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Books in Agricultural and biological sciences

The Agricultural and Biological Sciences collection advances science-based knowledge for the improvement of animal and plant life and for secure food systems that produce nutritious, novel, sustainable foods with minimal environmental impact. Food Science titles include not only those products from agriculture but all other aspects from food production to nutrition, health and safety, chemistry to security, policy, law and regulation. Biological Sciences address animal behaviour and biodiversity, organismal and evolutionary biology, entomology, marine biology and aquaculture, plant science and forestry.

    • The Gray Whale: Eschrichtius Robustus

      • 1st Edition
      • Mary Lou Jones + 2 more
      • English
      The Gray Whale: Eschrichtius robustus provides an introduction to the understanding of Eschrichtius robustus or the gray whale. This book explores the life processes, reproduction, and growth of large cetacean populations. Organized into four parts encompassing 25 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the gray whale evolution, fossils, and subfossil remains, range, and systematics in historical times. This text then presents the historical of gray whale exploitation and the economic importance of these whales to humans. Other chapters consider the gray whale migration, abundance, and seasonal distribution in the wake of the California population's recovery from depletion. This book discusses as well the methods used in shore-based censuses during migration and in aerial surveys of gray whales taken on their winter grounds. The final chapter deals with some innovative approaches to the study of free-ranging cetaceans. This book is a valuable resource for anthropologists, paleontologists, biologists, and naturalists.
    • Allelopathy

      • 2nd Edition
      • Elroy L. Rice
      • English
      A thorough revision and update of the first edition, this Second Edition is designed to create an awareness of the rapidly developing field of allelopathy. The author appraises existing knowledge in certain critical areas, such as roles of allelopathy in the prevention of seed decay and in the nitrogen cycle, the chemical nature of allelopathic compounds, factors affecting concentrations of allelochemics in plants, movement of allelochemics from plants and absorption and translocation by other plants, mechanisms of action of allelopathic agents, and factors determining effectiveness of allelopathic compounds after egression from producing organisms. Areas in which more basic and applied research is needed are emphasized. A discussion of terminology and early history of allelopathy is followed by a discussion of the important roles of allelopathy in forestry, agriculture, plant pathology, and natural ecosystems. A separate listing of the phyla of plants demonstrated to have allelopathic species is also included.Allelopathy... Second Edition, is a comprehensive review of the literature on allelopathy, integrating information on allelopathy with important information on ecological and agronomic problems, citing more than 1000 references. Among those who will find this to be a valuable source of information are ecologists, horticulturists, botanists, plant pathologists, phytochemists, agricultural scientists, and plant breeders.
    • Acoustic Communication in Birds

      Song Learning & Its Consequences
      • 1st Edition
      • Kroodsma
      • English
      Acoustic Communication in Birds, Volume 2: Song Learning and Its Consequences investigates acoustic communication in birds, with emphasis on song learning and its consequences. Some issues in the study of bird sounds are discussed, with particular reference to evolutionary considerations. The ontogeny of acoustic behavior in birds is also considered, along with sound production, neural control of song, and auditory perception. Comprised of nine chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the nature, extent, and evolution of vocal learning in birds. Several well-documented examples in which vocal development appears to proceed independently of audition (and therefore independently of vocal learning) are presented, together with aspects of selective vocal learning; the timing of vocal learning; and selective forces that may have promoted the evolution of vocal learning in birds. Subsequent chapters explore the role of subsong and plastic song in the vocal learning process; the function and evolution of avian vocal mimicry; the ecological and social significance of duetting in birds; and microgeographic and macrogeographic variation in the acquired vocalizations of birds. The book also examines genetic population structure and vocal dialects in Zonotrichia (Emberizidae). This monograph will be of interest to ornithologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists, as well as to students of communication and bioacoustics.