Nitrogen fixation is a key component of the nitrogen cycle, one of the most fundamental cycles in the biosphere. Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into organic nitrogen compounds can be carried out only by certain bacteria and blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). Some nitrogen fixing bacteria live symbiotically with leguminous plants such as peas, beans, clover, and certain tropical trees in nodules on the plants' roots, while others live independently in the soil and aquatic habitats. By the activity of these microorganisms, the soil is enriched with the nitrogen required for plant growth and function. Thus the topic is of considerable practical as well as fundamental importance. In Biological Nitrogen Fixation, the leading researchers in nitrogen fixation from all over the world contribute up-to-the-minute general reviews on all aspects of the subject, from the molecular biology and genetics to the biochemistry, physiology, and ecology of nitrogen fixation. This compendium of current research is an indispensable reference for all involved in nitrogen fixation research, and of use to all who deal indirectly with the subject. It will also serve as a thoroughly up-to-date textbook for graduate students in microbiology, plant science, biochemistry, molecular biology, plant pathology, agronomy, and genetics.

Many of the encounters between farming and wildlife, especially vertebrates, involve some level of conflict which can cause disadvantage to both the wildlife and the people involved. Through a series of WildCRU case-studies, this volume investigates the sources of the problems, and ultimately of the threats to conservation, discussing a variety of remedies and mitigations, and demonstrating the benefits of evidence-based, inter-disciplinary policy.

"The Freshwater Mussels of Tennessee . . . is indispensable to anyone, anywhere, working on this group. Parmalee and Bogan have written a work that sets the standard for future regional guides."--G. Thomas Watters, Ohio Biological Survey
"The Freshwater Mussels of Tennessee documents a tremendously diverse and unique mussel fauna that is rapidly being destroyed by modern development. Parmalee and Bogan set a new standard for state mussel surveys in their authoritative, thorough, and and highly readable account. The book will be of interest to biologists and conservationists worldwide and will appeal to anyone who cares about the preservation of natural resources in the southeastern United States."--Robert E. Warren, Illinois State Museum
With more than 150 species and subspecies recorded in the state, Tennessee has one of the most diverse freshwater mussel faunas in North America. Valuable as indicators of water quality, these mollusks have themselves become threatened as development encroaches on habitat--twenty-three are currently listed as endangered species and at least twelve have become extinct.
This is the first book for Tennessee to deal with this biologically and commercially significant group of mollusks. Its authors have been studying and writing about the mussels of Tennessee for more than twenty years and have undertaken a systematic organization of a large and complex body of information to bring order to a difficult field.
The book traces the long history of human exploitation of mussels, from aboriginal food gathering to the growth of the cultured pearl industry. It provides an interpretive context for its exhaustive species accounts with background material on biology, distribution, economic utilization, taxonomy, and conservation issues. The authors also review the life cycle of the mussel and describe its many remarkable traits, such as its shell formation and the strategies it employs during the larval stage in parasitizing fish.
The species accounts comprise 128 members of Family Unionidae--from pigtoes and pocketbooks to lilliputs and spikes--plus four additional species. The authors cover classification and synonymy, range and distribution, life history and ecology, and survival status. Particular attention is paid to shell description and structure to assist the reader in identification. Each species account includes a distribution map and color photos of two specimens.
The Freshwater Mussels of Tennessee is a major reference that encompasses historical and modern mussel collections and draws on conservation studies that span two centuries. It will stand as an authoritative guide to understanding Tennessee mollusks and as a benchmark in the study of these species worldwide.
The Authors: Paul W. Parmalee is professor emeritus of zooarchaeology and director emeritus of the McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Arthur E. Bogan is curator of aquatic invertebrates at the North
Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.

This book provides reflection on the increasingly blurry boundaries that characterize the human-animal relationship. In the Anthropocene humans and animals have come closer together and this asks for rethinking old divisions. Firstly, new scientific insights and technological advances lead to a blurring of the boundaries between animals and humans. Secondly, our increasing influence on nature leads to a rethinking of the old distinction between individual animal ethics and collectivist environmental ethics. Thirdly, ongoing urbanization and destruction of animal habitats leads to a blurring between the categories of wild and domesticated animals. Finally, globalization and global climate change have led to the fragmentation of natural habitats, blurring the old distinction between in situ and ex situ conservation. In this book, researchers at the cutting edge of their fields systematically examine the broad field of human-animal relations, dealing with wild, liminal, and domestic animals, with conservation, and zoos, and with technologies such as biomimicry. This book is timely in that it explores the new directions in which our thinking about the human-animal relationship are developing. While the target audience primarily consists of animal studies scholars, coming from a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethology, literature, and film studies, many of the topics that are discussed have relevance beyond a purely theoretical one; as such the book also aims to inspire for example biologists, conservationists, and zoo keepers to reflect on their relationship with animals.

This fully updated edition explores conceptual as well as technical guidelines for plant taxonomists and geneticists, such as the increasing use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies for numerous applications in plant taxonomy. The volume provides molecular approaches to be used within an "integrative taxonomy" framework, combining a range of nucleic acid and cytogenetic data together with other crucial information (taxonomy, morphology, anatomy, ecology, reproductive biology, biogeography, paleobotany, etc.), which will help not only to best circumvent species delimitation but also to resolve the evolutionary processes in play. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and up-to-date, Molecular Plant Taxonomy: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition is an ideal guide for researchers seeking a better understanding of evolutionary processes, at species and population level, through molecular techniques.

What was the state of wildlife in Britain and Ireland before modern records began? The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife looks at the era before climate change, before the intensification of agriculture, before even the Industrial Revolution. In the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, beavers still swim in the River Ness. Isolated populations of wolves and lynxes linger in the uplands. Sea eagles are widespread around the coasts. Wildcats and pine martens remain common in the Lake District. In this ground-breaking volume, the observations of early modern amateur naturalists, travellers and local historians are gathered together for the very first time. Drawing on more than 10,000 records from across Britain and Ireland, the book presents maps and notes on the former distribution of over 160 species, providing a new baseline against which to discuss subsequent declines and extinctions, expansions and introductions. A guide to identification describes the reliable and unreliable names of each species, including the pre-Linnaean scientific nomenclature, as well as local names in early modern English and, where used in the sources, Irish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Norn. Raising a good number of questions at the same time as it answers many others, this remarkable resource will be of great value to conservationists, archaeologists, historians and anyone with an interest in the natural heritage of Britain and Ireland.

This book comprehensively reviews the anatomy, physiology, genetics and pathology of laboratory animals as well as the principles and practices of using laboratory animals for biomedical research.It covers the design of buildings used for laboratory animals, quality control of laboratory animals, and toxicology, and discusses various animal models used for human diseases. It also highlights aspects, such as handling and restraint and administration of drugs, as well as breeding and feeding of laboratory animals, and provides guidelines for developing meaningful experiments using laboratory animals.Further, the book discusses various alternatives to animal experiments for drug and chemical testing, including their advantages over the current approaches. Lastly, it examines the potential effect of harmful pathogens on the physiology of laboratory animals and discusses the state of art in in vivo imaging techniques.The book is a useful resource for research scientists, laboratory animal veterinarians, and students of laboratory animal medicine.

Animal cell technology is becoming an increasingly important part of biotechnology and many products are now used in human health care and for veterinary applications. However, there are many times more products actually in the developmental pipelines of the biotechnology industry, including various phases of clinical trials. The Proceedings of the 15th Meeting of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (Tours, France, September 1997) presents the actual current state as well as New Developments and Applications in Animal Cell Technology for the benefit of society. These Proceedings represent both the current state and applications of animal cell technology and the way the technology is expanding into new areas to give a unique insight into new products and applications for human and animal health care.

The Evolutionary Ecology of Invasive Species offers new insights into the mechanisms that underlie rapid evolution in these species. The book provides a comprehensive overview of achievements in the field during the boom of information over the past two decades and includes discussions of possible future directions for the study of evolution in invasive species. Written by an international expert in invasion ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology, the book explores the roles of preadaptation, phenotypic plasticity, selection, and stochastic processes in driving rapid evolution. The book draws insights from a wide spectrum of invasive microbes, plants, and animals, covering many of the planet's biogeographic regions and discusses the evolutionary consequences for native species in response to biological invasions. A valuable resource to researchers and students in evolutionary biology, invasive species biology, and global change biology, this text suggests future research directions related to the evolutionary biology, impacts, and management of invasive species.

'Any writer who can evoke the existential sadness of a lonely cockroach, or make krill thrilling, or describe a snorkelling colleague being engulfed in a "gargantuan cetacean bum detonation" is a real gift to science communication ... thought-provoking' Guardian Everything you ever wanted to know about how animals live together, and what that means for us Some animal societies hold a mirror up to the human world: elephants hold funerals for departed family members. Pinyon jays run collective creches. Rats will go out of their way to help a cold, wet stranger. Other lifestyles can seem intensely alien. Take locusts, surging over the land in their millions, unable to slow down for a moment because the hungry ranks behind will literally bite their legs off if they don't stay one step ahead (actually, you might know a few people like that). But no matter how offputting an animal might be, behavioural scientist Ashley Ward can usually find something worth celebrating. Travelling the world from the Serengeti to the frozen Antarctic ocean, with stops in the muddy fields and streams of his native northern Yorkshire, he brings his curious eye and infectious humour right down to their level. The result is a world-expanding, myth-busting tour of some of nature's greatest marvels, in delightfully broad-minded company.

Human culture values some nonhumans but not others, while human culture as a whole is engaged with an incredibly diverse range of living beings. Animal studies is a growing interdisciplinary field that incorporates scholarship from public policy, sociology, religion, politics, philosophy, and many other fields. In essence, it seeks to understand how humans study and conceive of other-than-human animals, and how these conceptions have changed over time, across cultures, and among various scholarly modes of inquiry. This interdisciplinary introduction to the field boldly and creatively foregrounds the realities of nonhuman animals, as well as the imaginative and ethical faculties that humans must engage to consider our intersection with living beings outside of our species. The field requires both learning and unlearning to develop forms of critical thinking that are scientifically informed and ethically sensitive. This book is a frank assessment of the ways human-centered approaches undermine the core values of the scientific tradition, robust education, and human compassion. Further, it argues that the breadth and depth of thinking and the humility needed to grasp the human-nonhuman intersection has the potential to expand the dualism that currently divides the sciences and humanities. As the first holistic survey of the field, Animal Studies is essential reading for any student of human-animal relationships, and for all people who care about the role nonhuman animals play in our society.

This book provides a conceptually organized framework to understand the phenomenon of biological invasions at the Anthropocene global scale. Most advances toward that aim have been provided from North American and European researchers, with fewer contributions from Australia and South Africa. Here we fill the void from the Neotropics, focusing on the research experience in South American countries, with a strong emphasis on Argentina and Chile. The text is divided into two parts: The first half comprises self-contained chapters, providing a conceptual, bibliographic and empirical foundation in the field of invasion biology, from an Anthropocene perspective. The second half reviews the ecology, biogeography, and local impacts in South America of exotic species groups (European rabbit, Eurasian wild boar, Canadian beaver, North American mink, and Holarctic freshwater fishes), which are shown to be useful models for case studies of global relevance.

In this book, the major paradigm-shifting discoveries made in the past century on key cellular nanomachines are described in great detail: their complex yet precise and elegant design and function, as well as the diseases linked to their dysfunction and the therapeutic approaches to overcome them. The major focus of this book is the "porosome" nanomachine, the universal secretory portal in cells. This is an ideal book for students, researchers, and professionals in the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

This volume explains the key ideas, questions and methods involved in studying the hidden world of vibrational communication in animals. The authors dispel the notion that this form of communication is difficult to study and show how vibrational signaling is a key to social interactions in species that live in contact with a substrate, whether it be a grassy lawn, a rippling stream or a tropical forest canopy. This ancient and widespread form of social exchange is also remarkably understudied. A frontier in animal behavior, it offers unparalleled opportunities for discovery and for addressing general questions in communication and social evolution. In addition to reviews of advances made in the study of several animal taxa, this volume also explores topicssuch as vibrational communication networks, the interaction of acoustic and vibrational communication, the history of the field, the evolution of signal production and reception and establishing a common vocabulary."

The 'Adaptive Landscape' has been a central concept in population genetics and evolutionary biology since this powerful metaphor was first formulated by Sewall Wright in 1932. Eighty years later, it has become a central framework in evolutionary quantitative genetics, selection studies in natural populations, and in studies of ecological speciation and adaptive radiations. Recently, the simple concept of adaptive landscapes in two dimensions (genes or traits) has been criticized and several new and more sophisticated versions of the original adaptive landscape evolutionary model have been developed in response. No published volume has yet critically discussed the past, present state, and future prospect of the adaptive landscape in evolutionary biology. This volume brings together prominent historians of science, philosophers, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists, with the aim of discussing the state of the art of the Adaptive Landscape from several different perspectives.

African trypanosomes are tsetse-transmitted protozoa that inhabit the extracellular compartment of host blood. They cause fatal sleeping sickness in people, and Nagana, a wasting and generally fatal disease, in cattle. While trypanosomes are most common to Africa (about 30% of Africa's cattle graze on the fringe of the tsetse habitat), some species have spread beyond its boarders to Asia, the Middle East and South America. The African Trypanosomes, volume one of World Class Parasites, is written for researchers, students and scholars who enjoy reading research that has a major impact on human health, or agricultural productivity, and against which we have no satisfactory defense. It is intended to supplement more formal texts that cover taxonomy, life cycles, morphology, vector distribution, symptoms and treatment. It integrates vector, pathogen and host biology and celebrates the diversity of approach that comprises modern parasitological research.

Proteomics is a well-established area of Science; yet with a strong area in constant evolution, namely sample treatment. There few books that currently cover the field of emerging sample treatments in proteomics, this new volume will be the first to cover all emerging and existing studies. This unique book presents the latest advances in the field focusing on emerging trends linked to high-resolution mass spectrometry, technology addressed to treat samples faster and to attempts to simplify the proteome for the reader.

Animal Evolution provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary interrelationships and myriad diversity of the Animal Kingdom. It reviews the classical, morphological information from structure and embryology, as well as the new data gained from studies using immune stainings of nerves and muscles and blastomere markings which makes it possible to follow the fate of single blastomeres all the way to early organogenesis. Until recently, the information from analyses of gene sequences has tended to produce myriads of quite diverging trees. However, the latest generation of molecular methods, using many genes, expressed sequence tags, and even whole genomes, has brought a new stability to the field. For the first time this book brings together the information from these varied fields, and demonstrates that it is indeed now possible to build a phylogenetic tree from a combination of both morphology and gene sequences. This thoroughly revised third edition of Animal Evolution brings the subject fully up to date, especially in light of the latest advances in molecular techniques. The book is generously illustrated throughout with finely detailed line drawings and clear diagrams, many of them new.