Biodiversity II

Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Don E. Wilson, and Edward O. Wilson, Editors; A Joseph Henry Press book

1 Front Matter; 2 1 Introduction; 3 Part I The Meaning and Value of Biodiversity: 2 Biodiversity: What Is It?; 4 3 Biodiversity: Why Is It Important?; 5 Part II Patterns of the Biosphere: How Much Biodiversity Is There?: 4 Biodiversity at Its Utmost: Tropical Forest Beetles; 6 5 Measuring Global Biodiversity and Its Decline; 7 6 Butterfly Diversity and a Preliminary Comparison with Bird and Mammal Diversity; 8 7 The Global Biodiversity of Coral Reefs: A Comparison with Rain Forests; 9 8 Common Measures for Studies of Biodiversity: Molecular Phylogeny in the Eukaryotic Microbial World; 10 Part III Threats to Biodiversity: What Have We Lost and What Might We Lose?: 9 The Rich Diversity of Biodiversity Issues; 11 10 Human-Caused Extinction of Birds; 12 11 Global Warming and Plant Species Richness: A Case Study of the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary; 13 12 Plant Response to Multiple Environmental Stresses: Implications for Climatic Change and Biodiversity; 14 Part IV Understanding and Using Biodiversity: 13 Names: The Key to Biodiversity; 15 14 Systematics: A Keystone to Understanding Biodiversity; 16 15 Biodiversity and Systematics: Their Applications to Agriculture; 17 16 Snout Moths: Unraveling the Taxonomic Diversity of a Speciose Group in the Neotropics; 18 17 Phylogeny and Historical Reconstruction: Host-Parasite Systems as Keystones in Biogeography and Ecology; 19 18 Comparative Behavioral and Biochemical Studies of Bowerbirds and the Evolution of Bower-Building; 20 Part V Building Toward a Solution: New Directions and Applications: 19 Microbial Biodiversity and Biotechnology; 21 20 The Impact of Rapid Gene Discovery Technology on Studies of Evolution and Biodiversity; 22 21 Initial Assessment of Character Sets from Five Nuclear Gene Sequences in Animals; 23 22 Gap Analysis for Biodiversity Survey and Maintenance; 24 23 Conservation of Biodiversity in Neotropical Primates; 25 24 Using Marine Invertebrates to Establish Research and Conservation Priorities; 26 25 Ecological Restoration and the Conservation of Biodiversity; 27 26 Tropical Sustainable Development and Biodiversity; 28 27 Wildland Biodiversity Management in the Tropics; 29 Part VI Getting the Job Done: Institutional, Human, and Informational Infrastructure: 28 Taxonomic Preparedness: Are We Ready to Meet the Biodiversity Challenge?; 30 29 Museums, Research Collections and the Biodiversity Challenge; 31 30 Resources for Biodiversity in Living Collections and the Challenges of Assessing Microbial Biodiversity; 32 31 Integration of Data for Biodiversity Initiatives; 33 32 Information Management for Biodiversity: A Proposed U.S. National Biodiversity Information Center; 34 Part VII Conclusions: 33 Santa Rosalia, the Turning of the Century, and a New Age of Exploration; 35 Photo Credits; 36 Index