Species: The units of biodiversity / Edition 1

by M.F. Claridge, A.H. Dawah, M.R. Wilson

Overview

A major thrust of scientific concern in recent years has been the problems of documenting and conserving biodiversity and the establishment of systems of sustainable development. We do not even know approximately how many species in different groups of living organisms share the planet with us! The major aim of this volume is to review the practical application of species concepts and appropriate technologies for as wide a diversity as possible of living organisms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780412631207
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	03/31/1997
Series:	The Systematics Association Special Volume Series , #54
Edition description:	1997
Pages:	442
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.05(d)

Table of Contents

Practical approaches to species concepts for living organisms. Viral species. Towards a practical species concept for cultivable bacteria. Species in practice: exploring uncultured prokaryote diversity in natural samples. Species problems in eukaryotic algae: a modern perspective. The species concept in lichens. Fungal species in practice: identifying species units in fungi. Practical aspects of the species concept in plants. Cultivated plant diversity and taxonomy. Species of marine invertebrates: a comparison of the biological and phylogenetic species concepts. Nematode species: concepts and identification strategies exemplified by the Longidoridae, Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae. Species in insect herbivores and parasitoids - sibling species, host races and biotypes. The species concept in blood-sucking vectors of human diseases. Recognition of parthenogenetic insect species. The species in terrestrial non-insect invertebrates (earthworms, arachnids, myriapods, woodlice and snails). Species concepts in systematics and conservation biology - an ornithological viewpoint. The species in mammals. The ideal species concept - and why we can't get it. A hierarchy of species concepts: the denouement in the saga of the species problem. Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘...Evidently, no modern biologist can afford to miss this book!'
Crustaceana, 71:3 (1998)

From the Publisher

Contributors give accounts of their ideas on the species concept for groups of organisms from viruses through mammals, in revised papers from an April 1995 conference held in Cardiff, Wales. Topics include species problems in eukaryotic algae, a comparison of biological and phylogenetic species concepts in marine invertebrates, an ornithological view of species concepts in systematics and conservation biology, and the ideal species concept and why we can't get it. Of interest to biologists, especially those working in taxonomy, systematics and biodiversity, and ecology and conservation. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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