This makes a detailed consideration of these extinctions a useful system for investigating the impacts of human activity over time.

The First Edition of Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates has been immensely popular with students and researchers interested in freshwater biology and ecology, limnology, environmental science, invertebrate zoology, and related fields. The First Edition has been widely used as a textbook and this Second Edition should continue to serve students in advanced classes. The Second Edition features expanded and updated chapters, especially with respect to the cited references and the classification of North American freshwater invertebrates. New chapters or substantially revised chapters include those on freshwater ecosystems, snails, aquatic spiders, aquatic insects, and crustaceans. - Most up-to-date and informative text of its kind - Written by experts in the ecology of various invertebrate groups, coverage emphasizes ecological information within a current taxonomic framework - Each chapter contains both morphological and taxonomic information, including keys to North American taxa (usually to the generic level) as well as bibliographic information and a list of further readings - The text is geared toward researchers and advanced undergraduate and graduate students

The Mollusca, Volume 6: Ecology provides an overview of the state of knowledge in molluscan ecology. It is part of a multivolume treatise that covers the fields of biochemistry, physiology, neurobiology, reproduction and development, evolution, ecology, medical aspects, and structure. The Mollusca is intended to serve a range of disciplines: biological, biochemical, paleontological, and medical. As a source of information on the current status of molluscan research, it should prove useful to researchers of the Mollusca and other phyla, as well as to teachers and qualified graduate students. The book contains 15 chapters, arranged into three levels of ecological perspective: (a) distributional studies; (b) physiological ecology and bioenergetics; and (c) population genetics and dynamics. A discussion of the planetary distribution of and ecological constraints upon the mollusca is followed by separate chapters on the life styles and distribution of mollusks on the deep-sea bottom, in mangroves, and on coral reefs; and the trophic and reproductive ecology of those intrinsically fascinating molluscan groups—the nudibranchs and cephalopods. Subsequent chapters present physiological ecology in land snails and in freshwater bivalves, prosobranchs, and pulmonates, with a survey of the techniques of actuarial bioenergetics as applied to nonmarine molluscs. Other chapters cover population dynamics and biology in an introduced pest species, population genetics of marine molluscs, ecogenetics of land snails, and life-cycle pattems throughout the major molluscan taxa.

This well-illustrated book highlights freshwater mussels' fabulous diversity, amazing array of often bizarre ecological adaptations and their dire conservation plight. Summarizing and synthesizing historical and contemporary information as well as original research and analysis, the book describes the diverse array of mussel life history strategies and builds a cohesive narrative culminating in the development of explicit frameworks to explain pervasive patterns in mussel ecology. The fascinating and colorful role of mussels in human society is also described in detail, including the little-known pearl button industry of the early 1900s and the wild and often violent shell harvest of the 1990s. The final chapter details humans' efforts to save these fascinating animals and gives a prognosis for the future of the North American fauna. The book provides the first comprehensive review of mussel ecology and conservation for scientists, natural resource professionals, students and natural history enthusiasts.