Biodiversity II

"The book before you...carries the urgent warning that we are rapidly altering and destroying the environments that have fostered the diversity of life forms for more than a billion years."With those words, Edward O. Wilson opened the landmark volume Biodiversity (National Academy Press, 1988). Despite this and other such alarms, species continue to vanish at a rapid rate, taking with them their genetic legacy and potential benefits. Many disappear before they can even be identified.Biodiversity II is a renewed call for urgency. This volume updates readers on how much we already know and how much remains to be identified scientifically. It explores new strategies for quantifying, understanding, and protecting biodiversity, including:New approaches to the integration of electronic data, including a proposal for a U.S. National Biodiversity Information Center.Application of techniques developed in the human genome project to species identification and classification.The Gap Analysis Program of the National Biological Survey, which uses layered satellite, climatic, and biological data to assess distribution and better manage biodiversity.The significant contribution of museum collections to identifying and categorizing species, which is essential for understanding ecological function and for targeting organisms and regions at risk.The book describes our growing understanding of how megacenters of diversity (e.g., rainforest insects, coral reefs) are formed, maintained, and lost; what can be learned from mounting bird extinctions; and how conservation efforts for neotropical primates have fared. It also explores ecosystem restoration, sustainable development, and agricultural impact.Biodiversity II reinforces the idea that the conservation of our biological resources is within reach as long as we pool resources; better coordinate the efforts of existing institutions—museums, universities, and government agencies—already dedicated to this goal; and enhance support for research, collections, and training. This volume will be important to environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, educators, students, and concerned individuals.Table of ContentsFront Matter1 IntroductionPart I The Meaning and Value of Biodiversity: 2 Biodiversity: What Is It?3 Biodiversity: Why Is It Important?Part II Patterns of the Biosphere: How Much Biodiversity Is There?: 4 Biodiversity at Its Utmost: Tropical Forest Beetles5 Measuring Global Biodiversity and Its Decline6 Butterfly Diversity and a Preliminary Comparison with Bird and Mammal Diversity7 The Global Biodiversity of Coral Reefs: A Comparison with Rain Forests8 Common Measures for Studies of Biodiversity: Molecular Phylogeny in the Eukaryotic Microbial WorldPart III Threats to Biodiversity: What Have We Lost and What Might We Lose?: 9 The Rich Diversity of Biodiversity Issues10 Human-Caused Extinction of Birds11 Global Warming and Plant Species Richness: A Case Study of the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary12 Plant Response to Multiple Environmental Stresses: Implications for Climatic Change and BiodiversityPart IV Understanding and Using Biodiversity: 13 Names: The Key to Biodiversity14 Systematics: A Keystone to Understanding Biodiversity15 Biodiversity and Systematics: Their Applications to Agriculture16 Snout Moths: Unraveling the Taxonomic Diversity of a Speciose Group in the Neotropics17 Phylogeny and Historical Reconstruction: Host-Parasite Systems as Keystones in Biogeography and Ecology18 Comparative Behavioral and Biochemical Studies of Bowerbirds and the Evolution of Bower-BuildingPart V Building Toward a Solution: New Directions and Applications: 19 Microbial Biodiversity and Biotechnology20 The Impact of Rapid Gene Discovery Technology on Studies of Evolution and Biodiversity21 Initial Assessment of Character Sets from Five Nuclear Gene Sequences in Animals22 Gap Analysis for Biodiversity Survey and Maintenance23 Conservation of Biodiversity in Neotropical Primates24 Using Marine Invertebrates to Establish Research and Conservation Priorities25 Ecological Restoration and the Conservation of Biodiversity26 Tropical Sustainable Development and Biodiversity27 Wildland Biodiversity Management in the TropicsPart VI Getting the Job Done: Institutional, Human, and Informational Infrastructure: 28 Taxonomic Preparedness: Are We Ready to Meet the Biodiversity Challenge?29 Museums, Research Collections and the Biodiversity Challenge30 Resources for Biodiversity in Living Collections and the Challenges of Assessing Microbial Biodiversity31 Integration of Data for Biodiversity Initiatives32 Information Management for Biodiversity: A Proposed U.S. National Biodiversity Information CenterPart VII Conclusions: 33 Santa Rosalia, the Turning of the Century, and a New Age of ExplorationPhoto CreditsIndex