Description
Book SynopsisThe current extinction crisis is of human making, and any favorable resolution of that biodiversity crisisamong the most dire in the 4-billion-year history of Earthwill have to be initiated by mankind. Little time remains for the public, corporations, and governments to awaken to the magnitude of what is at stake. This book aims to assist that critical educational mission, synthesizing recent scientific information and ideas about threats to biodiversity in the past, present, and projected future. This is the second volume from the In the Light of Evolution series, based on a series of Arthur M. Sackler colloquia, and designed to promote the evolutionary sciences. Each installment explores evolutionary perspectives on a particular biological topic that is scientifically intriguing but also has special relevance to contemporary societal issues or challenges. Individually and collectively, the ILE series aims to interpret phenomena in various areas of biology through the lens of evolut
Table of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Part I: Contemporary Patterns and Processes in Animals; 3 1 Ecological Extinction and Evolution in the Brave New Ocean--JEREMY B. C. JACKSON; 4 2 Are We in the Midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction? A View from the World of Amphibians--DAVID B. WAKE and VANCE T. VREDENBURG; 5 3 Patterns of Biodiversity and Endemism on Indo-West Pacific Coral Reefs--MARJORIE L. REAKA, PAULA J. RODGERS, and ALEXEI U. KUDLA; 6 4 Homage to Linnaeus: How Many Parasites? How Many Hosts?--ANDY DOBSON, KEVIN D. LAFFERTY, ARMAND M. KURIS, RYAN F. HECHINGER, and WALTER JETZ; 7 Part II: Contemporary Patterns and Processes in Plants and Microbes; 8 5 Species Invasions and Extinction: The Future of Native Biodiversity on Islands--DOV F. SAX and STEVEN D. GAINES; 9 6 How Many Tree Species Are There in the Amazon and How Many of Them Will Go Extinct?--STEPHEN P. HUBBELL, FANGLIANG HE, RICHARD CONDIT, LUIS BORDA-DE-AGUA, JAMES KELLNER, and HANS TER STEEGE; 10 7 Microbes on Mountainsides: Contrasting Elevational Patterns of Bacterial and Plant Diversity--JESSICA A. BRYANT, CHRISTINE LAMANNA, HELENE MORLON, ANDREW J. KERKHOFF, BRIAN J. ENQUIST, and JESSICA L. GREEN; 11 8 Resistance, Resilience, and Redundancy in Microbial Communities--STEVEN D. ALLISON and JENNIFER B. H. MARTINY; 12 Part III: Trends and Processes in the Paleontological Past; 13 9 Extinction as the Loss of Evolutionary History--DOUGLAS H. ERWIN; 14 10 Extinction and the Spatial Dynamics of Biodiversity--DAVID JABLONSKI; 15 11 Dynamics of Origination and Extinction in the Marine Fossil Record--JOHN ALROY; 16 12 Megafauna Biomass Tradeoff as a Driver of Quaternary and Future Extinctions--ANTHONY D. BARNOSKY; 17 Part IV: Prospects for the Future; 18 13 A Phylogenetic Perspective on the Distribution of Plant Diversity--MICHAEL J. DONOGHUE; 19 14 Phylogenetic Trees and the Future of Mammalian Biodiversity--T. JONATHAN DAVIES, SUSANNE A. FRITZ, RICHARD GRENYER, C. DAVID L. ORME, JON BIELBY, OLAF R. P. BININDA-EMONDS, MARCEL CARDILLO, KATE E. JONES, JOHN L. GITTLEMAN, GEORGINA M. MACE, and ANDY PURVIS; 20 15 Three Ambitious (and Rather Unorthodox) Assignments for the Field of Biodiversity Genetics--JOHN C. AVISE; 21 16 Engaging the Public in Biodiversity Issues--MICHAEL J. NOVACEK; 22 17 Further Engaging the Public on Biodiversity Issues--PETER J. BRYANT; 23 18 Where Does Biodiversity Go from Here? A Grim Business-as-Usual Forecast and a Hopeful Portfolio of Partial Solutions--PAUL R. EHRLICH and ROBERT M. PRINGLE; 24 References; 25 Index
