Variable plants and herbivores in natural and managed systems PDF Download

Author: Robert Denno
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323142877
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 734

View

Book Description
Variable Plants and Herbivores in Natural and Managed Systems examines individual, population, species, and community responses of herbivores to plant variation, with emphasis on insects, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. It is divided into five parts encompassing 18 chapters that discuss variability as a mechanism of defense used by plants against their parasites and the effects of variability on herbivores at several different levels of complexity. After a brief discussion on plant-herbivore interactions, the first part of this book considers sources of within-plant variation and effects on the distribution and abundance of herbivores. Part II examines interplant variation, the co-evolutionary problems it poses for herbivores, and the ecological and evolutionary responses of these animals. It discusses the effects of host-plant variability on the fitness of sedentary herbivorous insects. Part III discusses the role of host variability in the evolution of feeding specialization, genetic differentiation, and race formation. The importance of host variation to the organization of herbivore communities and the manipulation of host-plant variability for the management of herbivore pest populations are presented in the remaining parts. This book will be helpful to agriculturists, silviculturists, biologists, and researchers who wish to expand their knowledge in dynamics of plant-herbivore relationships.

Author: S. Ahmed
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461318653
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

View

Book Description
Thanks to the meticulous and enthusiastic work of insect collectors and taxonomists over the past hundred years and more, we have today a large amount of information on the feeding habits and life styles of sev eral hundred thousands of insect species. Insects that feed on plants during at least one of their life stages constitute about half of the three-quarters of a million described species. Their numbers both in terms of species and individuals together with their small but macroscopic sizes makes the insect-plant biological interface perhaps the most conspicuous, diverse and largest assemblage of intimate interspecies interactions in existence. It is also perhaps the most important biological interface be cause of the plants' role as primary producers upon which all other forms of earthly life depend, thereby bringing herbivorous insects occasionally into direct competition with human food and fiber production. Early enthusiasm revealed many remarkable specializations and associ ations between insects and plants, and occasionally assigned chemical me diators for them. However, the modern practices of large scale crop pro tection by synthetic pesticides and their attendant problems, particularly with resistance in "pests" and destruction of natural enemies, have been in large measure responsible for drawing our attention to the mechanisms whereby plants control insect populations and insects adapt to the plants' defenses. These practices have also brought home the importance of chemical mediators in practically all aspects of insect activities and, in parti cular, the importance of plant allelochemicals in maintaining and balan cing insect-plant associations.

Author: Kevin C. Spencer
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483259412
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 626

View

Book Description
Chemical Mediation of Coevolution explores the degree to which chemicals are the currency of information exchange in coevolved systems; it also reexamines existing concepts of coevolution through interpretation of chemical parameters. The contents of this volume are based on the ""Chemical Mediation of Coevolution"" symposium held on 14-15 August 1985 as part of the 36th annual AIBS meeting at the University of Florida. The volume contains 18 chapters majority of which address plant-chemical-insect systems. Explorations are also made into mammalian systems and into insect mimicry, as that process derives ultimately from herbivory upon plants. The data thus presented will specifically address chemistry as a factor in the establishment and maintenance of coevolution, and test coevolutionary concepts for their pertinence to chemically mediated systems. It is hoped that this collected work will provide an impetus for careful reconsideration of the possible roles played by chemistry in the establishment, maintenance, and fate of coevolutionary relationships.

Author: S. Sadasivam
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0824756169
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 457

View

Book Description
Sadasivam and Thayumanavan (both of the Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural U., India) catalogue known information regarding plant-borne chemicals that seem to be associated with pest resistance. They cover chemical structures, biosynthesis, bioactivity, mechanism of action.

Author: Robert K.D. Peterson
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420040758
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

View

Book Description
Understanding biotic stress and plant yield allows for the practical development of economic decision making, an instrumental part of Integrated Pest Management. And further, the impact of biotic injury on plant yield bears directly on the basic biological questions of population dynamics, life history strategies, community structure, plant-stressor coevolution, and ecosystem nutrient cycling. Biotic Stress and Yield Loss is a comprehensive review of the latest conclusions of yield loss in entomology, weed science, and plant pathology, combining state-of-the-art theory with successful applications. This book is unique in that it is the first to cover all biotic stressors, insects, weeds, and plant pathogens, and their impact on plant yield and fitness. It focuses on current knowledge of yield and fitness loss in both natural and agricultural ecosystems and on a physiologically based approach to provide a common basis for considering and discussing biotic stress. By considering biotic stress within the context of plant ecophysiology, Biotic Stress and Yield Loss attempts to elevate knowledge of biotic stress to the same level as abiotic stress and makes an argument for integrating the two types of stress.

Author: Robert S. Fritz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226924858
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 601

View

Book Description
Far from being passive elements in the landscape, plants have developed many sophisticated chemical and mechanical means of deterring organisms that seek to prey on them. This volume draws together research from ecology, evolution, agronomy, and plant pathology to produce an ecological genetics perspective on plant resistance in both natural and agricultural systems. By emphasizing the ecological and evolutionary basis of resistance, the book makes an important contribution to the study of how phytophages and plants coevolve. Plant Resistance to Herbivores and Pathogens not only reviews the literature pertaining to plant resistance from a number of traditionally separate fields but also examines significant questions that will drive future research. Among the topics explored are selection for resistance in plants and for virulence in phytophages; methods for studying natural variation in plant resistance; the factors that maintain intraspecific variation in resistance; and the ecological consequences of within-population genetic variation for herbivorous insects and fungal pathogens. "A comprehensive review of the theory and information on a large, rapidly growing, and important subject."—Douglas J. Futuyma, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Author: Pedro Barbosa
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471832768
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 388

View

Book Description
Presents the first efforts to explore ecological interactions between insects and plants across several trophic levels, with special focus on mediation of complex interactions by plant allelochemicals. First section looks at effects of plant allelochemicals on predator-prey and host-parasitoid interactions. Second section reveals the role of microorganisms as mediators of interactions between insects and plants. Third section unifies and extends current theory to examine the effects of allelochemicals on the second and third trophic levels. Final section traces the physiological effects of plant allelochemicals in animal behavior, population regulation, maintenance of mimicry systems, and evolution of host range.

Author: Bruce L. Parker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489914099
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 606

View

Book Description
Thrips (fhysanoptera) are very small insects, widespread throughout the world with a preponderance of tropical species, many temperate ones, and even a few living in arctic regions. Of the approximately 5,000 species so far identified, only a few hundred are crop pests, causing serious damage or transmitting diseases to growing crops and harvestable produce in most countries. Their fringed wings confer a natural ability to disperse widely, blown by the wind. Their minute size and cryptic behavior make them difficult to detect either in the field or in fresh vegetation transported during international trade of vegetables, fruit and ornamental flowers. Many species have now spread from their original natural habitats and hosts to favorable new environments where they often reproduce rapidly to develop intense damaging infestations that are costly to control. Over the past decade there have been several spectacular examples of this. The western flower thrips has expanded its range from the North American continent to Europe, Australia and South Africa. Thrips palmi has spread from its presumed origin, the island of Sumatra, to the coast of Florida, and threatens to extend its distribution throughout North and South America. Pear thrips, a known orchard pest of Europe and the western United States and Canada has recently become a major defoliator of hardwood trees in Vermont and the neighboring states. Local outbreaks of other species are also becoming problems in field and glasshouse crops as the effectiveness of insecticides against them decline.

Author: Ke Chung Kim
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780471600770
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 506

View

Book Description
Reflects on insect pests' evolution by evaluating existing theories, documenting case studies of diverse pest species and presenting new concepts regarding the problem of variation and implications for pest management strategies. Leading experts offer contributions which deal with variations in genetic markers and ecologically meaningful traits as well as future perspectives in entomology and biosystematics.

Author: Antonio Ricardo Panizzi
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439837090
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 750

View

Book Description
The field of insect nutritional ecology has been defined by how insects deal with nutritional and non-nutritional compounds, and how these compounds influence their biology in evolutionary time. In contrast, Insect Bioecology and Nutrition for Integrated Pest Management presents these entomological concepts within the framework of integrated pest m