Search results for ""Author Jeff Ollerton""
Pelagic Publishing Pollinators and Pollination: Nature and Society
A unique and personal insight into the ecology and evolution of pollinators, their relationships with flowers, and their conservation in a rapidly changing world. The pollination of flowers by insects, birds and other animals is a fundamentally important ecological function that supports both the natural world and human society. Without pollinators to facilitate the sexual reproduction of plants, the world would be a biologically poorer place in which to live, there would be an impact on food security, and human health would suffer. Written by one of the world's leading pollination ecologists, this book provides an introduction to what pollinators are, how their interactions with flowers have evolved, and the fundamental ecology of these relationships. It explores the pollination of wild and agricultural plants in a variety of habitats and contexts, including urban, rural and agricultural environments. The author also provides practical advice on how individuals and organisations can study, and support, pollinators. As well as covering the natural history of pollinators and flowers, the author discusses their cultural importance, and the ways in which pollinator conservation has been portrayed from a political perspective. The book draws on field work experiences in South America, Africa, Australia, the Canary Islands and the UK. For over 30 years the author has spent his career researching how plants and pollinators evolve relationships, how these interactions function ecologically, their importance for society, and how we can conserve them in a rapidly changing world. This book offers a unique and personal insight into the science of pollinators and pollination, aimed at anyone who is interested in understanding these fascinating and crucial ecological interactions.
£25.00
Pelagic Publishing Birds and Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship
Hummingbirds, and the balletic ways in which they feed on flowers, are familiar to most people. But they belong to just one of at least 74 bird families that are known, or suspected, to be pollinators. Relationships between plants and birds first emerged at least 50 million years ago and over time have influenced the evolution of both groups. This groundbreaking book is the first to deal with pollinating birds in all their diversity, involving almost 1,390 avian species interacting with tens of thousands of different plants. It rescues them from being novelties of natural history and explores these interactions in all their evolutionary and ecological significance. Pollinating birds have intricate lives that are often highly dependent on flowers, and the plants themselves are at the whim of birds for their reproduction. This makes them important players within many ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, dry grasslands, temperate woodlands, coastal mangroves and oceanic islands. Bird–flower relationships are threatened by disease, habitat destruction and climate change. Some of the birds are already extinct. Yet there are optimistic stories to be told about conservation and restoration projects that reveal the commitment of people to preserving these vital ecological connections. In addition, as a source of cultural inspiration with a history stretching back millennia, pollinating birds and their flowers are part of the ongoing relationship between humanity and the rest of nature.
£22.00
The University of Chicago Press Plant-Pollinator Interactions: From Specialization to Generalization
Just as flowering plants depend on their pollinators, many birds, insects, and bats rely on plants for energy and nutrients. This plant-pollinator relationship is essential to the survival of natural and agricultural ecosystems. "Plant-Pollinator Interactions" portrays the intimate relationships of pollination over time and space and reveals patterns of interactions from individual to community levels, showing how these patterns change at different spatial and temporal scales. Nickolas M. Waser and Jeff Ollerton bring together experts from around the world to offer a comprehensive analysis of pollination, including the history of thinking about specialization and generalization and a comparison of pollination to other mutualisms. An overview of current thinking and of future research priorities, "Plant-Pollinator Interactions" covers an important theme in evolutionary ecology with far-reaching applications in conservation and agriculture. This book will find an eager audience in specialists studying pollination and other mutualisms, as well as with biologists who are interested in ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral aspects of the specialization and generalization of species.
£55.00
