Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2018 -

This remarkable new book--developed by two professors emeritus at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada--will no doubt be recognized as a major accomplishment by fish scholars. It emphasizes the incredible diversity found in the world of fish, a fact easy to overlook when so many species are essentially essentially unobservable in their natural habitats. In this comprehensive text, the authors systematically examine fish biology in a broad sense, covering classification, ecology, physiology, behavior, relevant anatomy, and environmental adaptations. Within each general area, the authors present a knowledgeable, thoroughly up-to-date treatise. There are 16 chapters, a comprehensive index, a number of appendixes, a glossary, and a useful reference list. This work should be required reading for students, in addition to a standard text on ichthyology, and can serve as a valuable reference for professionals. The text is accompanied by numerous pen-and-ink drawings and 16 colored plates. In summary, this book is an academic achievement and a credit to its authors and publisher.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

It is probably rare for students in a first-year college biology class to not be introduced in some way to the utility of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as a workhorse of biological study and the most versatile and informative animal model used in research. Yet even this description sells the fruit fly short, as Mohr (Harvard Medical School) adeptly reveals in First in Fly. In exploring the many ways fruit fly research has contributed to science, Mohr discusses how this tiny, innocuous, nearly ubiquitously distributed species progressed from being a tool to understand basic genetics to a profoundly significant model for studying development, biochemistry, immunology, disease, neuroscience, and behavior. She reveals how fruit fly genes, RNAs, proteins, and biological pathways parallel those of mammals, including humans, due to orthology (shared ancestry) and the conservative nature of molecular evolution, legitimizing the use of fruit flies for studying even the most pressing human diseases--diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and cancers. The book is detailed, but Mohr has beautifully distilled the often complex findings of Drosophila research into language that will engage and inform a diverse audience.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Small, isolated populations of rare species regularly experience inbreeding and limited gene flow, rendering them unable to adapt to change and susceptible to increased risk of extinction. Managers need practical knowledge about how to address this problem. The authors, all experts in the field, have published widely on the topic, including Introduction to Conservation Genetics (CH, Nov'02, 40-1529). They fully explore the issues involved and propose genetic rescue (augmenting gene flow by crossing populations within a species) as an effective measure to aid fragmented populations. Historically, managers often resisted this approach and tended to preserve genetic isolation, which only exacerbates inbreeding. The authors examine known instances of using augmented gene flow with threatened species and detail how to predict when it can be harmful. This book displays excellent organization; each chapter supplies readers with an overview, key terms, boxed case studies, ample illustrations, a summary, further readings, and a software list. A helpful glossary and a thorough, current reference list equip readers for further study. This is likely to become a standard text on the subject; it should be essential for any library serving a conservation biology program.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Marshall (Univ. of Guelph, Canada) presents the second edition of his informative, user-friendly work. This comprehensive resource is engagingly written, at times humorous and witty. It provides thoroughly researched information on insect taxonomy, ecology, and behavior as well as the economic and medical contexts in which insects are involved. Over 4,000 photographs of insects appeared in the first edition; some were replaced, and many were added. Most insects are pictured in their natural environment, following information on orders and families. Each caption is accompanied by details on the depicted creature. All 33 insect orders are covered, as are many (though not all) of the northeastern US families. Most newly added photographs are of southeastern species. Pictures are complemented by a dichotomous, illustrated key of all orders and covered families. This key matches that of the previous edition. Two short keys were added: one helps identify biting invertebrates, the other, common household arthropods. This vital resource will benefit the curious, amateur entomologists, students, and researchers alike.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

This absorbing travelogue by a Smithsonian ornithologist owes inspiration to Edwin Way Teale's classic North with the Spring (1951). For 100 days in 2015, the author travels from coastal Texas up the Mississippi River Valley, then to northern Ontario and the Adirondacks. He drives, bikes, hikes, canoes, and camps every night, following the spring migration in a quest to see all 37 varieties of eastern warblers. He explores solo or with local experts, musing on the history of these areas and providing insightful commentary on the mixed effects of river levees, conservation, pollution, acid rain, climate change, hunting, fishing, monocultural agriculture, extraction industries, forestry practices, and trapping. Of special interest are Beehler's discourses on Native Americans and the changes humans have wrought on the land. The weighty issues he describes are enhanced by his sense of wonder and enjoyment of the trip, often at lesser-known parks and campgrounds. Not a reference book yet much more than a journal, North on the Wing makes a superb addition to collections on natural history, American history, and travel writing. An authoritative treasure and well-reasoned cri de coeur (with excellent chapter bibliographies).Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

A new field guide in the Peterson series raises high expectations for content and quality. The current volume does not disappoint. Leckie and Beadle here reprise their 2012 effort (Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America, CH, Oct'12, 50-0881), this time focusing on the southeastern US. The guide previously used in the southeast, also in the Peterson series, was Covell's 1984 Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America (CH, Feb'85). This work was a game changer for moth enthusiasts at the time and remained the go-to volume in the southeast ever since, though it illustrates "only" 1,300 species from the eastern US. Leckie and Beadle have presented color photos of 1,800 of the most commonly encountered species from the southeast. With this many species involved, information given for each is, by necessity, quite limited. A basic description, flight period diagram (seasonality), common and scientific names, geographic range, and host plants are all presented. The photographs are excellent, mostly with wings flat but angled backward, not spread as lepidopterists do (as in the Covell volume). A profoundly beautiful guide that will not be surpassed anytime soon. All libraries should have a copy.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

In mammals, females invest more time and material in producing individual offspring than do the males. This imbalance begins with the difference in the respective sizes of egg and sperm and continues with the disparity in parental care between the sexes. Given the importance of the female to reproductive success, one might assume that the study of mammalian reproductive biology would emphasize the female role, but instead, existing works have generally been written with male anatomy and physiology as the baseline and female structure and function presented as variations on these themes. In Reproduction in Mammals, Hayssen (Smith College) and Orr (Univ. of Utah) do an outstanding job of rectifying this situation. The authors have constructed a comprehensive study of female reproductive genetics, anatomy, physiology, behavior, and ecology. Interspersed throughout the book are essays on some of the women who have made contributions to the study of mammalian reproduction. The work manages to rectify some of the previous bias toward study of males without seeming preachy; this reviewer hopes someone will construct a summary of male reproductive biology as well-written and thorough as this one.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

This text is essential reading for any student thinking of a zoo or an aquarium career and will be useful for those studying environmental ethics. Forty-eight scholars and experts from disciplines ranging from biology to philosophy cover the history of keeping animals in captivity for display and conservation. The book includes a thorough index and bibliography, and the text is buttressed throughout by appropriate photos and other graphic material. Contributors emphasize that efforts zoos and aquariums make are many species' best hope of avoiding extinction. Most institutions strive to help but lack funding and adequate expert personnel; conservation efforts are also often hampered by the simple fact that too little is known about the behavior and reproduction of many animals. Institutions have largely ignored some kinds of animals (most amphibians, for example). When species populations have been rescued and returned to the wild, their life in captivity may have rendered them different from the original wild groups. A chapter on large modern aquariums is especially sobering.Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty and professionals.