This book provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the recent developments in cotton production and processing, including a number of genetic approaches, such as GM cotton for pest resistance, which have been hotly debated in recent decades. In the era of climate change, cotton is facing diverse abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, toxic metals and environmental pollutants. As such, scientists are developing stress-tolerant cultivars using agronomic, genetic and molecular approaches. Gathering papers on these developments, this timely book is a valuable resource for a wide audience, including plant scientists, agronomists, soil scientists, botanists, environmental scientists and extention workers.

This book has a wider approach not strictly focused on crop production compared to other books that are strictly oriented towards bees, but has a generalist approach to pollination biology. It also highlights relationships between introduced and wild pollinators and consequences of such introductions on communities of wild pollinating insects. The chapters on biochemical basis of plant-pollination interaction, pollination energetics, climate change and pollinators and pollinators as bioindicators of ecosystem functioning provide a base for future insights into pollination biology. The role of honeybees and wild bees on crop pollination, value of bee pollination, planned honeybee pollination, non-bee pollinators, safety of pollinators, pollination in cages, pollination for hybrid seed production, the problem of diseases, genetically modified plants and bees, the role of bees in improving food security and livelihoods, capacity building and awareness for pollinators are also discussed.

"Cotton, 2nd edition, edited by David D. Fang and Richard G. Percy, is a long awaited, much needed comprehensive update on the science of cotton. This book epitomizes the thorough coverage of an Agronomy Monograph. Readers will find essential coverage of the many scientific advancements in the field, from fiber handling to the transgenic cotton revolution. This amazing and versatile crop, cultivated for more than 7000 years, is one of the most powerful stories in agricultural science. More than 50 experts who contributed to this volume represent the leading edge of this exciting story."

1. Paleobiology of the Precambrian: The Age of Blue-Green Algae.- Morphology and Classification of Cyanophytes.- Assessment of the Cyanophytic Fossil Record.- Quantity of Fossil Evidence.- Quality and Geological Distribution of Fossil Evidence.- Conclusions.- Origin of Blue-Green Algae.- Mode of Origin.- Paleobiological Evidence.- Phylogeny of the Cyanophyta.- Coccoid Line ("Coccogoneae").- Filamentous Line ("Hormogoneae").- Evolutionary Conservatism in the Cyanophyta.- Summary.- References.- 2. Five-Kingdom Classification and the Origin and Evolution of Cells.- Plants and Animals: Botanists a.