A beautifully illustrated guide to 75 of the most unique and fascinating mushrooms in the world, including interesting insight into their history, uses, and etymologies. From sweet little toadstools to giant puffballs, mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes. With over 10,000 mushrooms in the world, some are cute and colorful, while others may look super adorable but are actually deadly. No matter the kind, it’s time to celebrate all types of mushrooms with The Little Book of Mushrooms. This book is a collection of everything you need to know about 75 of the world’s most unique mushrooms. With information on their etymology, geographic location, characteristics, and culinary or healing powers, this book is the perfect companion for amateur mushroom hunters, cottage-core fans, or anyone just looking for a beautifully illustrated book on some of the most incredible fungi around the world.

Calcium Transport Elements in Plants discusses the role of calcium in plant development and stress signaling, the mechanism of Ca2+ homeostasis across plant membranes, and the evolution of Ca2+/cation antiporter (CaCA) superfamily proteins. Additional sections cover genome-wide analysis of Annexins and their roles in plants, the roles of calmodulin in abiotic stress responses, calcium transport in relation to plant nutrition/biofortification, and much more. Written by leading experts in the field, this title is an essential resource for students and researchers that need all of the information on calcium transport elements in one place. Calcium transport elements are involved in various structural, physiological and biochemical processes or signal transduction pathways in response to various abiotic and biotic stimuli. Development of high throughput sequencing technology has favored the identification and characterization of numerous gene families in plants in recent years, including the calcium transport elements.

The theories of evolution are themselves evolving with new findings and changes in the fundamental underlying concepts. It is true that today's theory, which goes back to Darwin, is persistently successful. But there remain many unanswered questions. Increasingly strong calls are emerging to expand synthetic evolutionary theory comprehensively. Scientific findings of the last decades require continuous rethinking and integration of new data and concepts into the theory of evolution. This comprehensibly written and excellently researched book provides the exciting new insights on constantly transforming view of evolutionary theory using fascinating new examples from evolutionary biology. Key Features Comprehensively reviews the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis Understandably written for a broad audience Includes interviews with world-leading evolutionary biologists Outlines the historical outline of evolutionary theory with explanations of the open, unanswered questions Explains concepts with powerful illustrations

From the animal world to the forces that make things go, young minds have big questions about how the world works. The answers to these questions wait in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Unlock the world around you with STEM and Me.

The growth of human population has increased the demand for improved yield and quality of crops and horticultural plants. However, plant productivity continues to be threatened by stresses such as heat, cold, drought, heavy metals, UV radiations, bacterial and fungal pathogens, and insect pests. Long noncoding RNAs are associated with various developmental pathways, regulatory systems, abiotic and biotic stress responses and signaling, and can provide an alternative strategy for stress management in plants. Long Noncoding RNAs in Plants: Roles in development and stress provides the most recent advances in LncRNAs, including identification, characterization, and their potential applications and uses. Introductory chapters include the basic features and brief history of development of lncRNAs studies in plants. The book then provides the knowledge about the lncRNAs in various important agricultural and horticultural crops such as cereals, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and fiber crop cotton, and their roles and applications in abiotic and biotic stress management.

While there are a few plant cell biology books that are currently available, these are expensive, methods-oriented monographs. The present volume is a textbook for "upper" undergraduate and beginning graduate students." This textbook stresses concepts and is inquiry-oriented. To this end, there is extensive use of original research literature. As we live in an era of literature explosion, one must be selective. These judgements will naturally vary with each investigator. Input was sought from colleagues in deciding the literature to include. In addition to provision of select research literature, this volume presents citations and summaries of certain laboratory methods. In this connection, the textbook stresses quantitative data to enhance the student?s analytical abilities. Thus the volume contains computer-spread sheets and references to statistical packages, e.g. Harvard Graphics and Statistica.

Biology of Sharks and Their Relatives is an award-winning and groundbreaking exploration of the fundamental elements of the taxonomy, systematics, physiology, and ecology of sharks, skates, rays, and chimera. This edition presents current research as well as traditional models, to provide future researchers with solid historical foundations in shark research as well as presenting current trends from which to develop new frontiers in their own work. Traditional areas of study such as age and growth, reproduction, taxonomy and systematics, sensory biology, and ecology are updated with contemporary research that incorporates emerging techniques including molecular genetics, exploratory techniques in artificial insemination, and the rapidly expanding fields of satellite tracking, remote sensing, accelerometry, and imaging. With two new editors and 90 contributors from the US, UK, South Africa, Portugal, France, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, Palau, United Arab Emirates, Micronesia, Sweden, Argentina, Indonesia, Cameroon, and the Netherlands, this third edition is the most global and comprehensive yet. It adds six new chapters representing extensive studies of health, stress, disease and pathology, and social structure, and continues to explore elasmobranch ecological roles and interactions with their habitats. The book concludes with a comprehensive review of conservation policies, management, and strategies, as well as consideration of the potential effects of impending climate change. Presenting cohesive and integrated coverage of key topics and discussing technological advances used in modern shark research, this revised edition offers a well-rounded picture for students and researchers.

Genetically Modified Plants, Second Edition, provides an updated roadmap and science-based methodology for assessing the safety of genetic modification technologies, as well as risk assessment approaches from regulators across different agroecosystems. This new edition also includes expanded coverage of technologies used in plant improvement, such as RNA-dependent DNA methylation, reverse breeding, agroinfiltration, and gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR and TALENS. This book is an essential resource for anyone interested in crop improvement, including students and researchers, practitioners in regulatory agencies, and policymakers involved in plant biotechnology risk assessment.

This study presents an systematic approach to water quality assessment, hybrid modelling and decision support for eutrophication management in deep reservoirs. It is found that during the summer monsoon the catchment runoff into the Yongdam reservoir induces a trandsfer of pollutants from a middle stratified layer to the surface layer. Although the transport mechanism limits nutrient accumulation on the bottom of the reservoir, it also offers an opportunity for on-going algae production in the surface water. Physically based modelling is used to understand the process of micro-scale turbulent mixing and its impact on the nutrient uptake by algae. Further, a data-driven model using clustering and partial least squares regression which uses results from a physically based model of the reservoir successfully predicts Chlorophyll-a concentrations.

'Biopiracy' refers either to the unauthorized extraction of biological resources, such as plants with medicinal properties, and associated traditional knowledge from indigenous peoples and local communities, or to the patenting of spurious 'inventions' based on such knowledge or resources without compensation. Biopiracy cases continue to emerge in the media and public eye, yet they remain the source of considerable disagreement, confusion, controversy and grief. The aim of this book is to provide the most detailed, coherent analysis of the issue of biopiracy to date.

The book synthesizes the rise of the issue and increasing use of the term by activists and negotiators in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to form a critical understanding of the themes, implications and politics of biopiracy. Taking a case-study based approach, derived from interviews and fieldwork with researchers, government, industry, local farmers, healers and indigenous people, the author sequentially documents events that have occurred in biopiracy and bioprospecting controversies. Implications and ethical dilemmas are explored, particularly relating to work with local communities, and the power relations entailed. Detailing international debates from the WTO, CBD and other fora in an accessible manner, the book provides a unique overview of current institutional limitations and suggests ways forward. Options and solutions are suggested which are relevant for local communities, national governments, international negotiators, NGO and interest groups, researchers and industry.

This volume reviews the historical roots and theoretical foundations of biological systematics in an approachable text. The author outlines the structure and main tasks of systematics. Conceptual history is characterized as a succession of scientific revolutions. The philosophical foundations of systematic research are briefly reviewed as well as the structure and content of taxonomic theories. Most important research programs in systematics are outlined. The book includes analysis of the principal problematic issues as "scientific puzzles" in systematics. This volume is intended for professional taxonomists, biologists of various specialties, students, as well as all those interested in the history and theory of biology and natural sciences. Key Features Considers the conceptual history of systematics as the framework of evolutionary epistemology Builds a hierarchically organized quasi-axiomatic system of taxonomic theory Contends that more reductionist taxonomic concepts are less objective Supports taxonomic pluralism by non-classic philosophy of science as a normal condition of systematics Documents that "taxonomic puzzles" result from conflict between monistic and pluralistic attitudes Related Titles de Queiroz, K. et al., eds. Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode (ISBN 978-1-1383-3293-5) Sigwart, J. D. What Species Mean: A User's Guide to the Units of Biodiversity (ISBN 978-1-4987-9937-9) Rieppel, O. Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (ISBN 978-1-4987-5488-0) Wilkins, J. S. Species: The Evolution of the Idea, 2nd ed. (ISBN 978-1-1380-5574-2)

Based on research in Bolinao, this book assesses the importance of small-scale disturbance by burrowing shrimps. It covers the distribution of burrowing shrimp disturbance, the behavior of the snapping shrimp Alpheus macellarius in situ and as observed from tank experiments, and the effects of short-term burial and leaf clipping on the growth patterns of the dominant seagrass Thalassia hemprichii. The book examines the role of bioturbation by burrowing shrimps in seagrass meadows, foraging strategies of A. macellarius and its mutualistic symbiosis with Cryptocentrus spp., shrimp disturbance and T. hemprichii, and small-scale disturbance and large-scale dynamics.

The instant New York Times bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year "Expert storytelling . . . [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways." -New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants-and the equally powerful taboos. Of all the things humans rely on plants for-sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber-surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a "drug"? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs-opium, caffeine, and mescaline-and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings? In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively-as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.

Presents a major case study of how agriculture and biodiversity conservation can work in harmony towards more sustainable outcomes for both the environment and local communities. Shows how Cuba has provided a unique testbed for such approaches through its specific political status and focus on traditional agricultural methods. Provides the essential background for understanding future options for agriculture and conservation in Cuba, as it emerges from economic and political isolation.

This technical and well-illustrated guide for archaeologists and conservators aims to 'provide a methodology for the identification of the woody taxa used to manufacture artefacts recovered from archaeological excavations', to provide the anatomical descriptions of the taxa and to present a list of characters of the taxa. The guide is heavily illustrated with photographs, maps, and tables to allow easy identification.

Originally published in 1995, Creation and Evolution in the Early American Scientific Affiliation is the tenth volume in the series, Creationism in Twentieth Century America, reissued in 2021. The volume comprises of original primary sources from the American Science Affiliation, a group formed following an invitation from the president of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, in answer to the perceived need for an academic society for American Evangelical Scientists to explicate the relationship between science and faith. The society confronted the debate between creation and evolution head on, leaving a paper trail documenting their thoughts and struggles. This diverse and expansive collection includes 53 selections that appeared during the organisation’s first two decades and focuses on the encounter between science and American evangelicalism in the twentieth century, in particular the debates surrounding the ever-increasing preference for evolutionary theory. The collection will be of especial interest to natural historians, and theologians as well as academics of philosophy, and history.

This book is a fundamental guide to understanding plant structure offering plant scientists, plant biologists and horticulturalists in practice, academic life and in training. It includes a combination of concise scientific text and superb color photographs and drawings, focusing on structure at anatomical, histological and fine structure levels.

Microalgae are a valuable resource of carbon materials that may be used in biofuels, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and health supplements. Still, there are tremendous challenges in the microalgae production process, such as mass cultivation, strain improvement, biomass disruption, and reprocessing of nutrients and water that have been the encumbering microalgal industry in several ways. Microalgal biotechnology has the capability to introduce remarkable breakthroughs and innovations. This volume brings together current advancements in the field of microalgal biotechnology to provide understanding of the fundamentals and progress of the industry-oriented technologies. The volume covers biofuel production and its technical challenges; current trends of microalgae in agriculture, aquaculture and food biotechnology; market space; biosafety and other regulatory issues; and sustainability of microalgal products. The volume first provides insight into desmids and other conjugating algae along with prospective trends of diatoms. It then goes on to explore the commercial applications of microalgae that take advantage of their bioactive compounds, natural colorants, and functional metabolites. The role of microalgae in agriculture, aquaculture, and the food sector are discussed, and tools from genome manipulation to bioprocess engineering are studied. Several chapters focus on future prospects of biofuel and biodiesel production for environmental and economic viability. The key features of the book: Presents the role of microalgae in various industries including food, agriculture, aquaculture, biofuel, and metabolites Shows the historical and prospective use of microalgae elements for economic and ecological benefits Explains the integrated technologies for massive production of microalgae-derived products Includes the various industrial case studies to improve the sustainable production of microalgae products Discusses current developments and confronts in microalgae bioprocessing Microalgal Biotechnology: Bioprospecting Microalgae for Functional Metabolites towards Commercial and Sustainable Applications will be a useful reference for academicians, researchers, industry professionals, postgraduate students, and policymakers who are interested in future prospects of microalgae commercialization.

In contrast to existing books which either focus exclusively on the pharmacological properties of plant natural products or cover the secondary metabolism of plants as one section in general plant science book, this is the first to cover all aspects in one volume.
It has all the features of a modern textbook, including color figures, questions and answers and a complimentary website. In addition, the introductory chapters provide sufficient background knowledge in the chemistry and biochemistry of plant natural products and their biotechnological applications to allow its use as a true stand-alone text for student courses.

Key Features: Provides botanical descriptions, distribution and pharmacological investigations of notable medicinal and herbal plants used to prevent or treat diabetes. Discusses phytochemical and polyherbal formulations for the management of diabetes and other related complications. Contains reports on antidiabetic plants and their potential uses in drug discovery based on their bioactive molecules.

An up-to-date, comprehensive and brilliantly illustrated book on fungi foraging in Britain and Europe. It covers every known edible species, and all the poisonous groups, as well as a few very common species and a handful of mushrooms included for their interesting or unusual characteristics. Identify edible and poisonous mushrooms. Distinguish between 'lookalike' species. Know when is the best time and place to hunt for each species. Identify edible species which should be left alone because they are threatened Photos show each species in its natural habitat, to aid identification. Perfect for all ability levels - from absolute beginner to the experienced fungi forager who'd like to become an expert. Each edible species is ranked according to its difficulty/danger level, so beginners can start with the easiest ones, while experienced foragers can learn how to safely forage for the trickier species that other mushroom foraging guides leave out.

This book provides new information relating recent advances made in the field of plant secondary products. Besides the updation of chapters this edition also includes chapters on secondary metabolites of microorganisms (fungi and lichen).

The book provides valuable information on wild plants and their ethnopharmacological properties, discussion on ethnobotany, phytotherapy, diversity, chemical and pharmacological properties including antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antiprotozal properties. The chapters include a wide range of case studies, giving updated evidence on importance of wild plant resources from different countries including Nepal, India, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Egypt, Peru, etc. In addition, some specific species are used to explain their potential properties. Discussing traditional usage and pharmacological properties of wild plants, this book is entirely different from other related publications and useful for the researchers working in the areas of conservation biology, botany, ethnobiology, ethnopharmacology, policy making, etc.

The principal goal of allelopathy is to foster sustainable agriculture, forestry, and environment. The objective is to minimize the industrial chemicals and to maximize the use of natural resources locally available while improving crop productivity, forestry and the environment. The technological advances made in allelopathy research in recent years have been created, analyzed, and developed by scientific establishments throughout the world. They present exciting and intellectually challenging problems which are solvable using modern techniques. These modern and advanced techniques as described in the chapters presented in this volume are representative of the exciting research and development approaches today.

There are many books on biological control, but this will bring up to date the regulatory and other specific challenges facing biological control, and how they are being met. It is the first book to bring together a comprehensive account of global activities in biological control, region-by-region, amalgamating information from introduction biological control, conservation biological control and augmentative biological control (including commercial use). Offers a historical summary of organisms and main strategies used in biological control. Outlines key challenges confronting biological control in the 21st century and describes the main socioeconomic challenges that need to be addressed. Global overview: summarises biological control efforts around the globe and highlights important successes and failures, providing suggestions to best move biological control forward in a changing world. Biological control is a fairly specialized field but one that is spread across a broad array of socio-environments in agriculture and public health around the world. There is also a significant regulatory component to a subset of this field (classical biological control) that researchers must navigate to achieve the aims of their research and its application. This book will help!