Download or read book Nutritional Ecology of Herbivores written by George C. Fahey and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 836 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nutritional Ecology of the Ruminant written by Peter J. Van Soest and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monumental text-reference places in clear persepctive the importance of nutritional assessments to the ecology and biology of ruminants and other nonruminant herbivorous mammals. Now extensively revised and significantly expanded, it reflects the changes and growth in ruminant nutrition and related ecology since 1982. Among the subjects Peter J. Van Soest covers are nutritional constraints, mineral nutrition, rumen fermentation, microbial ecology, utilization of fibrous carbohydrates, application of ruminant precepts to fermentive digestion in nonruminants, as well as taxonomy, evolution, nonruminant competitors, gastrointestinal anatomies, feeding behavior, and problems fo animal size. He also discusses methods of evaluation, nutritive value, physical struture and chemical composition of feeds, forages, and broses, the effects of lignification, and ecology of plant self-protection, in addition to metabolism of energy, protein, lipids, control of feed intake, mathematical models of animal function, digestive flow, and net energy. Van Soest has introduced a number of changes in this edition, including new illustrations and tables. He places nutritional studies in historical context to show not only the effectiveness of nutritional approaches but also why nutrition is of fundamental importance to issues of world conservation. He has extended precepts of ruminant nutritional ecology to such distant adaptations as the giant panda and streamlined conceptual issues in a clearer logical progression, with emphasis on mechanistic causal interrelationships. Peter J. Van Soest is Professor of Animal Nutrition in the Department of Animal Science and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University.
Download or read book The Role of Diet Quality and Energy Need in the Nutritional Ecology of a Small Herbivore written by Kimberly A. Hammond and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nutrient Niches written by Paul Alvarado Lenhart and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding how diversity is maintained is a classic question in ecology. A diverse group of organisms can often be found utilizing the same resource. For example, in grasslands there are communities of grasshoppers containing many generalist species with overlapping diets that are likely competing for resources. To explore how species that overlap in host plant use can coexist, I investigated a recent hypothesis in nutritional ecology that species-specific macronutrient requirements in generalist insect herbivores could represent different nutrient niches. As a model system I used a community of grasshoppers in Central Texas. First, I surveyed variation in plant macronutrient content and compared this data to the grasshopper community. By assaying levels of digestible protein and carbohydrate in abundant forbs and grasses at different sites, I produced a 'nutrient landscape' available to foraging herbivores and found significant correlations between plant nutrients and grasshopper abundance. To further explore the role of plant macronutrient shifts in controlling grasshopper populations, I manipulated water availability in plots of grassland during a severe drought. Total grasshopper density and diversity were lower in water-stressed plots despite previous observations of drought-induced outbreaks. The effect of water stressed plants on grasshoppers depended on their diet, and how different plant groups responded to water stress. I then compared host plant use to macronutrient requirements among 11 dominant grasshopper species. I found differences associated with functional diet groupings. I also found intake differences among mixed-feeders with highly overlapping diets, which could potentially represent nutrient niches. Finally, I tested the nutrient niche hypothesis in a greenhouse competition experiment using three species of generalist grasshoppers with overlapping diets. I found mixed support for the nutrient niche hypothesis. Body size was more important for predicting competitive outcomes. Understanding community-wide patterns of nutrient regulation in insect herbivores is in its infancy. While the plant nutrient landscape plays a large role in consumer populations, we are far from understanding how species-specific nutrient regulation differences might impact communities. Perhaps the potential effects of nutrient intake differences are inconsequential next to other ecological factors. Future comparative studies should determine what evolutionary factors shape nutrient requirements. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/152808
Download or read book Adaptive Herbivore Ecology written by R. Norman Owen-Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-27 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique monograph describing plant-herbivore interactions in the context of large African herbivorous mammals.
Download or read book The Nature of Nutrition written by Stephen J. Simpson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-22 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to address nutrition's complex role in biology Nutrition has long been considered more the domain of medicine and agriculture than of the biological sciences, yet it touches and shapes all aspects of the natural world. The need for nutrients determines whether wild animals thrive, how populations evolve and decline, and how ecological communities are structured. The Nature of Nutrition is the first book to address nutrition's enormously complex role in biology, both at the level of individual organisms and in their broader ecological interactions. Stephen Simpson and David Raubenheimer provide a comprehensive theoretical approach to the analysis of nutrition—the Geometric Framework. They show how it can help us to understand the links between nutrition and the biology of individual animals, including the physiological mechanisms that determine the nutritional interactions of the animal with its environment, and the consequences of these interactions in terms of health, immune responses, and lifespan. Simpson and Raubenheimer explain how these effects translate into the collective behavior of groups and societies, and in turn influence food webs and the structure of ecosystems. Then they demonstrate how the Geometric Framework can be used to tackle issues in applied nutrition, such as the problem of optimizing diets for livestock and endangered species, and how it can also help to address the epidemic of human obesity and metabolic disease. Drawing on a wealth of examples from slime molds to humans, The Nature of Nutrition has important applications in ecology, evolution, and physiology, and offers promising solutions for human health, conservation, and agriculture.
Download or read book Comparative Nutritional Ecology of Herbivorous Insects written by Jon Mark Scriber and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Why Does the World Stay Green written by TCR White and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2005-10-03 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly every form of life has the capacity to multiply and increase at a really astonishing rate. Think of plagues of locusts or mice. Clearly, for the vast majority of animals this does not happen, otherwise they would swamp the world and destroy all the plants. So why doesn’t it happen, and why does the world stay green? The concept explored in this book contends that animals are not controlled through predation but because plants have outwitted them, they cannot obtain enough of the food they must have to reproduce and grow. Why Does the World Stay Green? explains, in simple terms, how this comes about in nature and describes some of the many fascinating ways in which animals have evolved to cope with this usually chronic shortage of an essential resource. It is fascinating and easy-reading for anyone interested in natural history. The author, TCR White, has acted as a strong influence for the last 40 years on the ecological community, presenting confronting and at times controversial theories on the limiting role that nitrogen plays in the evolution of life. Why Does the World Stay Green? reveals this fascinating and important ecological theory.
Download or read book The Colobines written by Ikki Matsuda and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering colobine biology, behaviour, ecology and conservation, this book summarises current knowledge of this fascinating group of primates.
Download or read book Recent Developments in the Nutrition of Herbivores written by M. Journet and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present and future for herbivores. Role of herbivores in sustainable land production systems. Principles and practices - some of the issues. Role of herbivores in functions in which economic value is difficult to quantify. Changes in the nutrition and management of herbivores in the temperate zone: economic and social influences. Role of products market competition, non market functions and agricultural policies in animal and herbivore production prospects in France. Quantification of herbivore nutrition. Control and prediction of feed intake in ruminants. Herbage intake at grazing: a modelling approach. Optimisation of ruminal digestion: a modelling approach. Dietary compounds escaping rumen digestion. Prediction of the energy and protein value of forages for ruminants. Adaption of herbivores to environment. Comparison of herbivore forage selection and digestion. Improving the digestion of plant cell walls and fibrous feeds. Improving the feeding and health value of ensiled forages. Comparative adaptability of herbivores to tropical environments. Digestive and metabolic adaptations of ruminants to variations in food supply. Extensive herbivore nutrition. Optimisation of grass utilisation in high rainfall temperate conditions. Advances in the use of faecal and urinary markers for measuring diet composition, herbage intake and nutrient utilisation in herbivores. Dietary selection and foraging strategies of animals on rangeland. Coping with spatial and temporal variability. improved utilization of heterogeneous pastures by mixed species. Plant toxins and mammalian herbivores: co-evolutionary relationships and antinutritional effects. Feeding and management: high forage systems. High forage systems for the growing beef cattle: concepts and principles. The use of forages by the beef cow herd. High forage use in sustainable dairy systems. Grassland farm systems for sheep production. Feeding systems for draught ruminants on high forage diets in some African and Asian countries. Feeding systems for horses on high forage diets in the temperate zone. Final report. Future areas of research and expected advances in the nutrition of herbivores.
Download or read book Nourishment written by Fred Provenza and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflections on feeding body and spirit in a world of change Animal scientists have long considered domestic livestock to be too dumb to know how to eat right, but the lifetime research of animal behaviorist Fred Provenza and his colleagues has debunked this myth. Their work shows that when given a choice of natural foods, livestock have an astoundingly refined palate, nibbling through the day on as many as fifty kinds of grasses, forbs, and shrubs to meet their nutritional needs with remarkable precision. In Nourishment Provenza presents his thesis of the wisdom body, a wisdom that links flavor-feedback relationships at a cellular level with biochemically rich foods to meet the body's nutritional and medicinal needs. Provenza explores the fascinating complexity of these relationships as he raises and answers thought-provoking questions about what we can learn from animals about nutritional wisdom. What kinds of memories form the basis for how herbivores, and humans, recognize foods? Can a body develop nutritional and medicinal memories in utero and early in life? Do humans still possess the wisdom to select nourishing diets? Or, has that ability been hijacked by nutritional "authorities"? Consumers eager for a "quick fix" have empowered the multibillion-dollar-a-year supplement industry, but is taking supplements and enriching and fortifying foods helping us, or is it hurting us? On a broader scale Provenza explores the relationships among facets of complex, poorly understood, ever-changing ecological, social, and economic systems in light of an unpredictable future. To what degree do we lose contact with life-sustaining energies when the foods we eat come from anywhere but where we live? To what degree do we lose the mythological relationship that links us physically and spiritually with Mother Earth who nurtures our lives? Provenza's paradigm-changing exploration of these questions has implications that could vastly improve our health through a simple change in the way we view our relationships with the plants and animals we eat. Our health could be improved by eating biochemically rich foods and by creating cultures that know how to combine foods into meals that nourish and satiate. Provenza contends the voices of "authority" disconnect most people from a personal search to discover the inner wisdom that can nourish body and spirit. That journey means embracing wonder and uncertainty and avoiding illusions of stability and control as we dine on a planet in a universe bent on consuming itself.
Download or read book The Ecology of Large Herbivores in South and Southeast Asia written by Farshid Ahrestani and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-02 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large terrestrial mammalian herbivores play critical roles in ecosystems by acting as regulators of energy and nutrient cycles, modulators of plant community composition and grassland-woodland transitions, agents of seed dispersal, and as prey for large carnivores. Though large herbivores represent a prominent component of mammalian assemblages throughout South and Southeast Asia, little is known about their roles in ecosystems in the region. This volume presents, for the first time, a collection of studies on the ecology of the rich and diverse large herbivore assemblages of South and Southeast Asia. Prepared by experts on herbivores of the region, it covers a comprehensive range of topics, including their evolutionary history, behavioural, nutritional, and population ecology, patterns of diversity across environmental gradients, roles as seed dispersers and regulators of plant growth, community compositions, and their conservation in the face of hunting and global change.
Download or read book The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing written by Iain J. Gordon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-09-14 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates how large herbivores not only influence the structure and distribution of the vegetation, but also affect nutrient flows and the responses of associated fauna. The mechanisms and processes underlying the herbivores' behavior, distribution, movement and direct impact on the vegetation are discussed in detail. It is shown that an understanding of plant/animal interactions can inform the management of large herbivores to integrate production and conservation in terrestrial systems.
Download or read book Horses and Grasses written by Patrick Duncan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1973, a herd of Camargue horses was released into a nature reserve in the Rhone delta of France. The comprehensive long-term study of the resulting population eruption provided the opportunity for a unique analysis of the feeding ecology of free-ranging horses. Horses and Grasses summarizes the study covering digestive physiology, behavior, growth, and demography of wild horses and zebras. It examines how these equids are affected by variations in abundance and quality of grasses and in turn, how grazing affects the plant communities. The book also provides insight into the consequences of the hind-gut fermentation system for equid behavior and ecology and contrasts this feeding strategy with that of the recently evolved, highly successful grazing bovids.
Download or read book Nutritional Ecology of Insects Mites Spiders and Related Invertebrates written by Frank Slansky and published by Wiley-Interscience. This book was released on 1987-03-23 with total page 1048 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nutritional ecology of insects, mites, spiders, and related invertebrates: an overview; Nutritional ecology of forb foliage-chewing insects; Nutritional ecology of insect folivores of woody plants: nitrogen, water, fiber, and mineral considerations; Nutritional ecology of grass foliage-chewing insects; Nutritional ecology of phytophagous mites; Nutritional ecology of lichen/moss arthropods; Nutritional ecology of arthropod gall makers; Nutritional ecology of bruchid beetles; Nutritional ecology of seed-sucking insects; Nutritional ecology of stored-product insects; Nutritional ecology of stored-product and house dust mites; Ecology of nectar and pollen feeding in lepidoptera; Nutritional ecology of bees; Nutritional ecology of phloem-feeding insects; Nutritional ecology of wood-feeding coleoptera, lepidoptera and hymenoptera; Nutritional ecology of termites; Nutritional ecology of terrestial insect predators; Nutritional ecology of aquatic insect predators; Nutritional ecology of phytoseiid mites; Nutritional ecology of spiders; Interrelationships of nutritional ecology of parasitoids; Conspecific tissues and secretions as sources of nutrition; Nutritional ecology of ectoparasitic insects; Nutritional ecology of blood-feeding diptera; Nutritional ecology of parasitic mites and ticks; Nutritional ecology of fungus-feeding arthropods; Nutritional ecology of soil arthropods; Nutritional ecology of dung and carrion-feeding insects; Nutritional ecology of cockroaches; Nutritional ecology of ants; Nutritional ecology of wool- and fur-feeding insects.
Download or read book Integrative Wildlife Nutrition written by Perry S. Barboza and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-28 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nutrition spans a wide range of mechanisms from acquisition of food to digestion, absorption and retention of energy substrates, water and other nutrients. Nutritional principles have been applied to improving individual health, athletic performance and longevity of humans and of their companion animals, and to maximizing agricultural efficiency by manipulating reproduction or growth of tissues such as muscle, hair or milk in livestock. Comparative nutrition borrows from these tra- tional approaches by applying similar techniques to studies of ecology and physiology of wildlife. Comparative approaches to nutrition integrate several levels of organization because the acquisition and flow of energy and nutrients connect individuals to populations, populations to communities, and communities to ecosystems. Integrative Wildlife Nutrition connects behavioral, morphological and biochemical traits of animals to the life history of species and thus the dynamics of populations. An integrated approach to nutrition provides a practical framework for understanding the interactions between food resources and wildlife popu- tions and for managing the harvest of abundant species and the conservation of threatened populations. This book is for students and professionals in animal physiology and ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management. It is based on our lectures, dem- strations and practical classes taught in the USA, Canada and Australia over the last three decades. Instructors can use Integrative Wildlife Nutrition as a text in wildlife and conservation biology programs, and as a reference source for related courses in wildlife ecology.
Download or read book Herbivores Their Interactions with Secondary Plant Metabolites written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents the latest research on herbivores, aquatic and terrestrial mammals and insects. The Second Edition, written almost entirely by new authors, effectively complements the initial work. It includes advances in molecular biology and microbiology, ecology, and evolutionary theory that have been achieved since the first edition was published in 1979. The book also incorporates relatively new methodologies in the area of molecular biology, like protein purification and gene cloning. Volume II, Ecological and Evolutionary Processes, also opens up entirely new subjects: The discussions of interactions have expanded to include phenomena at higher trophic levels, such as predation and microbial processing and other environmental influences. Both this and Volume I, The Chemical Participants, will be of interest to chemists, biochemists, plant and insect ecologists, evolutionary biologists, physiologists, entomologists, and agroecologists interested in both crop and animal science. Presents coevolution of herbivores and host plants Examines resource availability and its effects on secondary metabolism and herbivores Studies physiology and biochemistry of adaptation to hosts Includes tri-trophic interactions involving predators and microbes
