Arthropods are invertebrates that constitute over 90% of the animal kingdom, and their bio-ecology is closely linked with global functioning and survival. Arthropods play an important role in maintaining the health of ecosystems, provide livelihoods and nutrition to human communities, and are important indicators of environmental change. Yet the population trends of several arthropods species show them to be in decline. Arthropods constitute a dominant group with 1.2 million species influencing earth’s biodiversity. Among arthropods, insects are predominant, with ca. 1 million species and having evolved some 350 million years ago. Arthropods are closely associated with living and non-living entities alike, making the ecosystem services they provide crucially important. In order to be effective, plans for the conservation of arthropods and ecosystems should include a mixture of strategies like protecting key habitats and genomic studies to formulate relevant policies for in situ and ex situ conservation. This two-volume book focuses on capturing the essentials of arthropod inventories, biology, and conservation. Further, it seeks to identify the mechanisms by which arthropod populations can be sustained in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and by means of which certain problematic species be managed without producing harmful environmental side-effects. This edited compilation includes chapters contributed by over 80 biologists on a wide range of topics embracing the diversity, distribution, utility and conservation of arthropods and select groups of insect taxa. More importantly, it describes in detail the mechanisms of sustaining arthropod ecosystems, services and populations. It addresses the contribution of modern biological tools such as molecular and genetic techniques regulating gene expression, as well as conventional, indigenous practices in arthropod conservation. The contributors reiterate the importance of documenting and understanding the biology of arthropods from a holistic perspective before addressing conservation issues at large. This book offers a valuable resource for all zoologists, entomologists, ecologists, conservation biologists, policy makers, teachers and students interested in the conservation of biological resources.

Floricultural crops all over the world are challenged by a number of insect and mite pests. The pest scenario is changing, and with climate change the instances of new pest incidences have become a more common problem. Like other crops, the intensive cultivation of commercial flowers has accentuated pest problems, as farmers tend to use more agricultural chemicals, which, in turn, increase the problems of pesticide resistance, pest resurgence, and residues leading to health hazards. This volume, Advances in Pest Management in Commercial Flowers, looks at the major challenges and improvements in this growing area today. It first provides an informative overview of worldwide pests of important commercial flowers. It explores a number of important issues in this area, such as the role of climate change on insect pests of commercial flowers and the synthetic chemicals and their possible harmful effects on the environment.

Widely known as the ‘tree of life’, coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) provides a bountiful source for making a wide variety of healthy foods and industrial items. Its cultivation, however, has been encountering seriously destructive issues including lethal diseases and natural adversities which are currently distressing livelihoods of millions of small-holder farmers around the world. There is an urgent mandate to resolve these issues by meeting sustainable seedling production, facilitating genetic conservation, as well as developing disease identification and modern breeding. This book introduces improvements in coconut biotechnology by covering the advances in micropropagation, germplasm conservation, and molecular pathogenic diagnosis. This comprehensive volume will be a useful source of information and references to researchers, graduate students, agricultural developers, and scholars in the plant sciences. In order to benefit general readers, the book also covers fundamental aspects of biology, diversity, and evolution of this marvelous palm species.

Proteins: Sustainable Source, Processing and Applications addresses sustainable proteins, with an emphasis on proteins of animal origin, plant-based and insect proteins, microalgal single cell proteins, extraction, production, the stability and bioengineering of proteins, food applications (e.g. encapsulation, films and coatings), consumer behavior and sustainable consumption. Written in a scientific manner to meet the needs of chemists, food scientists, technologists, new product developers and academics, this book addresses the health effects and properties of proteins, highlights sustainable sources, processes and consumption models, and analyzes the potentiality of already commercialized processes and products. This book is an integral resource that supports the current applications of proteins in the food industry, along with those that are currently under development. - Supports the current applications of proteins in the food industry, along with those that are under development - Connects the properties and health effects of proteins with sustainable sources, recovery procedures, stability and encapsulation - Explores industrial applications that are affected by aforementioned aspects

Environmental contamination of heavy metals is a major problem, threatening sustainable agricultural production and health of millions of people. The extensive distribution of heavy metals in soil and water makes it necessary to employ environment-friendly low-cost and sustainable approaches for the remediation of contaminated sites. Phytoremediation has been considered a viable approach to meet these demands; however, it must provide some economic gains too. The use of economically important medicinal and aromatic plants is helpful in restoration of metal-contaminated sites and also may provide economic gains to the farmers. The book brings about a critical overview of the prospects of utilizing medicinal and aromatic plants in phytoremediation, including their utility, economic benefits and human safety issues. The book will be a timely addition to the field and would act as landmark. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, doctoral and graduate students working in the area of environmental pollution and cleanup technologies. The students working in the field of metal(loid) stress and crop biofortification will also find this to be a useful read. The content of the book is presented in simple language and represented through beautiful and scientifically informative figures and tables.

Biotic stresses cause yield loss of 31-42% in crops in addition to 6-20% during post-harvest stage. Understanding interaction of crop plants to the biotic stresses caused by insects, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and oomycetes, etc. is important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in technical crops is imperative for addressing FHEE (food, health, energy and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing have facilitated precise information about the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to biotic stresses. The 15 chapters dedicated to 13 technical crops and 2 technical crop groups in this volume will deliberate on different types of biotic stress agents and their effects on and interaction with crop plants; will enumerate on the available genetic diversity with regard to biotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate on the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; will brief on the classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; will enunciate the success stories of genetic engineering for developing biotic stress resistant varieties; will discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying biotic stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; will enunciate on different emerging genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery and gene pyramiding for developing resistant crop varieties with higher quantity and quality; and will also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating disease and insect resistant crops.

This is the first comprehensive book focusing on the form and function of insect mouthparts. Written by leading experts, it reviews the current knowledge on feeding types and the evolution of mouthparts and presents new research approaches. The richly illustrated articles cover topics ranging from functional morphology, biomechanics of biting and chewing, and the biophysics of fluid-feeding to the morphogenesis and genetics of mouthpart development, ecomorphology in flower-visiting insects as well as the evolution of mouthparts, including fossil records. Intended for entomologists and scientists interested in interdisciplinary approaches, the book provides a solid basis for future scientific work. Chapter 6 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com.

This volume reviews recent hydrological and environmental issues resulting from human-induced water pollution practices while providing case studies on the physical, chemical, and eco-biological techniques used to mitigate the impacts of river ecosystem pollution in South Asian countries. The book demonstrates the key methods of measurement, monitoring, mapping, and modeling of river water quality and how it is impacted by pollution and incorporates contemporary geospatial technological applications for the management and sustainability of future water resources. The major topics that the book addresses are the fundamental concepts of river ecosystem health, riverine ecology and habitats, risk assessment of riverine pollution, and technology-based river pollution control strategies. The book will serve as an interdisciplinary guide for researchers, students, and GIS specialists working in various disciplines, including pollution hazards, river ecosystem restoration, water quality, remote sensing, zoology, natural resources management, and environmental geography.