Oceanic islands offer biologists unparalleled opportunities to study evolutionary processes and ecological phenomena. However, human activity threatens to alter or destroy many of these fragile ecosystems, with recent estimates suggesting that nearly half of the world's insular endemics are threatened with extinction. Bringing together researchers from around the world, this book illustrates how modern research methods and new concepts have challenged accepted theories and changed our understanding of island flora. Particular attention is given to the impact of molecular studies and the insights that they provide into topics such as colonisation, radiation, diversification and hybridisation. Examples are drawn from around the world, including the Hawaiian archipelago, Galapagos Islands, Madagascar and the Macronesian region. Conservation issues are also highlighted, with coverage of alien species and the role of ex situ conservation providing valuable information that will aid the formulation of management strategies and genetic rescue programmes.

Island biogeography is the study of the distribution and dynamics of species in island environments. Due to their isolation from more widespread continental species, islands are ideal places for unique species to evolve, but they are also places of concentrated extinction. Consequently, they are widely studied by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and conservationists. This accessible textbook builds on the success and reputation of its predecessors, documenting the recent advances in this exciting field and explaining how islands have contributed to both theory development and testing. In addition, the book describes the main processes of island formation, subsequent dynamics, and eventual demise, explaining the relevance of island environmental history to island biogeography. The authors demonstrate the significance of islands as hotspots of biodiversity and of prehistoric and historic anthropogenic extinction. Since island species continue to feature disproportionally in the lists of threatened species today, the book examines both the chief threats to their persistence and some of the mitigation measures that can be put in play, with conservation strategies specifically tailored to islands.

This book provides a comprehensive view of the origin and evolution of the plants of an entire oceanic archipelago.

In this launch of the Galapagos series, this book provides a broad “framing” assessment of the current status of social and ecological systems in the Galapagos Islands, and the feedback that explicitly links people to the environment. It also highlights the challenges to conservation imposed by tourism in the Galapagos Islands and the attendant migration of people from mainland Ecuador to service the burgeoning tourism industry. Further, there is an emphasize on the status of the terrestrial and marine environments that form the very foundation of the deep attraction to the Islands by tourists, residents, scholars, and conservationists.

This 2001 book provides a selective annotated bibliography of the principal floras and related works of inventory for vascular plants. The second edition was completely updated and expanded to take into account the substantial literature of the late twentieth century, and features a more fully developed review of the history of floristic documentation. The works covered are principally specialist publications such as floras, checklists, distribution atlases, systematic iconographies and enumerations or catalogues, although a relatively few more popularly oriented books are also included. The Guide is organised in ten geographical divisions, with these successively divided into regions and units, each of which is prefaced with a historical review of floristic studies. In addition to the bibliography, the book includes general chapters on botanical bibliography, the history of floras, and general principles and current trends, plus an appendix on bibliographic searching, a lexicon of serial abbreviations, and author and geographical indexes.

In response to a request,in 2009, by the Lake Erie Island Chapter of the Black Swamp Conservancy, the Flora of the Erie Islands: Its Origin, History and Change is published to assist their conservation activities and programs. Completed in 1976 and, in 1979, scheduled to be although not published, xerographic copies of the manuscript were provided to researchers studying the islands' flora. As a result, the unpublished manuscript was widely cited in publications during the past 35 years and,in published form, remains a primary research resource concerning the flora of the Erie Archipelago.

Zweifelsohne das Referenzwerk zu diesem weitgefächerten und dynamischen Fachgebiet. The International Encyclopedia of Geograph ist das Ergebnis einer einmaligen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wiley und der American Association of Geographers (AAG), beleuchtet und definiert Konzepte, Forschung und Techniken in der Geographie und zugehörigen Fachgebieten. Die Enzyklopädie ist als Online-Ausgabe und 15-bändige farbige Printversion erhältlich. Unter der Mitarbeit einer Gruppe von Experten aus aller Welt ist ein umfassender und fundierter Überblick über die Geographie in allen Erdteilen entstanden. - Enthält mehr als 1.000 Einträge zwischen 1.000 und 10.000 Wörtern, die verständlich in grundlegende Konzepte einführen, komplexe Themen erläutern und Informationen zu geographischen Gesellschaften aus aller Welt enthalten. - Entstanden unter der Mitarbeit von mehr als 900 Wissenschaftlern aus über 40 Ländern und bietet damit einen umfassenden und fundierten Überblick über die Geographie in allen Erdteilen. - Deckt das Fachgebiet umfassend ab und berücksichtigt auch die Richtungen Humangeographie, Physikalische Geographie, geographische Informationswissenschaften und -systeme, Erdwissenschaften und Umweltwissenschaften. - Führt interdisziplinäre Sichtweisen zu geographischen Themen und Verfahren zusammen, die auch für die Sozialwissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaften, Naturwissenschaften und Medizin von Interesse sind. - Printausgabe durchgängig in Farbe mit über 1.000 Illustrationen und Fotos. - Online-Ausgabe wird jährlich aktualisiert.

The terrestrial organisms of the Galápagos Islands live under conditions unlike those anywhere else. At the edge of a uniquely rich mid-ocean upwelling, their world is also free of mammalian predators and competitors, allowing them to live unbothered, exuberant lives. With its giant tortoises, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, and forests of giant daisies, there's no question that this is a magnificent place. Long before people traversed the Earth, evolution endowed native species with adaptations to these special conditions and to perturbations like El Niño events and periodic droughts. As the islands have grown ever-more connected with humanity, those same adaptations now make its species vulnerable. Today, the islands are best viewed as one big social-ecological system where the ability of each native organism to survive and reproduce is a product of human activity in addition to ecological circumstances. In this book, William H. Durham takes readers on a tour of Galápagos and the organisms that inhabit these isolated volcanic islands. Exuberant Life offers a contemporary synthesis of what we know about the evolution of its curiously wonderful organisms, how they are faring in the tumultuous changing world around them, and how evolution can guide our efforts today for their conservation. The book highlights the ancestry of a dozen specific organisms in these islands, when and how they made it to the Galápagos, as well as how they have changed in the meantime. Durham traces the strengths and weaknesses of each species, arguing that the mismatch between natural challenges of their habitats and the challenges humans have recently added is the main task facing conservation efforts today. Such analysis often provides surprises and suggestions not yet considered, like the potential benefits to joint conservation efforts between tree finches and tree daisies, or ways in which the peculiar evolved behaviors of Nazca and blue-footed boobies can be used to benefit both species today. In each chapter, a social-ecological systems framework is used to highlight links between human impact, including climate change, and species status today, Historically, the Galápagos have played a central role in our understanding of evolution; what these islands now offer to teach us about conservation may well prove indispensable for the future of the planet.

Tests for repeated patterns in evolution of island plants, which together comprise an 'island syndrome' analogous to animals.