Studying Invertebrates

Studying invertebrates is a comprehensive guide to designing and carrying out ecological investigations, especially those involving sampling invertebrates. A highly practical guide to fieldwork, statistical testing and interpretation. The book introduces ways of designing and analysing experiments so that complex situations can be described and summarised, comparisons made, and interactions between organisms and their environment examined objectively. This digital reprint replaces ISBN 0-85546-313-9. First published in 2003. Editors' preface The books in this series are designed to encourage readers to undertake their own studies of natural history. Each one describes some relevant techniques, but they have not enough space to cover the substantial body of more generally applicable ideas and approaches that underlies the design and analysis of such field studies. By describing a selection of these general methods, Studying invertebrates aims to support those venturing into ecological fieldwork for the first time. The authors have plenty of experience in helping beginners to plan, carry out and interpret ecological surveys and experiments, and we hope this handbook will serve as a welcome companion and guide, especially for those who lack confidence in their knowledge of statistical and other methods.

A comprehensive guide to designing and carrying out ecological investigations, especially those involving sampling invertebrates. The book is a highly practical guide to fieldwork, statistical testing and interpretation.

So much has to be crammed into today's biology courses that basic information on animal groups and their evolutionary origins is often left out. This is particularly true for the invertebrates. The second edition of Janet Moore's An Introduction to the Invertebrates fills this gap by providing a short updated guide to the invertebrate phyla, looking at their diverse forms, functions and evolutionary relationships. This book first introduces evolution and modern methods of tracing it, then considers the distinctive body plan of each invertebrate phylum showing what has evolved, how the animals live, and how they develop. Boxes introduce physiological mechanisms and development. The final chapter explains uses of molecular evidence and presents an up-to-date view of evolutionary history, giving a more certain definition of the relationships between invertebrates. This user-friendly and well-illustrated introduction will be invaluable for all those studying invertebrates.

Invertebrate animals represent a diversity of solutions to life's challenges. Success in a wide range of environments has been achieved by an almost bewildering range of invertebrate body forms. These body forms are reflected in the wonderful diversity of their nervous systems. Despite this apparent diversity, studies of the development of invertebrates and vertebrates are yielding common themes at the molecular level. Likewise, the phenome non of neural regeneration is based upon properties intrinsic to neurons and responses to a remarkably conserved chemical lan guage. This monograph focuses on the diversity and commonal ity of responses to neural injury. The rough and tumble of life may frequently damage some part of the body, particularly the appendages or sensory sys tems. The nervous system is usually involved in repair of other body systems and often may itself require repair. Some animals are particularly successful in regenerating the nervous system or body parts. We particularly marvel at these feats of regeneration because we human beings are not particularly successful, despite our relatively long life and the advantages that would seem to accrue from such repair. It is no wonder that we would hope to learn the secrets of the more successful animals and strive to emulate them! Mechanisms of neural regeneration are often more acces sible in invertebrates than in vertebrates because questions of specificity are more easily addressed using the identifiable neu rons of the relatively simpler nervous systems of some inverte brates.

Invertebrates perform such vital roles in global ecosystems—and so strongly influence human wellbeing—that biologist E.O. Wilson was prompted to describe them as “little things that run the world.” As they are such powerful shapers of the world around us, their response to global climate change is also pivotal in meeting myriad challenges looming on the horizon—everything from food security and biodiversity to human disease control. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the latest scientific knowledge and contemporary theory relating to global climate change and terrestrial invertebrates. Featuring contributions from top international experts, this book explores how changes to invertebrate populations will affect human decision making processes across a number of crucial issues, including agriculture, disease control, conservation planning, and resource allocation. Topics covered include methodologies and approaches to predict invertebrate responses, outcomes for disease vectors and ecosystem service providers, underlying mechanisms for community level responses to global climate change, evolutionary consequences and likely effects on interactions among organisms, and many more. Timely and thought-provoking, Global Climate Change and Terrestrial Invertebrates offers illuminating insights into the profound influence the simplest of organisms may have on the very future of our fragile world.

This edited collection is an introduction to the invertebrate work being performed by Russian scientists. The major emphasis is on studies of learning. In this book, the editors and contributors have brought together contemporary Russian experimental data on the behavior of various invertebrates including crustaceans, insects, and mollusks. The book should be useful for those interested in acquiring a working knowledge of the behavioral techniques, data, issues and history of Russian studies of invertebrate behavior. It will also be of interest to those studying the history of behavioral science in Russia.

Ranaviruses and other viruses within the family Iridoviridae, infect a wide range of ecologically and commercially important ectothermic vertebrates, i.e., bony fish, amphibians, and reptiles, and invertebrates, including agricultural and medical pests and cultured shrimp and crayfish, and are responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Understanding the impact of these various agents on diverse host species requires the combined efforts of ecologists, veterinarians, pathologists, comparative immunologists and molecular virologists. Unfortunately, investigators involved in these studies often work in discipline-specific silos that preclude interaction with others whose insights and approaches are required to comprehensively address problems related to ranavirus/iridovirus disease. Our intent here is to breakdown these silos and provide a forum where diverse researchers with a common interest in ranavirus/iridovirus biology can profitably interact. As a colleague once quipped, “Three people make a genius.” We are hoping to do something along those lines by presenting a collection of research articles dealing with issues of anti-viral immunity, identification of a potentially novel viral genus exemplified by erythrocytic necrosis virus, viral inhibition of innate immunity, identification of novel hosts for lymphocystivirus and invertebrate iridoviruses, and modelling studies of ranavirus transmission. Collectively these and others will exemplify the breadth of ongoing studies focused on this virus family.