Hands On Chemical Ecology

Hands-On Chemical Ecology: Simple Field and Laboratory Exercises, a premiere collection of practical exercises in chemical ecology, offers tools and strategies for understanding this young science. The exercises included use general principles and follow a simple structure. Topics examined include birds, fish, insects, mammals, and plant chemistry among others. Additionally, exercises require accessible materials, ensuring that each can be easily modified and completed anywhere in the world with locally existing instruments. This text will be of value to undergraduate and graduates students and high school biology teachers.

Chemical signals among organisms form "a vast communicative interplay, fundamental to the fabric of life," in the words of one expert. Chemical ecology is the the discipline that seeks to understand these interactions-to use biology in the search for new substances of potential benefit to humankind. This book highlights selected research areas of medicinal and agricultural importance. Leading experts review the chemistry of: Insect defense and its applications to pest control. Phyletic dominanceâ€"the survival success of insects. Social regulation, with ant societies as a model of multicomponent signaling systems. Eavesdropping, alarm, and deceitâ€"the array of strategies used by insects to find and lure prey. Reproductionâ€"from the gamete attraction to courtship nd sexual selection. The chemistry of intracellular immunosuppression. Topics also include the appropriation of dietary factors for defense and communication; the use of chemical signals in the marine environment; the role of the olfactory system in chemical analysis; and the interaction of polydnaviruses, endoparasites, and the immune system of the host.

A working definition of the discipline of chemical ecology might be "the study of the structure, function, origin, and significance of naturally occurring compounds that mediate inter-and intraspecific interactions between organisms. " In particular, chemical ecology focuses on determining the role of semiochemicals and related compounds in their natural contexts. Thus, chemical ecology is distinct from disciplines such as pharmacology, in which compounds are screened for uses outside their natural context, for example in the screening of natural products for use as drugs. Superficially, many of the methods used in the various branches of natural products chemistry, such as pharmacology and chemical ecology, are very similar, but each branch has developed its own set of specialized methods for dealing with the problems characteristic of that discipline. For example, in chemical ecology, many semiochemicals are isolated and identified using only a few micrograms or less of material. Although the same general chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques are used as would be used with the identification of most organic compounds, specialized techniques have been developed for handling these very small quantities, allowing the maximum amount of informa tion to be recovered from the minimum amount of sample. These micro scale techniques, and the problems unique to working with very small amounts of sample, are rarely covered in detail in reference books on the isolation and identification of biologically active natural chemicals.

The chemical ecology of cells in the soil; Chemical ecology among lower plants; The biochemical ecology of higher plants; Plants and the chemical environment; Chemical interactions between plants and insects; Hormonal interactions between plants and insects; Chemical communication within animal species; Chemical defense against predation in arthropods; Chemical ecology of fish; The chemistry of nonhormonal interactions: terpenoid compounds in ecology; Chemical aspects of hormonal interactions.

Chemical Ecology is a component of Encyclopedia of Chemical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Chemical Ecology provides the essential aspects of the chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms. It deals with studies involving defensive chemicals which are utilized to deter potential predators, which may attack a wide variety of species, animal interaction, aquatic ecosystems, chemical ecology and pest management, relation to medicine and pharmaceuticals. This volume is aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers.

Experiments in Environmental Chemistry presents experimental activities that provide practical, first hand experience in the observation of chemical processes occurring in the environment. A variety of techniques with applications in governmental laboratories, industry, and research are described. The experiments are divided into five parts: biochemical processes in aquatic systems; toxic substances in the environment; food additives and contaminants; chemical ecology; and field surveys. This book is divided into five sections and begins with a discussion on the transformations of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and energy in aquatic systems. Various aspects of environmental chemistry including photosynthesis, respiration, biogeochemical cycling, primary production, plant nutrients, water quality, eutrophication, and wastewater treatment are considered. The next section focuses on a wide assortment of environmental contaminants in terms of their behavior and occurrence in various sectors of the environment. In this section, the reader is introduced to gas chromatography, atomic absorption spectroscopy, thin layer chromotography, column chromatography, and techniques for the measurement of atmospheric contaminants. Food and the occurrence of foreign substances that result from deliberate additions or other processes are also analyzed, along with chemical compounds such as allelochemicals, pheromones, and chemical defense substances. This monograph will be a valuable resource for environmental chemists.

Identification of chemicals that affect the naturally occurring interactions be tween organisms requires sophisticated chemical techniques, such as those docu mented in volume 1, in combination with effective bioassays. Without an effective bioassay, the identification becomes akin to looking for a needle in a haystack, but without any idea of what a needle looks like. To a large extent serniochemical identifications must be driven by bioassays. The design of bioassays for use in chemical ecology is governed by the sometimes conflicting objectives of ecological relevance and the need for simplic ity. Bioassay design should be based on observations of the interactions between organisms in their natural context, a theme that appears throughout this volume. As a result, this volume is as much about ecology and behavior as it is about specific methods. It is impossible to design a relevant bioassay, whether it is simple or complex, without understanding at least the fundamentals of how chemical cues or signals mediate the interaction in nature. Thus, the development of bioassay methods must be driven by an understanding of ecology and a knowledge of the natural history of the organisms under study. Given such an understanding, it is often possible to design assays that are both ecologically relevant and easy to perform.