Frontiers in Biodiversity Studies, 1/e

To use biodiversity components sustainably, to maintain ecosystem functions that provide goods and services, to conserve, protect and restore the natural world to halt biodiversity loss, it is vital to understand and conserve the diversity of life on earth through research, education and outreach. Several international initiatives such as BIOTA, ERA-Nets, CBD, DIVERSITAS, GBIF, GTI, MEA, GEOSS and GEO promote scientific research, conservation and sustainable development of available biodiversity components in the recent years, as the present form of globalization has heavily been criticized for ignoring sustainable development and environmental concerns. More recently, helping species and ecosystems to survive becomes practically more difficult.
The remarkable discovery of new species shows that there is still much to discover and makes conservation more important for the future generations. There has now been increasingly substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on earth, currently threatened with extinction due to anthropogenic activities. Recently, IUCN notes that 1 bird out of 8, 1 mammal out of 4, 1 amphibian out of 3, and 6 marine turtles out of 7, are all threatened with extinction. One of the most comprehensive and recent study estimates that over a million species often within the borders of a single country will be lost in the next five decades. And so, assessing the causes and consequences of loss of biodiversity and the importance of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are the major challenges essential for our very survival on the earth.
Frontiers in Biodiversity Studies has wide range of such topics including the biodiversity of aquatic mollusks, freshwater ciliates, wild legumes, dipterans, coastal and freshwater fishes, mangroves, phytopathogenic fungi, terrestrial heteropterans and insect communities, habitat loss, fragmentation, land use-land cover change, ecological agriculture, ecosystem services and their value to society. The updated reviews serve as capital in supporting food security, agricultural productivity and environmental management for the ever increasing global population in the 21st century. And so, this book should be an excellent reference work for natural scientists, environmentalists, conservationists, taxonomists, biodiversity professionals, policy makers, stakeholders and anyone working on biodiversity research and applications.

Salient Features:

• A compilation of 20 selected articles, the book presents the common view that biodiversity serves as capital in supporting food security, agricultural productivity, and environmental management.
  
• Studies and their results on some of the important megadiversity regions and ecological hotspots have been presented.
  
• Provides case studies to describe some of the challenges, and ways to conserve biodiversity.
  
• Contributed by 53 eminent scientists and academicians from across the globe.
  
  

Preface
1. Species diversity of aquatic molluscs in mountain lakes of the Eastern Alps in Austria: An exemplary study
2. The chasmogamous/cleistogamous mixed breeding system, a widespread and evolutionarily successful reproductive strategy in angiosperms
3. Ecological agriculture: Strategy for sustainable development
4. Freshwater Ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Argentina: An annotated and updated compilation
5. Towards the integration of culture collections
6. Higher-taxa as surrogates for species richness in terrestrial heteropterans of South American grasslands
7. Improvement in conservation value of insect communities in South Patagonian forests managed with variable retention
8. Legume diversity in the extra Andean Patagonia
9. Physiological and morphological traits of Trichloris crinita in the semi-arid zones of Argentina
10. Physiological traits on Osmorhiza depauperata, a biodiversity component in the Nothofagus forests of Southern Patagonia
11. Dipteran diversity in cattle pastures and rangelands of Washington State, USA
12. Distribution and biogeographical notes of coastal fish fauna of Veracruz, Mexico
13. Seasonal analysis of the ichthyofauna at three subsystems of the Alvarado lagoon, Veracruz, Mexico
14. Habitat loss and fragmentation in landscapes of the ramsar site, Alvarado lagoon system
15. The mangrove forests of Mexico: Transformation, conservation and threats
16. Trends of land use-land cover change in a complex tropical wetlands landscape: The case of the Chetumal, Mexico and Corozal Bay, Belize
17. An annotated checklist of Crotalaria L. (Fabaceae) in India
18. Fish distributional patterns in Greek rivers
19. The diversity and distribution of Pleospora (Pleosporaceae) in Maharashtra, India
20. Diversity of phytopathogenic conidial fungi of protected nature territories in Ukraine: Study toward elaboration of conservation strategy Subject Index

Devarajan Thangadurai :-
Devarajan Thangadurai is Assistant Professor of Botany at Karnatak University in India, President of Society for Biodiversity Research, Editor-in-Chief of Biodiversity Research International. He received his PhD in Botany from Sri Krishnadevaraya University in India (2003). During 2002-2004, he worked as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow with funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. He served as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Madeira (Portugal), University of Delhi (India) and ICAR National Research Centre for Banana (India) from 2004 to 2006. He is the recipient of Best Young Scientist Award with Gold Medal from Acharya Nagarjuna University in 2003. He has edited and authored fifteen books including Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (3 vols.), Genes, Genomes and Genomics (2 vols.) and Mycorrhizal Biotechnology.


Carlos Alberto Busso :- Carlos Alberto Busso is Professor of Ecology at the Department of Agronomy, National University of South (UNSur), Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is Editor-in-Chief of Phyton - International Journal of Experimental Botany and Associate Editor of the Open Ecology Journal and Biodiversity Research International. He received his PhD in Range Ecology at Utah State University, USA and conducted postdoctoral studies during 1995/1996 at Texas A&M University, USA. He is currently teaching General Ecology and Autoecology of Rangeland Plants. He has published more than eighty research articles including books over a wide spectrum of subjects in ecology.


Luis Gerardo Abarca Arena :- Luis Gerardo Abarca Arenas obtained his bachelor degree in Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and PhD with a Fulbright Fellowship at the Center of Environmental and Estuarine Studies of the University of Maryland, USA in 2000. At present, he is researcher at the University of Veracruz, Mexico and teaches Fish Ecology and Biogeography. His research interests are in food web analysis and estuarine fish ecology. He is a member of the National Investigation System of Mexico, published several peer reviewed papers, chapters in books and has been the leader of several investigation projects.


Sangeetha Jayabalan :- Sangeetha Jayabalan gained a BSc in Microbiology in 2001 and a PhD, Environmental Sciences in 2010, both from the Bharathidasan University, India. She holds also an MSc in Environmental Sciences from Bharathiar University, India in 2003. Between 2004 and 2008, she is the recipient of Tamil Nadu Government Scholarship and Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship of University Grants Commission, Government of India for her doctoral studies. She has published approximately twenty manuscripts detailing the effect of pollutants on the environment, besides organized conferences, seminars, workshops and lectures. Her main research interests are in the areas of environmental microbiology and environmental biotechnology, with particular emphasis on solid waste management, environmental impact assessment and microbial degradation of hydrocarbons. Her community leadership has included serving as Editor of the journal, Biodiversity Research International and Secretary of Society for Biodiversity Research.