Download or read book Status of Pollinators in North America written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-05-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pollinators-insects, birds, bats, and other animals that carry pollen from the male to the female parts of flowers for plant reproduction-are an essential part of natural and agricultural ecosystems throughout North America. For example, most fruit, vegetable, and seed crops and some crops that provide fiber, drugs, and fuel depend on animals for pollination. This report provides evidence for the decline of some pollinator species in North America, including America's most important managed pollinator, the honey bee, as well as some butterflies, bats, and hummingbirds. For most managed and wild pollinator species, however, population trends have not been assessed because populations have not been monitored over time. In addition, for wild species with demonstrated declines, it is often difficult to determine the causes or consequences of their decline. This report outlines priorities for research and monitoring that are needed to improve information on the status of pollinators and establishes a framework for conservation and restoration of pollinator species and communities.
Download or read book Bees and Other Pollinating Insects Research written by and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pollination Biology written by Dharam P. Abrol and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-05 with total page 812 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book has a wider approach not strictly focused on crop production compared to other books that are strictly oriented towards bees, but has a generalist approach to pollination biology. It also highlights relationships between introduced and wild pollinators and consequences of such introductions on communities of wild pollinating insects. The chapters on biochemical basis of plant-pollination interaction, pollination energetics, climate change and pollinators and pollinators as bioindicators of ecosystem functioning provide a base for future insights into pollination biology. The role of honeybees and wild bees on crop pollination, value of bee pollination, planned honeybee pollination, non-bee pollinators, safety of pollinators, pollination in cages, pollination for hybrid seed production, the problem of diseases, genetically modified plants and bees, the role of bees in improving food security and livelihoods, capacity building and awareness for pollinators are also discussed.
Download or read book Temperate Agroforestry Systems written by Andrew M Gordon and published by CABI. This book was released on 2018-03-07 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organic animal production has increased rapidly in recent years to keep up with the increasing consumer demand for organic meats. There are many guidelines and restrictions on what should go into the feedstuffs of organically farmed animals, from which difficulties arise when trying to ensure a well-balanced, nutritious diet without the use of any supplements. The book has been completely updated and revised to address how to formulate organic diets in situations where there is a declining supply of organic feed, as well as the feasibility of utilizing novel feedstuffs and their acceptability by consumers of organic meat products. Including the experiences of producers in relation to appropriate breeds and production systems for forage-based organic production, this book is an important read for researchers and students of organic food animal production, veterinary sciences and food; as well as food industry personnel and organic farmers.
Download or read book Environmental Fate and Effects of Pesticides written by Joel R. Coats and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the third of three volumes based on the 2nd Pan-Pacific Conference on Pesticide Chemistry. The proposed title examines metabolism and residue analysis methods of environmental pesticides.
Download or read book The Forgotten Pollinators written by Stephen L. Buchmann and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consider this: Without interaction between animals and flowering plants, the seeds and fruits that make up nearly eighty percent of the human diet would not exist. In The Forgotten Pollinators, Stephen L. Buchmann, one of the world's leading authorities on bees and pollination, and Gary Paul Nabhan, award-winning writer and renowned crop ecologist, explore the vital but little-appreciated relationship between plants and the animals they depend on for reproduction -- bees, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, bats, and countless other animals, some widely recognized and other almost unknown. Scenes from around the globe -- examining island flora and fauna on the Galapagos, counting bees in the Panamanian rain forest, witnessing an ancient honey-hunting ritual in Malaysia -- bring to life the hidden relationships between plants and animals, and demonstrate the ways in which human society affects and is affected by those relationships. Buchmann and Nabhan combine vignettes from the field with expository discussions of ecology, botany, and crop science to present a lively and fascinating account of the ecological and cultural context of plant-pollinator relationships. More than any other natural process, plant-pollinator relationships offer vivid examples of the connections between endangered species and threatened habitats. The authors explain how human-induced changes in pollinator populations -- caused by overuse of chemical pesticides, unbridled development, and conversion of natural areas into monocultural cropland-can have a ripple effect on disparate species, ultimately leading to a "cascade of linked extinctions."
Download or read book Honey Bee Colony Health written by Diana Sammataro and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-17 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book summarizes the current progress of bee researchers investigating the status of honey bees and possible reasons for their decline, providing a basis for establishing management methods that maintain colony health. Integrating discussion of Colony Collapse Disorder, the chapters provide information on the new microsporidian Nosema ceranae pathogens, the current status of the parasitic bee mites, updates on bee viruses, and the effects these problems are having on our important bee pollinators. The text also presents methods for diagnosing diseases and includes color illustrations and tables.
Download or read book Pollination Mechanisms Reproduction and Plant Breeding written by R. Frankel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: view than its own proper males should fecundate each blossom." ANDREW KNIGHT Philosophical Transactions, 1799 Pollination mechanisms and reproduction have a decisive bearing upon rational procedures in plant breeding and crop production. This book intends to furnish' under one cover an integrated botanical, genetical and breeding-methodologi cal treatment of the reproductive biology of spermatophytes mainly angiosperms; it is based on an advanced topical course in plant breeding taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusa lem. We have tried to present a coverage which is concise, but as comprehensive as possible, of the pollination mechanism and modes of reproduction of higher plants, and to illustrate topics, whenever practicable, by examples from cultivated plants. Nevertheless, some relevant publications may have escaped our attention or may not be mentioned because of various limitations. The book is organized into three parts. The first part starts with an evaluation of the significance of the different pollination mechanisms for plant breeding and crop produc tion, describes modes of reproduction in higher plants and discusses ecology and dynamics of pollination. The second part is devoted to crops propagated by self pollination and describes specific breeding procedures for such crops. The third part details sexual reproduction in higher plants and handles three mechanisms involved in the prevention of self pollination and their utilization in plant breeding: sex expres sion, incompatibility, and male sterility.
Download or read book A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.
Download or read book The Insect Crisis The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World written by Oliver Milman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Medicinal Plant Biotechnology written by Rajesh Arora and published by CABI. This book was released on 2010 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the latest advances in the use of plants to produce medicinal drugs and vaccines, examines topics including plant tissue culture, secondary metabolite production, metabolomics and metabolic engineering, bioinformatics, molecular farming and future biotechnological directions.
Download or read book Sophie s World written by Jostein Gaarder and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2007-03-20 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Download or read book Neglected Crops written by J. Esteban Hernández Bermejo and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 1994 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About neglected crops of the American continent. Published in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of Cord�ba (Spain) as part of the Etnobot�nica92 Programme (Andalusia, 1992)
Download or read book The Wisdom of the Hive written by Thomas D Seeley and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes and illustrates the results of more than fifteen years of elegant experimental studies conducted by the author to investigate how a colony of bees is organized to gather its resources. The results of his research--including studies of the shaking signal, tremble dance, and waggle dance--offer the clearest, most detailed picture available of how a highly integrated animal society works.
Download or read book Ecology and the Environment written by Russell K. Monson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-10-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, plant biology is considered from the perspective of plants and their surrounding environment, including both biotic and abiotic interactions. The intended audience is undergraduate students in the middle or final phases of their programs of study. Topics are developed to provide a rudimentary understanding of how plant-environment interactions span multiple spatiotemporal scales, and how this rudimentary knowledge can be applied to understand the causes of ecosystem vulnerabilities in the face of global climate change and expansion of natural resource use by human societies. In all chapters connections are made from smaller to larger scales of ecological organization, providing a foundation for understanding plant ecology. Where relevant, environmental threats to ecological systems are identified and future research needs are discussed. As future generations take on the responsibility for managing ecosystem goods and services, one of the most effective resources that can be passed on is accumulated knowledge of how organisms, populations, species, communities and ecosystems function and interact across scales of organization. This book is intended to provide some of that knowledge, and hopefully provide those generations with the ability to avoid some of the catastrophic environmental mistakes that prior generations have made.
Download or read book Dietary Phytochemicals written by Chukwuebuka Egbuna and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-20 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents comprehensive coverage on the importance of good nutrition in the treatment and management of obesity, cancer and diabetes. Naturally occurring bioactive compounds are ubiquitous in most dietary plants available to humans and provide opportunities for the management of diseases. The text provides information about the major causes of these diseases and their association with nutrition. The text also covers the role of dietary phytochemicals in drug development and their pathways. Later chapters emphasize novel bioactive compounds as anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and anti-obesity agents and describe their mechanisms to regulate cell metabolism. Written by global team of experts, Dietary Phytochemicals: A Source of Novel Bioactive Compounds for the Treatment of Obesity, Cancer and Diabetes describes the potentials of novel phytochemicals, their sources, and underlying mechanism of action. The chapters were drawn systematically and incorporated sequentially to facilitate proper understanding. This book is intended for nutritionists, physicians, medicinal chemists, drug developers in research and development, postgraduate students and scientists in area of nutrition and life sciences.
Download or read book Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 1995 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bulletin, based on contributions from various contributors and edited by Dr. D.W. Roubik, introduces the reader to various aspects of natural and insect pollination. It discusses the pollinators themselves, and the ecological and economic importance of pollination, as well as applied pollination in temperate, tropical oceanic islands and mainland tropics, and alternatives to artificial pollinator populations. Prospects for the future are also discussed. Chapter 2 deals with successful pollination with pollinator populations, the evaluation of pollinators and floral biology and research techniques. The behaviour of pollinators and plant phenology and various case studies on the preparation of pollinators for use in tropical agriculture are also discussed. A glossary and various appendices regarding cultivated and semi-cultivated plants in the tropics, pollination contracts and levels of safety of pesticides for bees and other pollinators are included.
