New Zealand is the first country to have compiled a checklist of its entire living and fossil biota. This trilogy provides a review and inventory of New Zealand's entire living and fossil biodiversity - an international effort involving 238 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Together, the three volumes list every one of the approximately 56,120 living and 14,700 fossil species of New Zealand's plants, animal, fungi, and micro-organisms. These volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, an international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all described species on Earth into one seamless list - the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online biological telephone directory.

A detailed, research-informed synthesis of the current issues facing the Australasian biota and the challenges involved in their conservation.

This edited volume is a timely and comprehensive summary of the New Zealand lizard fauna. Nestled in the south-west Pacific, New Zealand is a large archipelago that displays the faunal signatures of both its Gondwanan origins, and more recent oceanic island influences. New Zealand was one of the last countries on Earth to be discovered, and likewise, the full extent of the faunal diversity present within the archipelago is only just starting to be appreciated. This is no better exemplified than in lizards, where just 30 species (20 skinks, 10 geckos) were recognized in the 1950s, but now 104 are formally or informally recognized (61 skinks, 43 geckos). Thus, New Zealand contains one of the most diverse lizard faunas of any cool, temperate region on Earth. This book brings together the world’s leading experts in the field to produce an authoritative overview of the history, taxonomy, biogeography, ecology, life-history, physiology and conservation of New Zealand lizards.

The Handbook of Australasian Biogeography is the most comprehensive overview of the biogeography of Australasian plants, fungi and animal taxa in a single volume. This volume is unique in its coverage of marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and subterranean taxa. It is an essential publication for anyone studying or researching Australasian biogeography. The book contains biogeographic reviews of all major plant, animal and fungal groups in Australasia by experts in the field, including a strong emphasis on invertebrates, algae, fungi and subterranean taxa. It discusses how Australasia is different from the rest of the world and what other areas share its history and biota.

This book is about phylogenetic diversity as an approach to reduce biodiversity losses in this period of mass extinction. Chapters in the first section deal with questions such as the way we value phylogenetic diversity among other criteria for biodiversity conservation; the choice of measures; the loss of phylogenetic diversity with extinction; the importance of organisms that are deeply branched in the tree of life, and the role of relict species. The second section is composed by contributions exploring methodological aspects, such as how to deal with abundance, sampling effort, or conflicting trees in analysis of phylogenetic diversity. The last section is devoted to applications, showing how phylogenetic diversity can be integrated in systematic conservation planning, in EDGE and HEDGE evaluations. This wide coverage makes the book a reference for academics, policy makers and stakeholders dealing with biodiversity conservation.

The loss of the earth's biological diversity is widely recognized as a critical environmental problem. That loss is most severe in developing countries, where the conditions of human existence are most difficult. Conserving Biodiversity presents an agenda for research that can provide information to formulate policy and design conservation programs in the Third World. The book includes discussions of research needs in the biological sciences as well as economics and anthropology, areas of critical importance to conservation and sustainable development. Although specifically directed toward development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and decisionmakers in developing nations, this volume should be of interest to all who are involved in the conservation of biological diversity.

This section of the Handbook of Zoology is intended as a comprehensive and exhaustive account of the biology of the taxa Gastrotricha, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Priapulida, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera, Gnathostomulida, Micrognathozoa, Rotifera, Seisonida and Acanthocephala, covering all relevant topics such as morphology, ecology, phylogeny and diversity. The series is intended to be a detailed and up-to-date account of these taxa. As was the case with the first edition, the Handbook is intended to serve as a reliable resource for decades. Many of the taxa of this volume are comparatively unknown to many biologists, despite their diversity and importance for example in meiofaunal communities (Gastrotricha, Rotifera, Gnathostomulida), their fascinating recent discoveries (Loricifera and Micrognathozoa), their importance as parasites (many nematodes, Nematomorpha, Acanthocephala) and their importance for evolutionary questions (e.g. Priapulida, Gastrotricha). The groups covered range from those poor in species (such as Micrognathozoa with 2 known species) to the species-rich and diverse Nematoda and their ca. 20.000 described species. While each taxon is covered by one chapter, nematodes are treated in several chapters dedicated to their structural, taxonomic and ecological diversity.