756 Southeastern Naturalist Vol. 8, No.4 756 Noteworthy Books Received by the Southeastern Naturalist, Issue 8/4, 2009 Arkansas Birds: Their Distribution and Abundance. Douglas A. James and Joseph C. Neal. 1986. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, AR. 416 pp. $50, hardcover. ISBN 0938626388. This text is a comprehensive resource on Arkansas ornithology The first five chapters provide an introduction to the subject, the history of ornithology in the state, discussion of the environmental features and habitats birds encounter in Arkansas, a look at Arkansas birds in prehistory, and an overview on locating birds in Arkansas. The species accounts—organized taxonomically by order—makes up the heart of the book, with detailed life-history information on all the birds that can be found within the state’s borders at one time or another during the year. Numerous maps and illustrations accompany the text. A classic text that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in Arkansas’ abundant birdlife. Phylogeny and Evolution of the Mollusca. Winston F. Ponder and David R. Lindberg (Eds.). 2008. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 488 pp. $55, hardcover. ISBN 9780520250925. Brought together by Winston F. Ponder and David R. Lindberg, thirty-six experts on the evolution of the Mollusca provide an up-to-date review of its evolutionary history. The Mollusca are the second largest animal phylum and boast a fossil record of over 540 million years. They exhibit remarkable anatomical diversity and include the bivalves (scallops, oysters, and clams), gastropods (limpets, snails, and slugs), and cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, and octopus). This study treats each major taxon and supplies general information as well as overviews of evolution and phylogeny using data from different sources—morphological, ultrastructural, molecular, developmental, and from the fossil record. Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America. Stephen Trimble. 2008. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 336 pp. $40, hardcover. ISBN 9780520251113. Beginning with an Olympic ski race in northern Utah, this heartfelt book from award-winning writer and photographer Stephen Trimble takes a penetrating look at the battles raging over the land—and the soul—of the American West. Bargaining for Eden investigates the highprofile story of a reclusive billionaire who worked relentlessly to acquire public land for his ski resort and to host the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In a gripping, character-driven narrative, based on extensive interviews, Trimble tells of the land-exchange deal that ensued, one of the largest and most controversial in US history, as he deftly explores the inner confl icts, paradoxes, and greed at the heart of land-use disputes from the back rooms of Washington to the grassroots efforts of passionate citizens. Into this mix, Trimble weaves the personal story of how he, a lifelong environmentalist, ironically became a landowner and developer himself, and began to explore the ethics of ownership anew. We travel with Trimble in a fascinating journey that becomes, in the end, a hopeful credo to guide citizens and communities seeking to reinvent their relationship with the beloved American landscape. The Atlas of Endangered Species. Richard Mackay. 2008. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 128 pp. $19.95, softcover. ISBN 9780520258624. With twenty percent of the earth's species facing extinction by 2030, this striking atlas brings up to date the data on those that have been lost already, those that are threatened, and those that are surviving today. Vividly illustrated with full-color maps and detailed graphics, The Atlas of Endangered Species catalogs the 2009 Noteworthy Books 757 inhabitants of a wide variety of ecosystems, including forests, mangroves, and coral reefs. It examines the major threats to biodiversity, from loss of habitat to hunting, and describes the steps being taken toward conservation. The World’s Protected Areas: Status, Values, and Prospects in the 21st Century. Stuart Chape, Mark Spalding, and Martin Jenkins (Eds.). 2008. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 376 pp. $54.95, hardcover. ISBN 9780520246607. Extensively illustrated with maps, color photographs, and graphics, this state-ofthe- art reference offers a comprehensive and authoritative status report on the world’s 100,000 parks, nature reserves, and other land and marine areas currently designated as protected areas. Now covering over 12 percent of the Earth’s land surface, protected areas are the great strongholds of biodiversity and landscape conservation. They also provide a wide range of valuable ecosystem services: protecting food and water supplies; regulating weather patterns; protecting watersheds and coastlines from erosion; maintaining places of historical or cultural significance for recreation, solace or spiritual wellbeing; generating income and employment from tourism; and more. This timely volume offers a benchmark overview of where these protected areas exist worldwide, what they have and have not accomplished, what threats they face, and how they can be better managed to achieve the goals of conserving biodiversity and other natural resources. Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming. Anthony Barnosky. 2009. Island Press, Washington, DC. 288 pp. $26.95, hardcover. ISBN 9781597261975. In 2006, one of the hottest years on record, a “pizzly” was discovered near the top of the world. Half polar bear, half grizzly, this never-before-seen animal might be dismissed as a fl uke of nature. Anthony Barnosky instead sees it as a harbinger of things to come. In Heatstroke, the renowned paleoecologist shows how global warming is fundamentally changing the natural world and its creatures. While melting ice may have helped produce the pizzly, climate change is more likely to wipe out species than to create them. Plants and animals that have followed the same rhythms for millennia are suddenly being confronted with a world they’re unprepared for—and adaptation usually isn’t an option. This is not the first time climate change has dramatically transformed Earth. Barnosky draws connections between the coming centuries and the end of the last ice age, when mass extinctions swept the planet. The differences now are that climate change is faster and hotter than past changes, and for the first time humanity is driving it, which means this time we can work to stop it. No one knows exactly what nature will come to look like in this new age of global warming, but Heatstroke gives us a haunting portrait of what we stand to lose and the vitality of what can be saved. The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment. Anne Ehrlich and Paul Ehrlich. 2008. Island Press, Washington, DC. 440 pp. $35, hardcover. ISBN 9781597260961. In humanity’s more than 100,000 year history, we have evolved from vulnerable creatures clawing sustenance from Earth to a sophisticated global society manipulating every inch of it. In short, we have become the dominant animal. Why, then, are we creating a world that threatens our own species? What can we do to change the current trajectory toward more climate change, increased famine, and epidemic disease? Renowned Stanford scientists Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich believe that intelligently addressing those questions depends on a clear understanding of how we evolved and how and why we’re changing the planet in ways that darken our descendants’ future. The Dominant Animal arms readers with that 758 Southeastern Naturalist Vol. 8, No.4 knowledge, tracing the interplay between environmental change and genetic and cultural evolution since the dawn of humanity. In lucid and engaging prose, they describe how Homo sapiens adapted to their surroundings, eventually developing the vibrant cultures, vast scientific knowledge, and technological wizardy we know today. But the Ehrlichs also explore the fl ip side of this triumphant story of innovation and conquest. As we clear forests to raise crops and build cities, lace the continents with highways, and create chemicals never before seen in nature, we may be undermining our own supremacy. The threats of environmental damage are clear from the daily headlines, but the outcome is far from destined. Humanity can again adapt—if we learn from our evolutionary past. Those lessons are crystallized in The Dominant Animal. Tackling the fundamental challenge of the human predicament, Paul and Anne Ehrlich offer a vivid and unique exploration of our origins, our evolution, and our future. Wildlife Science: Linking Ecological Theory and Management Applications. Timothy E. Fulbright and David G. Hewitt (Eds.). 2007. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 384 pp. $124.95, hardcover. ISBN 9780849374876. Consciously or not, wildlife managers generally act from a theoretical basis, although they may not be fully versed in the details or ramifications of that theory. In practice, the predictions of the practitioners sometimes prove more accurate than those of the theoreticians. Practitioners and theoreticians need to work together, but this proves difficult when new management ideas and cutting-edge ecological theory are often published in separate scientific outlets with distinctly different readerships. A compilation of the scientific papers presented at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute's 25th Anniversary Conference of April 2006, Wildlife Science: Linking Ecological Theory and Management Applications brings together these two often separate approaches to elucidate the theoretical underpinnings of wildlife management and to apply evolving ecological concepts to changes and adaptations in management practices. Gathering many of the best and greatest minds in wildlife science, this volume addresses the critically important theme of linking ecological theory and management applications. Divided into five parts, the first two parts deal with the landscape ecology of birds and mammals respectively, demonstrating the need for applied theory in gamebird management and the preservation of the cougar. Part three highlights the role of climate when applying ecological theory to habitat management and discusses the emergence of ecosystem management in managing wildlife at the ecosystem scale. Part four considers the management of wildlife disease and reveals the increasing importance of genetics in conservation and ecology. Finally, the economic and social issues affecting wildlife science round out the coverage in part five. Applying emerging ecological theory for the advancement of wildlife management, Wildlife Science: Linking Ecological Theory and Management Applications provides a long awaited cooperative look at the future of ecosystem management. Wildlife Habitat Management: Concepts and Applications in Forestry. Brenda C. McComb. 2007. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 384 pp. $83.95, hardcover. ISBN 9780849374890. In recent years, confl icts between ecological conservation and economic growth forced a reassessment of the motivations and goals of wildlife and forestry management. Focus shifted from game and commodity management to biodiversity conservation and ecological forestry. Previously separate fields such as forestry, biology, botany, and zoology merged into a common framework known as conservation biology and resource professionals began 2009 Noteworthy Books 759 to approach natural resource problems in an interdisciplinary light. Wildlife Habitat Management: Concepts and Applications in Forestry presents anintegrated reference combining silvicultural and forest planning principles with principles of habitat ecology and conservation biology. With extensive references and case studies drawn from real situations, this book begins with general concepts such as habitat selection, forest composition, infl uences on habitat patterns, and the dynamics of disturbance ecology. It considers management approaches for specific habitats including even-aged and unevenaged systems, riparian areas, and dead wood and highlights those approaches that will conserve and manage biodiversity. The author discusses assessment and prioritization policies, monitoring techniques, and ethical and legal issues that can have worldwide impact. Detailed appendices provide a glossary, scientific names, and tools for measuring and interpreting habitat elements. Writing in a species-specific manner, the author emphasizes the need to consider the potential effects of management decisions on biodiversity conservation and maintains a holistic approach throughout the book. Drawing from the author’s more than 30 years working and teaching in natural resources conservation, Wildlife Habitat Management: Concepts and Applications in Forestry provides a synopsis of current preservation techniques and establishes a common body of knowledge from which to approach the conservation of biodiversity in the future. GIS for Environmental Decision-Making. Andrew A. Lovett and Katy Appleton (Eds.). 2007. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 288 pp. $104.95, hardcover. ISBN 9780849374234. Environmental applications have long been a core use of GIS. However, the effectiveness of GIS-based methods depends on the decision-making frameworks and contexts within which they are employed. GIS for Environmental Decision-Making takes an interdisciplinary look at the capacities of GIS to integrate, analyze, and display data on which decisions must be based. It provides a broad prospective on the current state of GIS for environmental decisionmaking and emphasizes the importance of matters related to data, analysis, and modeling tools, as well as stakeholder participation. The book is divided into three sections, which effectively relate to three key aspects of the decisionmaking process as supported by GIS: data required, tools being developed, and aspects of participation. The first section stresses the ability to integrate data from different sources as a defining characteristic of GIS and illustrates the benefits that this can bring in the context of deriving land-use and other information. The second section discusses a range of issues concerning the use of GIS for suitability mapping and strategic planning exercises, through illustrative examples. The last section of the book focuses on the use of GIS-based techniques to facilitate public participation in decision-making processes. In particular, it provides an overview of developments in this area, concentrating on how GIS, modeling, and 3D landscape visualization techniques are gradually achieving closer integration. Given the complex challenges presented by global environmental change, GIS for Environmental Decision-Making provides a clear illustration of how the use of GIS can make significant contributions to trans-disciplinary initiatives to address environmental problems. Marine Ornamental Shrimp: Biology, Aquaculture, and Conservation. Ricardo Calado. 2008. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA. 280 pp. $199.99, hardcover. ISBN 9781405170864. Marine ornamental shrimp are amongst the most heavily traded invertebrate species in the aquarium industry. The majority of traded species are still collected from the wild, having a major effect on ocean 760 Southeastern Naturalist Vol. 8, No.4 The Southeastern Naturalist welcomes submissions of review copies of books that publishers or authors would like to recommend to the journal’s readership and are relevant to the journal’s mission of publishing information about the natural history of the southeastern US. Accompanying short, descriptive summaries of the text are also welcome. ecosystems. An increase in the amount of culture of these species is now a major priority for those in the trade and for marine conservationists. Marine Ornamental Shrimp provides a global overview of the biology, culture, and conservation of the major families of marine ornamental shrimp. Coverage in this thorough volume includes: ecological aspects; reproductive biology; major techniques used in culture systems for maturation, larviculture, and juvenile growth; and details of the main conservation issues surrounding these important species, including a discussion of the negative aspects of wild specimen collection and the ongoing efforts to mitigate such impacts. Marine Ornamental Shrimp is an important and extremely timely publication which will be an essential reference and manual for all those involved in the trade and culture of marine ornamental species, including aquaculture scientists and personnel in aquaria. Conservation biologists and invertebrate zoologists will also find much of importance within this book. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where aquaculture and biological sciences are studied and taught should have copies of this book on their shelves. An Introduction to Plant Breeding. Jack Brown and Peter Caligari. 2008. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA. 224 pp. $83.99, softcover. ISBN 9781405133449. Plants have been successfully selectively bred for thousands of years, culminating in incredible yields, quality, resistance and so on that we see in our modern-day crops and ornamental plants. In recent years the techniques used have been rapidly advanced and refined to include molecular, cell, and genetic techniques. An Introduction to Plant Breeding provides comprehensive coverage of the whole area of plant breeding. Covering modes of reproduction in plants, breeding objectives and schemes, genetics, predictions, selection, alternative techniques, and practical considerations. Each chapter is carefully laid out in a student friendly way and includes questions for the reader. The book is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and researching plant breeding. Ecology. Michael L. Cain, William D. Bowman, and Sally D. Hacker. 2008. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA. 552 pp. $109.95, hardcover. ISBN 9780878930838. Understanding ecology is important in today’s world. Yet, due to the sheer volume of conceptual material and morass of details to be digested, many students find it a difficult subject to grasp. Moreover, the dynamic nature of this discipline presents challenges to providing students with the most current information available. For some time now, instructors have been calling for a textbook that offers just the right balance of subject matter emphasis, clearly presented concepts, and engaging, fresh examples. Ecology—authored by ecologists who each have more than 10 years’ experience teaching the subject—is that book. To aid students in integrating material across the levels at which ecology is studied, the book is structured so that they are always reminded of connections among levels of the ecological hierarchy (from individuals to populations to communities to ecosystems) and links to evolution, a unifying theme for all of ecology. 547 illustrations accompany and clarify the text.