The introduction of plant and animal agriculture represents one of the most important milestones in human evolution. It contributed to the development of cities, alphabets, new technologies, and ultimately to civilizations, but it has also presented a threat to both human health and the environment. Bringing together research from a range of fields including anthropology, archaeology, ecology, economics, entomology, ethnobiology, genetics and geography, this book addresses key questions relating to agriculture. Why did agriculture develop and where did it originate? What are the patterns of domestication for plants and animals? How did agroecosystems originate and spread from their locations of origin? Exploring the cultural aspects of the development of agricultural ecosystems, the book also highlights how these topics can be applied to our understanding of contemporary agriculture, its long-term sustainability, the co-existence of agriculture and the environment, and the development of new crops and varieties.

Interest in insect behavior is growing rapidly, as reflected both in courses devoted fully to the topic and in its inclusion in general biology, ecology, invertebrate zoology, and animal behavior--as well as general entomology--curricula. Instructors and students find that insects are in many ways uniquely suitable animals for behavioral study: the

By joining phylogenetics and evolutionary ecology, this book explores the patterns of parasite diversity while revealing diversification processes.

This book discusses oxidative stress and hormesis from the perspective of an evolutionary ecologist or physiologist. In the first of ten chapters, general historical information, definitions, and background of research on oxidative stress physiology, hormesis, and life history are provided. Chapters 2-10 highlight the different solutions that organisms have evolved to cope with the oxidative threats posed by their environments and lifestyles. The author illustrates how oxidative stress and hormesis have shaped diversity in organism life-histories, behavioral profiles, morphological phenotypes, and aging mechanisms. The book offers fascinating insights into how organisms work and how they evolve to sustain their physiological functions under a vast array of environmental conditions.

Ecotoxicology of Metals in Invertebrates reviews the state of the art in research concerning metal exposure of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial invertebrates. The book focuses on the uptake and accumulation of essential and non-essential trace metals by invertebrates, metal detoxification and involved mechanisms, adaptations to metal stress, metal regulation and elimination, distribution and speciation of metals in different organs and tissues, and interaction of metals with biotic and abiotic factors. Toxicological studies involve histopathological, electron microscopic, physiological, and biochemical methods. The book emphasizes the ecological and ecotoxicological implications that can be derived from metal exposure of invertebrates in the field. The significance of background concentrations, the evaluation of critical concentrations, and the establishment of environmental quality criteria are discussed as well. Ecotoxicology of Metals in Invertebrates is an excellent reference for ecologists, ecotoxicologists, environmental scientists, ecophysiologists, and students.

Biological pesticides are increasingly finding therr place in IPM and increasing numbers of products are making therr way to the marketplace. Particularly in China, Latin America and Australia, implementation is proceeding on a large scale. However, in the USA and Europe, registration procedures for insect pathogens to be used for insect control have been established that requrre low levels of risk, resulting in costs of retarding the implementation of microbial agents. This book provides a review of the state of the art of studies on the envrronmental impact of microbial insecticides. It originates from a Society for Invertebrate Pathology Microbial Control Division Symposium .. Assessment of envrronmental safety of biological insecticides", organised in collaboration with the EU-ERBIC research project (FAIR5-CT97-3489). This symposium was initiated by Heikki Hokkanen and Chris Lomer, and was held at the SIP Annual Meeting in 2001 in The Netherlands. The emphasis in this book is on large scale use of microbial agents for insect control, demonstrating how this use has been proceeding with minimal envrron mental impact. This book is intended to be of use to regulatory authorities in determining whether further studies in eertain areas are necessary and how to conduct them if needed, or whether sufficient information has been collected already to permit fuH registration of many of these biological control agents.

"This new edition of the universally acclaimed and widely used textbook on fungal biology has been completely rewritten, drawing directly on the authors' research and teaching experience. The text takes account of the rapid and exciting progress that has been made in the taxonomy, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, pathology and ecology of the fungi. Features of taxonomic significance are integrated with natural functions, including their relevance to human affairs."--BOOK JACKET.