A comprehensive dictionary covering the science of biological diversity.

The World's Most Trusted Reference Books.

This concise dictionary of organisms and their ecology contains over 10,000 entries on ecosystems, habitats, communities, populations, species, trophic structures, productivity, energetics, dynamics, associations, behavior, reproduction, and physiology. The taxonomy of plants, animals, monerans, protistans and fungi down to ordinal level is introduced, based on a modern system of classification favored by many workers. The definitions give brief details of structure, biology, distribution, diversity, common names, and taxa of special interest. For the majority of flowering plants and invertebrate animals the classification goes down to family level. Fossil groups are covered in a much more selective manner with an emphasis on vernacular names. Definitions are always clear and concise and the text is complemented by some 700 illustrations mostly of living organisms, but some showing biogeographical areas and a range of collecting equipment. This new dictionary has been developed from the authors' earlier work, Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (Cambridge University Press, 1982), to produce a less specialized book covering a subject field that can best be summed up as traditional natural history.

Written in a clear, accessible style, this authoritative and wide-ranging dictionary contains entries on all aspects of ecology and related environmental scientific disciplines such as biogeography, genetics, soil science, geomorphology, atmospheric science, and oceanography. Entries cover topics such as plant and animal physiology, animal behaviour, pollution, conservation, habitat management, population, evolution, environmental pollution, climatology, and meteorology. It also includes many line drawings and useful appendices. Fully revised, updated, and expanded, with over 300 new entries that include beach replenishment, delta method, urban heat island, and zonal soils, this new edition is invaluable to students of ecology, biology, and environmental and conservation studies, and professionals in related areas, as well as the general reader with an interest in the natural world.