Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2008-12-22 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current extinction crisis is of human making, and any favorable resolution of that biodiversity crisis-among the most dire in the 4-billion-year history of Earth-will have to be initiated by mankind. Little time remains for the public, corporations, and governments to awaken to the magnitude of what is at stake. This book aims to assist that critical educational mission, synthesizing recent scientific information and ideas about threats to biodiversity in the past, present, and projected future. This is the second volume from the In the Light of Evolution series, based on a series of Arthur M. Sackler colloquia, and designed to promote the evolutionary sciences. Each installment explores evolutionary perspectives on a particular biological topic that is scientifically intriguing but also has special relevance to contemporary societal issues or challenges. Individually and collectively, the ILE series aims to interpret phenomena in various areas of biology through the lens of evolution, address some of the most intellectually engaging as well as pragmatically important societal issues of our times, and foster a greater appreciation of evolutionary biology as a consolidating foundation for the life sciences.
Download or read book Invasion in the Light of Evolution written by Monica Mowery and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As invasive species spread around the world, understanding the factors underlying invasion success has become increasingly important. Using an evolutionary perspective to examine biological invasions, I investigated how organisms are able to rapidly adapt to new environments, and how selection on phenotypic traits changed over time during sequential stages of the invasion process. In this thesis, I used lab and field studies to assess the importance of behaviour, physiology, morphology, and plasticity to widow spider invasion success. Using this variation in invasion history, I explored patterns across organismal, population, and species-level scales. In Chapter Two, investigated the effects of metabolic rate on behaviour in Australian redback spiders, Latrodectus hasselti, and links between behavioural variation and fitness components measured in the field and laboratory. My work showed that metabolic rate influences fitness via correlation with multiple behaviours, but that metabolic rate alone does not drive all individual behavioural differences. In Chapter Three, I tested preadaptation and local adaptation in a native and an invasive population of L. hasselti to investigate tolerance of novel environmental conditions experienced in the invasive range. In this chapter, I showed that invasive populations may be able to thrive in novel environmental conditions because of increased behavioural plasticity, tolerance of temperature fluctuations, and higher fecundity. In Chapter Four, I compared populations of L. hasselti that are native, established invasive, and newly invasive, and assessed the relative importance of phenotypic traits likely to predispose a species to invasion success. I found that invasive populations of Australian redback spiders diverged from the native Australian population in behaviour, life history, and morphology. In Chapter Five, I tested hypotheses of behaviourally mediated spatial sorting and changes in tradeoffs during invasive spread using two independent invasions of brown widow spiders. I found similar patterns of increased dispersal propensity in two independent invasions of brown widow populations in Israel and the United States. These common patterns suggest that dispersal ability under positive selection in invasive populations, particularly the recently established populations. I infer that behavioural plasticity and dispersal propensity, together with a preference for human-disturbed environments, may underlie invasion and establishment in invasive widow species. In sum, my thesis has expanded our knowledge of how evolutionary processes affect the spread of invasive species through local adaptation, selective filters in the invasion process, and spatial sorting.
Download or read book Invasion Genetics written by Spencer C. H. Barrett and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-09-19 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invasion Genetics: the Baker & Stebbins legacy provides a state-of-the-art treatment of the evolutionary biology of invasive species, whilst also revisiting the historical legacy of one of the most important books in evolutionary biology: The Genetics of Colonizing Species, published in 1965 and edited by Herbert Baker and G. Ledyard Stebbins. This volume covers a range of topics concerned with the evolutionary biology of invasion including: phylogeography and the reconstruction of invasion history; demographic genetics; the role of stochastic forces in the invasion process; the contemporary evolution of local adaptation; the significance of epigenetics and transgenerational plasticity for invasive species; the genomic consequences of colonization; the search for invasion genes; and the comparative biology of invasive species. A wide diversity of invasive organisms are discussed including plants, animals, fungi and microbes.
Download or read book In the Light of Evolution V Cooperation and Conflict written by and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Invasion Biology written by Jonathan M Jeschke and published by CABI. This book was released on 2018-04-25 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are many hypotheses describing the interactions involved in biological invasions, but it is largely unknown whether they are backed up by empirical evidence. This book fills that gap by developing a tool for assessing research hypotheses and applying it to twelve invasion hypotheses, using the hierarchy-of-hypotheses (HoH) approach, and mapping the connections between theory and evidence. In Part 1, an overview chapter of invasion biology is followed by an introduction to the HoH approach and short chapters by science theorists and philosophers who comment on the approach. Part 2 outlines the invasion hypotheses and their interrelationships. These include biotic resistance and island susceptibility hypotheses, disturbance hypothesis, invasional meltdown hypothesis, enemy release hypothesis, evolution of increased competitive ability and shifting defence hypotheses, tens rule, phenotypic plasticity hypothesis, Darwin's naturalization and limiting similarity hypotheses and the propagule pressure hypothesis. Part 3 provides a synthesis and suggests future directions for invasion research.
Download or read book Biological Invasions in Changing Ecosystems written by João Canning-Clode and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When organisms are deliberately or accidentally introduced into a new ecosystem a biological invasion may take place. These so-called ‘invasive species’ may establish, spread and ecologically alter the invaded community. Biological invasions by animals, plants, pathogens or vectors are one of the greatest environmental and economic threats and, along with habitat destruction, a leading cause of global biodiversity loss. In this book, more than 50 worldwide invasion scientists cover our current understanding of biological invasions, its impacts, patterns and mechanisms in both aquatic and terrestrial systems.
Download or read book Improbable Destinies written by Jonathan B. Losos and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.
Download or read book Fifty Years of Invasion Ecology written by David M. Richardson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invasion ecology is the study of the causes and consequences of the introduction of organisms to areas outside their native range. Interest in this field has exploded in the past few decades. Explaining why and how organisms are moved around the world, how and why some become established and invade, and how best to manage invasive species in the face of global change are all crucial issues that interest biogeographers, ecologists and environmental managers in all parts of the world. This book brings together the insights of more than 50 authors to examine the origins, foundations, current dimensions and potential trajectories of invasion ecology. It revisits key tenets of the foundations of invasion ecology, including contributions of pioneering naturalists of the 19th century, including Charles Darwin and British ecologist Charles Elton, whose 1958 monograph on invasive species is widely acknowledged as having focussed scientific attention on biological invasions.
Download or read book The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries written by Donald R. Prothero and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The theory of evolution unites the past, present, and future of living things. It puts humanity’s place in the universe into necessary perspective. Despite a history of controversy, the evidence for evolution continues to accumulate as a result of many separate strands of amazing scientific sleuthing. In The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries, Donald R. Prothero explores the most fascinating breakthroughs in piecing together the evidence for evolution. In twenty-five vignettes, he recounts the dramatic stories of the people who made crucial discoveries, placing each moment in the context of what it represented for the progress of science. He tackles topics like what it means to see evolution in action and what the many transitional fossils show us about evolution, following figures from Darwin to lesser-known researchers as they unlock the mysteries of the fossil record, the earth, and the universe. The book also features the stories of animal species strange and familiar, including humans—and our ties to some of our closest relatives and more distant cousins. Prothero’s wide-ranging tales showcase awe-inspiring and bizarre aspects of nature and the powerful insights they give us into the way that life works. Brisk and entertaining while firmly grounded in fundamental science, The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries is a captivating read for anyone curious about the evidence for evolution and what it means for humanity.
Download or read book Solutions for a Small Planet Volume Two written by Pepper Lewis and published by Light Technology Publishing. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Dragons and Chariots and the four Ra Books shares his thirty-year adventure as a Federation telepath, and the wisdom brought to Earth through his telepathic connections.
Download or read book The Princeton Guide to Evolution written by David A. Baum and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-04 with total page 888 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Princeton Guide to Evolution is a comprehensive, concise, and authoritative reference to the major subjects and key concepts in evolutionary biology, from genes to mass extinctions. Edited by a distinguished team of evolutionary biologists, with contributions from leading researchers, the guide contains some 100 clear, accurate, and up-to-date articles on the most important topics in seven major areas: phylogenetics and the history of life; selection and adaptation; evolutionary processes; genes, genomes, and phenotypes; speciation and macroevolution; evolution of behavior, society, and humans; and evolution and modern society. Complete with more than 100 illustrations (including eight pages in color), glossaries of key terms, suggestions for further reading on each topic, and an index, this is an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, scientists in related fields, and anyone else with a serious interest in evolution. Explains key topics in some 100 concise and authoritative articles written by a team of leading evolutionary biologists Contains more than 100 illustrations, including eight pages in color Each article includes an outline, glossary, bibliography, and cross-references Covers phylogenetics and the history of life; selection and adaptation; evolutionary processes; genes, genomes, and phenotypes; speciation and macroevolution; evolution of behavior, society, and humans; and evolution and modern society
Download or read book Invasion Biology written by Mark A. Davis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the exception of climate change, biological invasions have probably received more attention during the past ten years than any other ecological topic. Yet this is the first synthetic, single-authored overview of the field since Williamson's 1996 book. Written fifty years after the publication of Elton's pioneering monograph on the subject, Invasion Biology provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the science of biological invasions while also offering new insights and perspectives relating to the processes of introduction, establishment, and spread. The book connects science with application by describing the health, economic, and ecological impacts of invasive species as well as the variety of management strategies developed to mitigate harmful impacts. The author critically evaluates the approaches, findings, and controversies that have characterized invasion biology in recent years, and suggests a variety of future research directions. Carefully balanced to avoid distinct taxonomic, ecosystem, and geographic (both investigator and species) biases, the book addresses a wide range of invasive species (including protists, invertebrates, vertebrates, fungi, and plants) which have been studied in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments throughout the world by investigators equally diverse in their origins. This accessible and thought-provoking text will be of particular interest to graduate level students and established researchers in the fields of invasion biology, community ecology, conservation biology, and restoration ecology. It will also be of value and use to land managers, policy makers, and other professionals charged with controlling the negative impacts associated with recently arrived species.
Download or read book Alien Species and Evolution written by George W. Cox and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Alien Species and Evolution, biologist George W. Cox reviews and synthesizes emerging information on the evolutionary changes that occur in plants, animals, and microbial organisms when they colonize new geographical areas, and on the evolutionary responses of the native species with which alien species interact. The book is broad in scope, exploring information across a wide variety of taxonomic groups, trophic levels, and geographic areas. It examines theoretical topics related to rapid evolutionary change and supports the emerging concept that species introduced to new physical and biotic environments are particularly prone to rapid evolution. The author draws on examples from all parts of the world and all major ecosystem types, and the variety of examples used gives considerable insight into the patterns of evolution that are likely to result from the massive introduction of species to new geographic regions that is currently occurring around the globe. Alien Species and Evolution is the only state-of-the-art review and synthesis available of this critically important topic, and is an essential work for anyone concerned with the new science of invasion biology or the threats posed by invasive species.
Download or read book Plant Evolution written by Karl J. Niklas and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-08-12 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although plants comprise more than 90% of all visible life, and land plants and algae collectively make up the most morphologically, physiologically, and ecologically diverse group of organisms on earth, books on evolution instead tend to focus on animals. This organismal bias has led to an incomplete and often erroneous understanding of evolutionary theory. Because plants grow and reproduce differently than animals, they have evolved differently, and generally accepted evolutionary views—as, for example, the standard models of speciation—often fail to hold when applied to them. Tapping such wide-ranging topics as genetics, gene regulatory networks, phenotype mapping, and multicellularity, as well as paleobotany, Karl J. Niklas’s Plant Evolution offers fresh insight into these differences. Following up on his landmark book The Evolutionary Biology of Plants—in which he drew on cutting-edge computer simulations that used plants as models to illuminate key evolutionary theories—Niklas incorporates data from more than a decade of new research in the flourishing field of molecular biology, conveying not only why the study of evolution is so important, but also why the study of plants is essential to our understanding of evolutionary processes. Niklas shows us that investigating the intricacies of plant development, the diversification of early vascular land plants, and larger patterns in plant evolution is not just a botanical pursuit: it is vital to our comprehension of the history of all life on this green planet.
Download or read book Digest written by and published by . This book was released on 1899 with total page 770 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ecology and Evolution of Cancer written by Beata Ujvari and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2017-02-08 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecology and Evolution of Cancer is a timely work outlining ideas that not only represent a substantial and original contribution to the fields of evolution, ecology, and cancer, but also goes beyond by connecting the interfaces of these disciplines. This work engages the expertise of a multidisciplinary research team to collate and review the latest knowledge and developments in this exciting research field. The evolutionary perspective of cancer has gained significant international recognition and interest, which is fully understandable given that somatic cellular selection and evolution are elegant explanations for carcinogenesis. Cancer is now generally accepted to be an evolutionary and ecological process with complex interactions between tumor cells and their environment sharing many similarities with organismal evolution. As a critical contribution to this field of research the book is important and relevant for the applications of evolutionary biology to understand the origin of cancers, to control neoplastic progression, and to prevent therapeutic failures. Covers all aspects of the evolution of cancer, appealing to researchers seeking to understand its origins and effects of treatments on its progression, as well as to lecturers in evolutionary medicine Functions as both an introduction to cancer and evolution and a review of the current research on this burgeoning, exciting field, presented by an international group of leading editors and contributors Improves understanding of the origin and the evolution of cancer, aiding efforts to determine how this disease interferes with biotic interactions that govern ecosystems Highlights research that intends to apply evolutionary principles to help predict emergence and metastatic progression with the aim of improving therapies
Download or read book The Evolution of Cooperation written by Robert Axelrod and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A famed political scientist's classic argument for a more cooperative world We assume that, in a world ruled by natural selection, selfishness pays. So why cooperate? In The Evolution of Cooperation, political scientist Robert Axelrod seeks to answer this question. In 1980, he organized the famed Computer Prisoners Dilemma Tournament, which sought to find the optimal strategy for survival in a particular game. Over and over, the simplest strategy, a cooperative program called Tit for Tat, shut out the competition. In other words, cooperation, not unfettered competition, turns out to be our best chance for survival. A vital book for leaders and decision makers, The Evolution of Cooperation reveals how cooperative principles help us think better about everything from military strategy, to political elections, to family dynamics.
