Download or read book Blight Fungi and the Coming Pandemic written by Emily Monosson and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prescient warning about the mysterious and deadly world of fungi—and how to avert further loss across species, including our own. Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Populations of bats, frogs, and salamanders face extinction. In the Northwest, America’s beloved national parks are covered with the spindly corpses of whitebark pines. Food crops are under siege, threatening our coffee, bananas, and wheat—and, more broadly, our global food security. Candida auris, drug-resistant and resilient, infects hospital patients and those with weakened immune systems. Coccidioides, which lives in drier dusty regions, may cause infection in apparently healthy people. The horrors go on. Yet prevention is not impossible. Tracing the history of fungal spread and the most recent discoveries in the field, Monosson meets scientists who are working tirelessly to protect species under threat, and whose innovative approaches to fungal invasion have the potential to save human lives. Delving into case studies at once fascinating, sobering, and hopeful, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world, and a lesson in seeing life on our planet with renewed humility and awe.
Download or read book The Advance of the Fungi written by Ernest Charles Large and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The potato murrain; Famine in Ireland; Oidium on the vines; Fruits of the fungi; The bunt of the wheat; vegetable pathology; Oospores and zoopores; Enter Louis Pasteur; The Barberry and the Wheat; Scholl for plant doctors; Phylloxera of the vines; the water fungi; Club root and anthrax; canker of the larch; Coffee rust in ceylon; After forty years; Bordeaux mixture; Danish "hot water"; the lead of the U.S.A.; Potato praying; Fungi in the orchards; Wheat- species in the making; Microbes and molecrobes; calling the chemical industry; Legislative measures; Blight, wart disease, leaf-roll; Fungi and the grat war; Dusting and seed-desinfection; New sprays for old; degeneration and virus diseases; Towards immunity.
Download or read book Molds Mushrooms and Medicines written by Nicholas Money and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From beneficial fungi that keep bacteria under control and consume dead cells to toxic molds that cause disease, our bodies are constantly navigating a fungus-filled world. And our interactions with fungi are not limited to what happens in our bodies as we interact with these microbes via our diet and as a source of medicines. In short, there exists an incredible range of interactions between humans and fungi. In this book, Nicolas Money describes this relationship between fungi and humans in the context of our health. Readers learn how the field of mycology has been advancing, from studies that reveal the diversity of yeasts that grow on the skin to research on the use of psychedelic mushrooms in the treatment of depression. The book is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on how fungi operate in our bodies from spores in the lungs to the yeasts and filaments that can infect our internal organs. In particular, Money focuses on the mycobiome, which is the fungal part of the larger microbiome, and explains what is and isn't known about the significance of fungi in the health of the gut. In the second half of the book, Money shifts his focus to our relationship with fungi outside the body, including in food, medicine, and agriculture -- and he pulls no punches when it comes to countering misguided notions when it comes to the medicinal powers of mushrooms. Throughout the book, Money explains how the human-fungi relationship is symbiotic, meaning that it is sometimes beneficial and sometimes harmful. Ultimately, the reader comes away with a broad understanding of what scientists are learning about the fascinating role of fungi inside and outside of our bodies"--
Download or read book The Viral Storm written by Nathan Wolfe and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The "Indiana Jones" of virus hunters reveals the complex interactions between humans and viruses, and the threat from viruses that jump from species to species"-- Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Integrated Management of Diseases Caused by Fungi Phytoplasma and Bacteria written by Aurelio Ciancio and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-08-19 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on integrated pest and disease management (IPM/IDM) and biocontrol of some key diseases of perennial and annual crops. It continues a series originated during a visit of prof. K. G. Mukerji to the CNR Plant Protection Institute in Bari (Italy), in November 2005. Both editors aim at a series of five volumes embracing, in a multi-disciplinary approach, advances and achievements in the practice of crop protection, for a wide range of plant parasites and pathogens. Two volumes of the series were already produced, dedicated to general concepts in IPM and to management and biocontrol of nematodes of grain crops and vegetables. This Volume deals, in particular, with diseases due to bacteria, phytoplasma and fungi. Every day, in any agroecosystem, farmers face problems related to plant diseases. Since the beginning of agriculture, indeed, and probably for a long time in the future, farmers will continue to do so. Every year, plant diseases cause severe losses in the global production of food and other agricultural commodities, worldwide. Plant diseases are not limited to episodic events occurring in single farms or crops, and should not be regarded as single independent cases, affecting only farms on a local scale. The impact of plant disease epidemics on food shortage ignited, in the last two centuries, deep cultural, social and demographic changes, affecting million human beings, through i. e. migration, death and hunger.
Download or read book Fungal Biology written by J. W. Deacon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visit the accompanying website from the author at www.blackwellpublishing.com/deacon. Fungal Biology is the fully updated new edition of this undergraduate text, covering all major areas of fungal biology and providing insights into many topical areas. Provides insights into many topical areas such as fungal ultrastructure and the mechanisms of fungal growth, important fungal metabolites and the molecular techniques used to study fungal populations. Focuses on the interactions of fungi that form the basis for developing biological control agents, with several commercial examples of the control of insect pests and plant diseases. Emphasises the functional biology of fungi, with examples from recent research. Includes a clear illustrative account of the features and significance of the main fungal groups.
Download or read book Teaming with Fungi written by Jeff Lowenfels and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Teaming with Microbes and Teaming with Nutrients Teaming with Fungi is an important guide to mycorrhizae and the role they play in agriculture, horticulture, and hydroponics. Almost every plant in a garden forms a relationship with fungi, and many plants would not exist without their fungal partners. By better understanding this relationship, gardeners can take advantage of the benefits of fungi, which include an increased uptake in nutrients, resistance to drought, earlier fruiting, and more. Learn how the fungi interact with plants and how to best to employ them in your home garden.
Download or read book What a Fish Knows written by Jonathan Balcombe and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? In What a Fish Knows, the myth-busting ethologist Jonathan Balcombe addresses these questions and more, taking us under the sea, through streams and estuaries, and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal the surprising capabilities of fishes. Although there are more than thirty thousand species of fish—more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined—we rarely consider how individual fishes think, feel, and behave. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian—in other words, much like us. What a Fish Knows draws on the latest science to present a fresh look at these remarkable creatures in all their breathtaking diversity and beauty. Fishes conduct elaborate courtship rituals and develop lifelong bonds with shoalmates. They also plan, hunt cooperatively, use tools, curry favor, deceive one another, and punish wrongdoers. We may imagine that fishes lead simple, fleeting lives—a mode of existence that boils down to a place on the food chain, rote spawning, and lots of aimless swimming. But, as Balcombe demonstrates, the truth is far richer and more complex, worthy of the grandest social novel. Highlighting breakthrough discoveries from fish enthusiasts and scientists around the world and pondering his own encounters with fishes, Balcombe examines the fascinating means by which fishes gain knowledge of the places they inhabit, from shallow tide pools to the deepest reaches of the ocean. Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, What a Fish Knows offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins—the pet goldfish included.
Download or read book The Economics of Sustainable Food written by Nicoletta Batini and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Economics of Sustainable Food details the true cost of food for people and the planet. It illustrates how to transform our broken system, alleviating its severe financial and human burden. The key is smart macroeconomic policy that moves us toward methods that protect the environment like regenerative land and sea farming, low-impact urban farming, and alternative protein farming, and toward healthy diets. The book's multidisciplinary team of authors lay out detailed fiscal and trade policies, as well as structural reforms, to achieve those goals. Chapters discuss strategies to make food production sustainable, nutritious, and fair, ranging from taxes and spending to education, labor market, health care, and pension reforms, alongside regulation in cases where market incentives are unlikely to work or to work fast enough. The authors carefully consider the different needs of more and less advanced economies, balancing economic development and sustainability goals. Case studies showcase successful strategies from around the world, such as taxing foods with a high carbon footprint, financing ecosystems mapping and conservation to meet scientific targets for healthy biomes permanency, subsidizing sustainable land and sea farming, reforming health systems to move away from sick care to preventive, nutrition-based care, and providing schools with matching funds to purchase local organic produce.--Amazon.
Download or read book The Dying of the Trees written by Charles E. Little and published by Viking Adult. This book was released on 1995 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the sugarbush of Vermont and the dogwoods of Maryland to the hollows in Appalachia and the mountainsides of the West, a whole range of human-caused maladies--acid rain, ultraviolet rays, and other eco-hazards--has been the cause of major forest decline. Little explores the phenomenon with scientists and government officials, and recounts their respondes to this threat to global ecological balance.
Download or read book The Triumph of the Fungi written by Nicholas P. Money and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Everyone is aware of the nineteenth-century Irish potato famine, but fungal diseases of many other crops have had similarly apocalyptic consequences. Today, coffee, cacao, and rubber are threatened by fungi throughout the tropics. Indeed, fungi have carved their way through the ages, attacking every plant that we cultivate, constantly exploiting new hosts. In The Triumph of the Fungi, Nicholas Money offers an intimate picture of these pernicious microbes, the scientists who have sought to control them, and the people directly impacted by the loss of forest trees and cash crops. Even with the development of fungicides and other scientific breakthroughs, fungi continue to be unstoppable - this is the story of their triumph."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Fungal Diseases written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-10-08 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fungal diseases have contributed to death and disability in humans, triggered global wildlife extinctions and population declines, devastated agricultural crops, and altered forest ecosystem dynamics. Despite the extensive influence of fungi on health and economic well-being, the threats posed by emerging fungal pathogens to life on Earth are often underappreciated and poorly understood. On December 14 and 15, 2010, the IOM's Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the scientific and policy dimensions associated with the causes and consequences of emerging fungal diseases.
Download or read book Genes in the Environment written by Rosie S. Hails and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-08 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genes in the Environment presents the recent research in the exciting and rapidly developing field of molecular, genetic and modelling techniques. These techniques, central to ecology, provide valuable new tools for addressing complex ecological questions and considerable insights into our understanding of the dynamics of populations and communities. A diver se range of topics is covered, including community dynamics in soils and water, gene flow and spatial dynamics, and the evolution of the pathogenic and symbiotic relationships. Organisms studied range from bacteria, viruses and fungi to insects, plants and fish.
Download or read book Fungi written by Kevin Kavanagh and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fungi: Biology and Applications, Second Edition provides a comprehensive treatment of fungi, covering biochemistry, genetics and the medical and economic significance of these organisms at introductory level. With no prior knowledge of the subject assumed, the opening chapters offer a broad overview of the basics of fungal biology, in particular the physiology and genetics of fungi and also a new chapter on the application of genomics to fungi. Later chapters move on to include more detailed coverage of topics such as antibiotic and chemical commodities from fungi, new chapters on biotechnological use of fungal enzymes and fungal proteomics, and fungal diseases of humans, antifungal agents for use in human therapy and fungal pathogens of plants.
Download or read book The Pandemic Century written by Mark Honigsbaum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-09 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like sharks, epidemic diseases always lurk just beneath the surface. This fast-paced history of their effect on mankind prompts questions about the limits of scientific knowledge, the dangers of medical hubris, and how we should prepare as epidemics become ever more frequent. Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet, despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From the Spanish flu and the 1924 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Los Angeles to the 1930 'parrot fever' pandemic and the more recent SARS, Ebola, and Zika epidemics, the last 100 years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated pandemic alarms. Like man-eating sharks, predatory pathogens are always present in nature, waiting to strike; when one is seemingly vanquished, others appear in its place. These pandemics remind us of the limits of scientific knowledge, as well as the role that human behaviour and technologies play in the emergence and spread of microbial diseases.
Download or read book The Agricultural Sky written by K. R. Krishna and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-06-02 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The agricultural sky" is a dominant natural entity that has influenced, interacted with, and guided the evolution of crops, farming practices, and cropping systems. The sky—and all its components—above and near agricultural areas is an important aspect of an agricultural enterprise—as important as soils, water, and crop species. The blue sky above crops that is seemingly clear, tranquil or sometimes filled with clouds, is really a repository of a large number of gases, mineral or organic particulate matter, dust, mist, turbulent wind, innumerable species of micro-organisms, tiny biotic flora/fauna, seeds, insects, etc. The agrarian sky supports complex interactions of biotic and abiotic aspects with perhaps immediate and/or delayed influence on crops sown on the ground. This volume helps us to better understand the importance of the sky above crop fields, with the goal to encourage revolutionary agronomic procedures that lead to higher yield. It is a comprehensive treatise on the agriculture sky, covering basic definitions, limits, and explanations about atmospheric layers like troposphere, stratosphere, and the phyllosphere. The volume addresses the nutrient dynamics in the sky and their relevance to crop productivity. It looks at both natural biotic and manmade abiotic factors in the sky and how they affect what goes on below, such as from dust storms, at cloudy and/or windy locations, and from high-altitude jet streams. The author discusses wind and solar power generation in the agrarian sky and explores aeroponics to revolutionize crop production. The volume delves into several types of aerial robots, employing AI and other technology, to provide aerial spectral data that are capable of analyzing procedures, soil conditions, irrigation, insect pests, weed detection, herbicide application, soil fertility, and much more. The book includes examples from the North American Great Plains, Pampas of Argentina, Sahelian production zones of West Africa, Indo-Gangetic Plains, etc. This eye-opening book, The Agricultural Sky: A Concept to Revolutionize Farming, will be useful to students and professors in universities as well as to researchers in industry dealing with aerial aspects of farming.
Download or read book The Potato Crop written by Hugo Campos and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book provides a fresh, updated and science-based perspective on the current status and prospects of the diverse array of topics related to the potato, and was written by distinguished scientists with hands-on global experience in research aspects related to potato. The potato is the third most important global food crop in terms of consumption. Being the only vegetatively propagated species among the world’s main five staple crops creates both issues and opportunities for the potato: on the one hand, this constrains the speed of its geographic expansion and its options for international commercialization and distribution when compared with commodity crops such as maize, wheat or rice. On the other, it provides an effective insulation against speculation and unforeseen spikes in commodity prices, since the potato does not represent a good traded on global markets. These two factors highlight the underappreciated and underrated role of the potato as a dependable nutrition security crop, one that can mitigate turmoil in world food supply and demand and political instability in some developing countries. Increasingly, the global role of the potato has expanded from a profitable crop in developing countries to a crop providing income and nutrition security in developing ones. This book will appeal to academics and students of crop sciences, but also policy makers and other stakeholders involved in the potato and its contribution to humankind’s food security.
