One of the main reasons that we organized this edited volume is to increase - ternational awareness of the growing use of invertebrate pathogens for control and eradication of invasive arthropods. As the numbers of invasive species continues to rise, more insect pathologists have been involved with work on their control using entomopathogens. In fact, this is not a new area of focus for insect pathologists; work on microbes against invasive arthropods began more than a century ago with classicalbiologicalcontrolintroductionsofentomopathogenicfungiagainstinvasive species in the 1890s. Chapters in this book cover entomopathogens that have been developedforcontrolofinvasivespeciesovermanydecades(e. g. anematodeagainst Sirex noctilio and Bacillus thuringiensis against gypsy moth) while other chapters focusondevelopmentofcontrolmeasuresforveryrecentinvasives(e. g. emeraldash borer?rstfoundintheUSin2002). SinceboththeUnitedStatesandNewZealandare countrieswithabundanttrade, whichisakeypathwayforinvasives, wehavebeenvery awareofthegrowingnumbers ofinvasive pestsarrivinginour owncountries andthe needforcontrolstrategies. Wehavebeencloselyinvolvedwiththeircontrolusing- crobes, atvaryinglevels(fromlaboratorybenchto?eldstudiestonationalcommittees evaluating eradication programs using the entomopathogen B. thuringiensis). Within the past few years, symposia on use of microbes for invasive control have been organized twice at the annual meetings of the Society of Invertebrate Pathology (2005 - Anchorage, Alaska, and 2007 - Quebec City, Quebec, Canada), demonstrating interest in this subject across the international community of inv- tebrate pathologists. However, no written summaries, covering the different types of pathogens being studied, developed and used for control, have previously - dressed this subje

such as ?oodplains and temporary ponds) challenge this de?nition. Our decision has been to include such The term 'aquatic macrophytes' refers to a diverse species as "aquatic macrophytes", only if their group of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, all large environmental survival is clearly dependent upon enough to see with the naked eye. It includes regular re?lling of their aquatic habitat with a source macroalgae of the divisions Chlorophyta (green of fresh to brackish water. algae), Xanthophyta (yellow-green algae) and Rho- The freshwater macroalgae are primarily rep- dophyta (red algae) and the "blue-green algae" (more sented by the green algae, especially the Charales, correctly known as Cyanobacteria), Bryophyta commonly known as the stoneworts or brittleworts (mosses and liverworts), Pteridophyta (ferns) and (e.g., Chara and Nitella spp.). The Charales are often Spermatophyta (seed-bearing plants), the vegetative mistaken for higher plants because they have erect parts of which actively grow either permanently or central stalks that are divided into short nodes and periodically (for at least several weeks each year) long internodes of elongated multinucleate cells, with submerged below, ?oating on, or growing up through a whorl of "branchlets" at each node (Fig. 1).

This volume offers a collection of papers on the quantitative assessment of age and growth in Chondrichthyan fishes. It details new hard parts for assessments of age, such as caudal thorns; new techniques like bomb radiocarbon for validation; and reexaminations of previous age and growth models. It also examines the importance of assessing the precision and accuracy of statistical formulas, analyses, and models used in age and growth studies.

The knowledge on the ecology of ungulates (orders Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla) inhabiting eastern Europe and northern and central Asia is of special importance for those interested in zoology, ecology, nature conservation, hunting and management. There are 26 species of ungulates 2 oE-169 DegreesW within the 22. 4 million km area, between 35-82 DegreesN and 20 and they occupy several vegetation zones from arctic deserts to the subtropics. In our opinion, the advancement of science can be retarded and general conclusions will be difficult to make, if the knowledge of the organisms inhabiting one sixth of the world'sland surface, covered by this vast region, is not included. The language barrier, as well as the lack of international accessibility of local publications, makes it difficult to make use of the great volume of scientific information gathered within the territory of the former USSR. The only complete ecological review of ungulates of the Soviet Union, Mammals of the Soviet Union, vol. 1. Ungulates, was published by V. G. Heptner, A. A. Nasimovich, and A. G. Bannikov in 1961 (in Russian, Heptner and Naumov 1961)and 1989(the English translation,Heptner and Naumov 1989). This excellent book does not, however, contain scientific contributions published after 1959. This is unfortunate, because during the foHowing40years,intense and highly qualified research on the ecology and behavior of ungulates was performed.

It is difficult for me to recollect a time when I was not fascinated with the very notion of a desert. Walt Disney's film, The Living Desert, which I initially saw when I was 8 years of age, provided me with my first glimpse of this wondrous yet seemingly ho stile environment. The images were hypnotic and captivating. I looked on in amazement at the promenade Cl deux of the male and female scorpions during courtship. Their rhythmic and coordinated movements as they grasped one another made them appear to glide in unis on over the surface of the sand, each individual totally absorbed with its partner. In the next minute the fern ale had suddenly and utterly transformed herself like some Jekyll and Hyde act, into an aggressive predator whose prior gregarious embrace was now a hold of death for the male. The indomitable desert grasshopper mouse, the ever sentient kit fox, the graceful shovel-nosed snake swimming in an endless sea of sand.

The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is a large, arid region in the 2 northwesternpartoftheIndiansubcontinent.Withanextentof280,000km, itisthe 17th largest desert in the world. It lies mostly in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and extends into the southern portion of Haryana and Punjab and into northern Gujarat. The Thar Desert is bounded in the northwest by the Sutlej River, in the east by the Aravalli Range, in the south by a salt marsh known as the Rann of Kutch, and in the west by the Indus River. In spite of the fact that climatic conditions are very harsh, this extremely hot region of the country exhibits a vivid and spectacular biodiversity. It is an important area biologically, at the con?uence of very different habitats, namely grassland, sand dunes and rocky expanses as well as forested domains. Due to the diversi?ed ha- tats, the vegetation and animal life in this arid region are very rich. Some wildlife species, fast disappearing from other parts of India, are found in large numbers in this desert, such as the Great Indian Bustard, Blackbuck, Indian Gazelle and Indian Wild Ass in the Rann of Kutch. The Desert National Park is an excellent example of theThar Desertecosystem, anditsdiverse fauna.The region isahaven formigratory and resident desert birds.

This volume covers aspects of ecology, behavior, genetics, taxonomy, 'cultural' patterns, hunting by non-human primates, physiology, dietary chemistry, and ecotourism, in several major clades of primates from galagos and pottos, through cercopithecoids, to hominoids.

The time is ripe to investigate similarities and differences in the course of social evolution in different animals. This book brings together renowned researchers working on sociality in different animals to deal with the key questions of sociobiology. For the first time, they compile the evidence for the importance of ecological factors in the evolution of social life, ranging from invertebrate to vertebrate social systems, and evaluate its importance versus that of relatedness.

How migratory birds can navigate home from their wintering grounds to their breeding sites over hundreds and thousands of kilometres has been an admired mystery over more than a century. Profound advances towards a solution of this problem have been achieved with a model bird, the homing pigeon. This monograph summarizes our current knowledge about pigeon homing, about the birds' application of a sun compass and a magnetic compass, of a visual topographical map within a familiar area and -- most surprisingly -- of an olfactory map using atmospheric chemosignals as indicators of position in distant unfamiliar areas.

This richly illustrated book clothes the skeletons of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles with flesh, and shows how these fascinating animals evolved and probably lived. Expert author John L. Cloudsley-Thompson synthesizes current views on ecology, physiology and behaviour, and outlines the various hypotheses that have been proposed to explain their extinction. Numerous beautiful drawings of the animals and their environment illustrate this exciting monograph.

This book is the first complete biography of one of the founders of fishery science, William Edwin (Bill) Ricker (1908 - 2001), immortalized in the Ricker Curve. This book combines Bill s own recollections with contributions from those who knew him and worked with him as a colleague during his multifaceted career. In an article written shortly before his death, Bill gives his own account of his career and intellectual development. "

This beautiful volume, with hundreds of fascinating hand-drawn illustrations, completes the two-volume work on the order Odonata in the Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects. The Zygoptera volume encompasses the small dragonflies often called damselflies. The sections on the morphology of the adults and larvae are followed by discussions of factors influencing their distribution and instructions on the methods used to observe, collect, preserve, and examine specimens.

In this book we undertake one of the first global-scale comparisons of the relationships between tropical plants and frugivorous animal communities, comparing sites within and across continents. In total, 12 primary contributors, including noted plant and animal ecologists, present newly-analyzed long-term datasets on the floristics and phenological rhythms of their study sites, identifying important seed dispersers and key plant taxa that sustain animal communities in Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, and the Neotropics.

Plant-animal interactions have become a focus of ecological research, with the processes of herbivory being of special interest. This volume examines the interactions of leaf-cutting ants with the rainforest vegetation on Barro Colorado Islands in Central America. It is the synthesis of field research on multiple scales extending over a period of several years. This work can serve as a model study summarizing and extending knowledge about herbivorous insect-plant relationships, and the resulting consequences on structural and functional features of tropical ecosystems. The text is an invaluable reference for researchers and land managers working in the fields of plant-animal interactions, herbivory, community ecology and biodiversity.

A decline in populations of Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma magister) was first noticed in the 1980s. Since that time, woodrats have become extirpated from at least two states and have declined dramatically in several others. Recent evidence suggests that the decline of this species may be proceeding further south to include states where woodrat populations were previously considered to be stable.

The Allegheny Woodrat: Ecology, Conservation, and Management of a Declining Species provides a comprehensive summary of research conducted over the past twenty-five years. The book integrates the results of this research into a comprehensive picture of the ecological requirements, conservation principles, and management strategies for this declining species. In addition, general principles learned from the study of woodrats are applied to the conservation and management of other declining species, including other species of Neotoma.

The editors and chapter authors are researchers from both academic settings and state management agencies, individuals who have contributed significantly to the study of Allegheny woodrats during the past two decades. The book will be of interest to ecologists, conservation biologists, wildlife professionals, and students.

Predation is considered one of the distinct phenomena related to the interrelationships between species on the Earth. In general, predation is widespread not only in wildlife but also in marine environments where big fishes eat small fishes and other organisms of the sea. This book considers predation in organisms and is aimed at the prevention of predation in wildlife and marine environments.

How to decelerate loss of global biodiversity is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. Reproductive technologies have enormous potential to assist the recovery of species by enhancing reproductive output, facilitating genetic management, and supporting reintroduction of threatened species. Of particular value are cryopreservation technologies coupled with the establishment of global gene banks to conserve, in perpetuity, the remaining extant genetic diversity of threatened amphibians. Reproductive Technologies and Biobanking for the Conservation of Amphibians brings together leading experts in the field to provide a comprehensive overview of current best practices, summarise technological advancements, and present a framework for facilitating the integration of reproductive technologies and biobanking into conservation breeding programs for threatened amphibians. It is an invaluable reference for the next generation of conservation practitioners: captive breeding facilities, researchers, and policy-makers involved with biodiversity conservation

Providing a quantitative assessment of threatened plant populations, that holds for varying management scenarios, has become an essential part of conservation planning. Here, renowned plant ecologists provide information on: major threats to plants, when and where to conduct a plant viability assessment (PVA), what type of PVA to conduct, what alternative options to PVA are available, what information is required for which kind of viability assessment, what attributes of the population in question should be considered, and what the limits of the PVA would be. As such, this volume can be used as a training tool for the environmental manager or a teaching aid for reviewing the current state of knowledge on plant population viability.

The findings presented in this volume represent a concerted effort to develop a more inclusive form of reindeer management for northernmost Europe. Our guiding principle has been to foster a new paradigm of participatory research. We wish to move beyond the historical reliance on western approaches to basic and applied science. These have been concerned prim- ily with interactions between herded animals and the various components of their biophysical environment, e. g., plants, insects, predators, climate, and others. In our view, sociocultural and economic drivers, along with herders' experience-based knowledge, gain equal currency in the effort to understand how management may mitigate against the negative aspects of the challenges modern herding faces, while also exploring concepts of sustainability from different perspectives (see also Jernsletten and Klokov 2002; Kankaanpaa et al. 2002; Ulvevadet and Klokov 2004). This broadening of the pool of disciplines and local, national, and int- national stakeholders in policy-relevant research invariably complicates v- tually all aspects of the research process. Multidisciplinary or, in our sense, transdisciplinary approaches also require extraordinary effort from all p- ticipants if they are to succeed. As such, those approaches should not be undertaken lightly, nor without personnel who possess appropriate expe- ence in cooperating with those of different disciplines and, preferably, also with relevant practitioners and public social and administrative institutions. In such settings the potential for misunderstandings is quite high."

My interest in the behaviour and movements of birds of arid and semi-arid ecosystems began when my wife, Sue Milton, and I were Roy Siegfried, Director, at that time, of the Percy approached by Prof. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, to set up a project to investigate granivory in the South African Karoo. Sue and I spent some time finding a suitable study site, setting up accommodations and an automatic weather station at Tierberg, in the southern Karoo near the village of Prince Albert, and planning projects. Among our first projects was a transect where we noted plant phe nology, measured seed densities on the soil surface, counted birds, observed ant activity, measured soil surface temperatures and col lected whatever climate data we could at 40 sites along a 200-km oval route. Along the way, we became interested in the marked presence and absence of birds at certain sites - abundant birds one day, and very few birds at the same site a month later. Subsequent counts along fixed transects through shrublands confirmed that a number of bird species were highly nomadic over short and long distances, locally and regionally, leading to speculation on how widespread these movements were in the arid ecosystems of the world."

In this book, we document and evaluate the recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The Great Lakes region is unique in that it was the only portion of the lower 48 states where wolves were never c- pletely extirpated. This region also contains the area where many of the first m- ern concepts of wolf conservation and research where developed. Early proponents of wolf conservation such as Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and Durward Allen lived and worked in the region. The longest ongoing research on wolf-prey relations (see Vucetich and Peterson, Chap. 3) and the first use of radio telemetry for studying wolves (see Mech, Chap. 2) occurred in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes region is the first place in the United States where "Endangered" wolf populations recovered. All three states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) developed ecologically and socially sound wolf conservation plans, and the federal government delisted the population of wolves in these states from the United States list of endangered and threatened species on March 12, 2007 (see Refsnider, Chap. 21). Wolf management reverted to the individual states at that time. Although this delisting has since been challenged, we believe that biological recovery of wolves has occurred and anticipate the delisting will be restored. This will be the first case of wolf conservation reverting from the federal government to the state conser- tion agencies in the United States.

A research focus on hazards, risk perception and risk minimizing strategies is relatively new in the social and environmental sciences. This volume by a prominent scholar of East African societies is a powerful example of this growing interest. Earlier theory and research tended to describe social and economic systems in some form of equilibrium. However recent thinking in human ecology, evolutionary biology, not to mention in economic and political theory has come to assign to "risk" a prominent role in predictive modeling of behavior. It turns out that risk minimalization is central to the understanding of individual strategies and numerous social institutions. It is not simply a peripheral and transient moment in a group's history. Anthropologists interested in forager societies have emphasized risk management strategies as a major force shaping hunting and gathering routines and structuring institutions of food sharing and territorial behavior. This book builds on some of these developments but through the analysis of quite complex pastoral and farming peoples and in populations with substantial known histories. The method of analysis depends heavily on the controlled comparisons of different populations sharing some cultural characteristics but differing in exposure to certain risks or hazards.

The central questions guiding this approach are: 1) How are hazards generated through environmental variation and degradation, through increasing internal stratification, violent conflicts and marginalization? 2) How do these hazards result in damages to single households or to individual actors and how do these costs vary within one society? 3) How are hazards perceived by the people affected? 4) How do actors of different wealth, social status, age and gender try to minimize risks by delimiting the effect of damages during an on-going crisis and what kind of institutionalized measures do they design to insure themselves against hazards, preventing their occurrence or limiting their effects? 5) How is risk minimization affected by cultural innovation and how can the importance of the quest for enhanced security as a driving force of cultural evolution be estimated?

Lemurs: Ecology and Adaptation brings together information from recent research, and provides new insight into the study of lemur origins, and the ecology and adaptation of both extant and recently extinct lemurs. In addition, it addresses issues of primate behavioral ecology and how environment can play a major role in explaining species variation. Moreover, in a larger context, the information contained in this volume expands our knowledge of primate ecology and allows us further insight into mammalian adaptations to unusual and often harsh environmental conditions that arise from both natural and anthropogenic factors.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section is a background to lemurs and their ecology and it includes chapters on origins of lemurs, history of ecological studies on lemurs in Madagascar, theories relating to the evolution of lemur traits, and ecology of the recently extinct (sub-fossil) lemurs. Section two is comprised of chapters focusing on the ecology and adaptations of many species of extant lemurs to the diverse habitats found on Madagascar, and in some cases, adaptations to extreme climatic variability and natural disasters.

The 2nd international tagging and tracking symposium was held in San Sebastian, Spain, in October 2007, seven years after the first symposium was held in Hawaii in 2000 (Sibert and Nielsen 2001). In the intervening seven years, there have been major advances in both the capability and reliability of electronic tags and analytical approaches for geolocation of tagged animals in marine habitats. Advances such as increased data storage capacity, sensor development, and tag miniaturization have allowed researchers to track a much wider array of marine animals, not just large and charismatic species. Importantly, data returned by these tags are now being used in population analyses and movement simulations that can be directly utilized in stock assessments and other management applications.

Papers in this volume are divided into three sections, the first describing insights into behavior achieved using acoustic, archival, and novel tags, the second reporting on advances in methods of geolocation, while the final section includes contributions where tag data have been used in management of marine species. Accurate documentation of animal movements and behaviors in critical marine habitats are impossible to obtain with other technologies. The management and conservation of marine species are critical in today's changing ocean environment and as electronic tags become more accurate and functional for a diversity of organisms their application continues to grow, setting new standards in science and technology.