Table of Contents

1 Front Matter; 2 1 Introduction; 3 Part I The Meaning and Value of Biodiversity: 2 Biodiversity: What Is It?; 4 3 Biodiversity: Why Is It Important?; 5 Part II Patterns of the Biosphere: How Much Biodiversity Is There?: 4 Biodiversity at Its Utmost: Tropical Forest Beetles; 6 5 Measuring Global Biodiversity and Its Decline; 7 6 Butterfly Diversity and a Preliminary Comparison with Bird and Mammal Diversity; 8 7 The Global Biodiversity of Coral Reefs: A Comparison with Rain Forests; 9 8 Common Measures for Studies of Biodiversity: Molecular Phylogeny in the Eukaryotic Microbial World; 10 Part III Threats to Biodiversity: What Have We Lost and What Might We Lose?: 9 The Rich Diversity of Biodiversity Issues; 11 10 Human-Caused Extinction of Birds; 12 11 Global Warming and Plant Species Richness: A Case Study of the Paleocene/Eocene Boundary; 13 12 Plant Response to Multiple Environmental Stresses: Implications for Climatic Change and Biodiversity; 14 Part IV Understanding and Using Biodiversity: 13 Names: The Key to Biodiversity; 15 14 Systematics: A Keystone to Understanding Biodiversity; 16 15 Biodiversity and Systematics: Their Applications to Agriculture; 17 16 Snout Moths: Unraveling the Taxonomic Diversity of a Speciose Group in the Neotropics; 18 17 Phylogeny and Historical Reconstruction: Host-Parasite Systems as Keystones in Biogeography and Ecology; 19 18 Comparative Behavioral and Biochemical Studies of Bowerbirds and the Evolution of Bower-Building; 20 Part V Building Toward a Solution: New Directions and Applications: 19 Microbial Biodiversity and Biotechnology; 21 20 The Impact of Rapid Gene Discovery Technology on Studies of Evolution and Biodiversity; 22 21 Initial Assessment of Character Sets from Five Nuclear Gene Sequences in Animals; 23 22 Gap Analysis for Biodiversity Survey and Maintenance; 24 23 Conservation of Biodiversity in Neotropical Primates; 25 24 Using Marine Invertebrates to Establish Research and Conservation Priorities; 26 25 Ecological Restoration and the Conservation of Biodiversity; 27 26 Tropical Sustainable Development and Biodiversity; 28 27 Wildland Biodiversity Management in the Tropics; 29 Part VI Getting the Job Done: Institutional, Human, and Informational Infrastructure: 28 Taxonomic Preparedness: Are We Ready to Meet the Biodiversity Challenge?; 30 29 Museums, Research Collections and the Biodiversity Challenge; 31 30 Resources for Biodiversity in Living Collections and the Challenges of Assessing Microbial Biodiversity; 32 31 Integration of Data for Biodiversity Initiatives; 33 32 Information Management for Biodiversity: A Proposed U.S. National Biodiversity Information Center; 34 Part VII Conclusions: 33 Santa Rosalia, the Turning of the Century, and a New Age of Exploration; 35 Photo Credits; 36 Index

About the Author

Marjorie L. Reaka-Kudla, Don E. Wilson, and Edward O. Wilson, Editors; A Joseph Henry Press book

Reviews

The groundbreaking Biodiversity (LJ 4/1/88) was responsible for introducing the term into the common parlance and for dramatically increasing awareness of the plight of the world's dwindling biological resources. The 33 chapters in the current multiauthored volume provide not only a comprehensive ten-year update on the state of the art of biodiversity but also proceed even further than the 1988 book in suggesting concrete and cost-effective solutions to the biodiversity crisis. Biodiversity II, with its longer and more technical chapters, may be slightly less lay reader-friendly than the original, but the inclusion in the new work of 70 color photos greatly enhances its attractiveness. Imperative for all academic and large public libraries and for all sizable environmental collections.‘Lynn C. Badger, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville