Cognitive Ecology of Pollination: Animal Behaviour and Floral Evolution - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521781957 ISBN 13: 9780521781954

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Important breakthroughs have recently been made in our understanding of the cognitive and sensory abilities of pollinators, such as how pollinators perceive, memorize, and react to floral signals and rewards; how they work flowers, move among inflorescences, and transport pollen. These new findings have obvious implications for the evolution of floral display and diversity, but most existing publications are scattered across a wide range of journals in very different research traditions. This book brings together outstanding scholars from many different fields of pollination biology, integrating the work of neuroethologists and evolutionary ecologists to present a multidisciplinary approach.

About this title

Book Description:

Recent advances have been made in our understanding of how pollinating animals, particularly insects, perceive, memorize, and react to flowers; how they move along inflorescences and transport pollen. Sixteen chapters in this book describe the cognitive and sensory abilities of pollinators and how they have influenced the extraordinary variety of floral colour, form, and scent that we can observe in nature. Aimed at graduates and researchers, it integrates the work of evolutionary ecologists and neuroethologists for a multi-disciplinary approach to pollination biology.

Review:

"Cognitive Ecology of Pollination is a book I would recommend to both graduate students and colleagues studying in botany, zoology, or pollination biology at any level of Organization." Ecology

"...the editors have done a great job... The book provides an excellent introduction to the field... it is simply an excellent review of mechanistic approaches to pollinator behaviour... Anyone interested in pollination biology, or mutualism in general, should read this book." Ralph V. Cartar, Quarterly Review of Biology

"Chittka and Thompson have produced an excellent compilation of 16 chapters, all of which work from a central premise that pollinators, mostly insects but also birds and bats, may express highly labile preferences for particular floral types. I liked this book. It is uniformly well written and well edited. The figures and tables are easy to decipher and headings and sub-headings efficiently and effectively used. Finally, I believe that the editors met their goal of bridging the gaps that seemingly exist between different traditions: zoology vs. botany, functional vs. causal biology, organismal vs. population level analysis." Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada

"Interesting ideas are presented throughout the book," Johanne Brunet, Plant Science Bulletin

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0521781957
• ISBN 13: 9780521781954
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Chittka Lars, Thomson James D.