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Sand flies are an ancient group of Diptera estimated to contain 1000 species. Approximately 70 of these transmit pathogens (viruses, bacteria and protists), which cause human and animal diseases. The most important are the Leishmania parasites, transmitted to humans and animals, during blood feeding by female sand flies, and which cause diseases that can be fatal or disfiguring. Sand flies are known to use volatile chemicals produced by plants to locate sugar meals, host odours to locate a blood meal, and chemicals from decaying vegetation and other sources to identify oviposition sites. In a limited number of cases, male sand flies also produce volatile chemicals (sex/aggregation pheromones) that are attractive to females and other males. The presence of sex/aggregation pheromones is well documented in Lutzomyia longipalpis sensu lato, the South American vector of Leishmania infantum, in which they were first identified 40 years ago. During this time, a range of behavioural and chemical methodologies have been applied to their study in the laboratory and the field. The presence of sex/aggregation pheromones has also been suggested in a small number of other New and Old-World vectors, but the evidence is incomplete, as it is either solely chemical, i.e. without supporting behavioural evidence or behavioural evidence is available, but there is no supporting chemical evidence. Within the Lu. longipalpis s.l. species complex, the sex/aggregation pheromones provide a taxonomic guide to the members of the complex. There are four different known chemical types (five members of the complex), and one of these, the most geographically widespread, has been synthesised in bulk quantity. The synthetic pheromone, co-located with insecticide, has been shown to significantly reduce numbers of sand flies, and leishmania infection in dogs, the reservoir of human infection, and could significantly impact the number of human cases.

Animal ecology. --- Habitat (Ecology) --- Food chains (Ecology)

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Scientist and author Cristina Eisenberg presents a fascinating and wide-ranging look at the dramatic ecological consequences of predator removal (and return) as she explores the concept of "trophic cascades" and the role of top predators in regulating ecosystems. She shows how and why animals such as wolves, sea otters, and sharks exert such a disproportionate influence on their environment, and considers how this notion can help provide practical solutions for restoring ecosystems.Trophic cascades are powerful stories about ecosystem processes--of predators and their prey, of what it takes to survive in a landscape, of the flow of nutrients. The Wolf's Tooth is the first book to focus on the vital connection between trophic cascades and biodiversity in a way that is accessible to a diverse readership.

Predation (Biology) --- Predatory animals --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Ecology.

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Dynamic Food Webs challenges us to rethink what factors may determine ecological and evolutionary pathways of food web development. It touches upon the intriguing idea that trophic interactions drive patterns and dynamics at different levels of biological organization: dynamics in species composition, dynamics in population life-history parameters and abundances, and dynamics in individual growth, size and behavior. These dynamics are shown to be strongly interrelated governing food web structure and stability and the role of populations and communities play in ecosystem functioning.

Animal population --- plant population --- population dynamics --- Food chains --- Models --- Biodiversity --- ecosystems --- Biological competition --- Food chains (Ecology). --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Food webs (Ecology) --- Trophic ecology --- Animals --- Ecology --- Nutrient cycles --- Food

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The multitrophic level approach to ecology addresses the complexity of food webs much more realistically than the traditional focus on simple systems and interactions. Only in the last few decades have ecologists become interested in the nature of more complex systems including tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivores and natural enemies. Plants may directly influence the behaviour of their herbivores' natural enemies, ecological interactions between two species are often indirectly mediated by a third species, landscape structure directly affects local tritrophic interactions and below-ground food webs are vital to above-ground organisms. The relative importance of top-down effects (control by predators) and bottom-up effects (control by resources) must also be determined. These interactions are explored in this exciting volume by expert researchers from a variety of ecological fields. This book provides a much-needed synthesis of multitrophic level interactions and serves as a guide for future research for ecologists of all descriptions.

Multitrophic interactions (Ecology). --- Environmental Sciences and Forestry. Environmental Management --- Environmental Protection. --- ecosystems --- Animal population --- plant population --- Biological competition --- Multitrophic interactions (Ecology) --- Interactions, Multitrophic (Ecology) --- Food chains (Ecology)

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Most of the earth's terrestrial species live in the soil. These organisms, which include many thousands of species of fungi and nematodes, shape aboveground plant and animal life as well as our climate and atmosphere. Indeed, all terrestrial ecosystems consist of interdependent aboveground and belowground compartments. Despite this, aboveground and belowground ecology have been conducted largely in isolation. This book represents the first major synthesis to focus explicitly on the connections between aboveground and belowground subsystems--and their importance for community structure and ecosystem functioning. David Wardle integrates a vast body of literature from numerous fields--including population ecology, ecosystem ecology, ecophysiology, ecological theory, soil science, and global-change biology--to explain the key conceptual issues relating to how aboveground and belowground communities affect one another and the processes that each component carries out. He then applies these concepts to a host of critical questions, including the regulation and function of biodiversity as well as the consequences of human-induced global change in the form of biological invasions, extinctions, atmospheric carbon-dioxide enrichment, nitrogen deposition, land-use change, and global warming. Through ambitious theoretical synthesis and a tremendous range of examples, Wardle shows that the key biotic drivers of community and ecosystem properties involve linkages between aboveground and belowground food webs, biotic interaction, the spatial and temporal dynamics of component organisms, and, ultimately, the ecophysiological traits of those organisms that emerge as ecological drivers. His conclusions will propel theoretical and empirical work throughout ecology.

General ecology and biosociology --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Soil ecology. --- Environmental Sciences and Forestry. Ecology --- Ecology (General) --- Food chains (Ecology). --- Ecology (General). --- Food webs (Ecology) --- Edaphology --- Animals --- Biological productivity --- Ecology --- Niche (Ecology) --- Nutrient cycles --- Soils --- Roots (Botany) --- Food --- Environmental aspects --- Trophic ecology