Biology  

Pollination and Floral Ecologyis the most comprehensive single-volume reference to all aspects of pollination biology--and the first fully up-to-date resource of its kind to appear in decades. This beautifully illustrated book describes how flowers use colors, shapes, and scents to advertise themselves; how they offer pollen and nectar as rewards; and how they share complex interactions with beetles, birds, bats, bees, and other creatures. The ecology of these interactions is covered in depth, including the timing and patterning of flowering, competition among flowering plants to attract certain visitors and deter others, and the many ways plants and animals can cheat each other.

Temperature adaptation is a much neglected field in the minds of climate change researchers and policy makers. However, increasing fluctuations in temperature mean that the risk of cold and heat stress will pose an increasing threat to both wild and cultivated plants and animals, with frost injury expected to cause devastating damage to crops on an increasingly large scale. Thus, improving shared knowledge of the biological mechanisms of temperature adaptation in plants and animals will help prevent major losses of crops and genetic resources in the future. This book is the first to focus on the mechanistic similarities between species in their responses to temperature in a multi-organism approach that addresses the challenges and impacts of climate change on temperature adaptation in micro-organisms (including pathogens), invertebrates, economically and scientifically important plants and vertebrates in both terrestrial and marine environments. The book concludes with a focus on the interactions between organisms, exploring common mechanisms in temperature adaptation.

David Attenborough guides the viewer through a miniature universe teeming with life, never normally seen, yet all around us. New technology reveals surreal vistas and their extraordinary inhabitants -- swarming antler moths, desert locusts and a mountain of cockroaches -- up close and personal. The bizarre and the beautiful are represented and their habits, lifestyles and characteristics explained in David Attenborough's inimitable style. Though small, these creatures are as ferocious as any seen before.