists, silviculturists, biologists, and researchers who wish to expand their knowledge in dynamics of plant-herbivore relationships.