San Antonio College Library

"The living world runs on genomic software-- what Dawn Field and Neil Davies call the 'biocode'- -the sum of all DNA on Earth. In Biocode, they tell the story of a new age of scientific discovery: the growing global effort to read and map the biocode, and what that might mean for the future"--Publisher's web site.

"As part of its commitment to global biodiversity conservation, CEMEX - one of the largest cement producers in the world - publishes Hotspots Revisited: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions, the twelfth title in a collection devoted to these purposes, and the fifth in a series produced in collaboration with Conservation International and Agrupacion Sierra Madre. This book presents the results of a reanalysis of the...

In this work, the author, a field biologist explains the rules by which ecosystems thrive, shining light on a set of ecological balancing acts that he calls "green equilibria," rules which keep our world vibrant, verdant, and ecologically intact. To explain the idea of "green equilibrium," he draws on a range of examples, including coral reefs off the densely populated Philippines, the isolated and thickly forested valleys of Papua New Guinea, the...

"How does life on our planet respond to, and shape, climate? This question has never been more urgent than it is today, when humans are faced with the daunting task of guiding adaptation to an inexorably changing climate. This book provides an introduction to the most reliable current knowledge about the complex relationship between living things and climate. Using an Earth System framework, the author describes how organisms, communities of organisms,...

"Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. Bird-eating snakes hitchhike to Hawaii in the landing gear of airliners; pernicious European zebra mussels, riding in ships' ballast water, disrupt aquatic ecosystems across the United States; feral camels plague Australia, as do poisonous foreign toads; giant Indonesian pythons lurk...

"This book provides an authoritative and comprehensive assessment of the threats presented to human security and well-being by the loss of ecosystems and biodiversity - recently confirmed as one of the critical 'planetary boundaries' that has already been exceeded. Contributors examine the current trends and state of biodiversity globally, the drivers of biodiversity loss including climate change and economic and population pressures, and the mechanisms...

Scientists and managers have largely abandoned classic models that assume natural systems are in equilibrium and recognize the importance of understanding interactions between, and among, biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems, and how these interactions lead to complexities that should be factored into natural resource management decisions. Even though the existence of ecological thresholds is becoming increasingly apparent, this has not been followed...