This book deals with the ecology of rivers and streams in the Oriental Region, and describes the composition of their unique fauna - especially the diverse array of animals which live on and among the bottom sediments. Dichotomous keys are provided as an aid to the identification of these animals, and the book is illustrated by over 100 pages of line drawings and maps. Special emphasis is given to the impact of human activities on streams and rivers, and the book concludes with a discussion of conservation and management options for these endangered habitats.

This will be the first comprehensive and detailed volume on the physical environment of Southeast Asia and will be essential reading for geographers, ecologists, and environmental managers. As the definitive reference work on the region it will cover all aspects of the biophysical environment and its current environmental problems and mangement practices. The topics discussed range from a regional view of landforms and vegetation to specific cases including urban environments,coral reefs, volcanic hazards, and the Mekong River Basin. The contributors are distinguished, scholarly, and have a long association with Southeast Asia.This is the fourth volume to be published in the Oxford Regional Environment series.

This book is the result of a symposium held in Phila., PA, in April 1976, on the bicentennial of Amer. independence. It reviewed the contributions of evolution, systematics, quantitative genetics, ecology, & sociobiology to our understanding of the natural world. The papers identify fundamental shortcomings existing within each discipline. They suggest a need for an integration of these sciences & a more thorough testing within each discipline of the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Papers are organized by theme: The Changing Scenes; The Influence of the New World on the Study of Natural History; Evolution & Systematics; Population Genetics; Terrestrial Ecology; Aquatic Ecology; & Behavior & Sociobiology. Illustrations.

In recent years, tropical forests have received more attention and have been the subject of greater environmental concern than any other kind of vegetation. There is an increasing public awareness of the importance of these forests, not only as a diminishing source of countless products used by mankind, nor for their effects on soil stabilization and climate, but as unrivalled sources of what today we call biodiversity. Threats to the continued existence of the forests represent threats to tens of thousands of species of organisms, both plants and animals. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that there have been no major scientific accounts published in recent years since the classic handbook by Paul W. Richards, The Tropical Rain Forest in 1952. Some excellent popular accounts of tropical rain forests have been published including Paul Richard's The Life of the Jungle, and Catherine Caulfield's In the Rainforest and Jungles, edited by Edward Ayensu. There have been numerous, often conflicting, assessments of the rate of conversion of tropical forests to other uses and explanations of the underlying causes, and in 1978 UNESCO/UNEPI FAO published a massive report, The Tropical Rain Forest, which, although full of useful information, is highly selective and does not fully survey the enormous diversity of the forests.