Product Description

Consider this: Without interaction between animals and flowering plants, the seeds and fruits that make up nearly eighty percent of the human diet would not exist.In "The Forgotten Pollinators," Stephen L. Buchmann, one of the world's leading authorities on bees and pollination, and Gary Paul Nabhan, award-winning writer and renowned crop ecologist, explore the vital but little-appreciated relationship between plants and the animals they depend on for reproduction -- bees, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, bats, and countless other animals, some widely recognized and other almost unknown.Scenes from around the globe -- examining island flora and fauna on the Galapagos, counting bees in the Panamanian rain forest, witnessing an ancient honey-hunting ritual in Malaysia -- bring to life the hidden relationships between plants and animals, and demonstrate the ways in which human society affects and is affected by those relationships. Buchmann and Nabhan combine vignettes from the field with expository discussions of ecology, botany, and crop science to present a lively and fascinating account of the ecological and cultural context of plant-pollinator relationships.More than any other natural process, plant-pollinator relationships offer vivid examples of the connections between endangered species and threatened habitats. The authors explain how human-induced changes in pollinator populations -- caused by overuse of chemical pesticides, unbridled development, and conversion of natural areas into monocultural cropland-can have a ripple effect on disparate species, ultimately leading to a "cascade of linked extinctions."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #279074 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Amazon.com Review
In The Forgotten Pollinators, two researchers delve into the little-known and fascinating world of pollination. The authors, an entomologist and an ethnobotanist and nature writer, illustrate in clear yet proficient language the importance of this interaction between insect and plant, which provides the world with one-third of its food source. Using colorful examples--including a moth that rappels down cliffs to pollinate a plant in Hawaii--they also explain how modern developments are threatening this essential process. Published through the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the book is aimed at raising awareness about the potential loss of pollinators and their plants, while showing the larger picture of a fragile ecosystem through the eyes of some of its more unnoticed inhabitants.

From Publishers Weekly
Popular environmental literature has generally overlooked the role of pollinators?animals such as bees, beetles, butterflies, moths and bats. In fact, our information on pollinator-plant interaction may be the weakest link in understanding how ecosystems function, say the authors. This book is the centerpiece of a public-awareness campaign based at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Buchmann, a leading authority on pollination, and Nabhan (The Desert Smells Like Rain) explore this vital link between plants and their pollinators. It is a disturbing story of disappearing insects and diminishing plant reproduction, owing to overuse of pesticide and fragmented habitat. The authors combine anecdotes from the field with discussions of ecology, entomology, botany, crop science and the economics of pollination. Stories range from the Virgin River in Utah to the Galapagos and a honey-gathering ritual in Malaysia. Their studies show that wildland protection is fundamental to sustaining agricultural productivity. This important addition to the environmental bookshelf is enlivened by Mirocha's delightful drawings.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA. Over 30 years ago Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, when "no bees droned among the blossoms" and fruitless falls, autumns in which "there was no pollination and there would be no fruit." She gave two reasons: the poisoning of pollinating insects by herbicides and pesticides, and the destruction of habitat. This book explores the vital relationship between plants and their pollinators and how depletion of these pollinators threatens the plants that the planet depends upon for sustenance and diversity. The authors have traveled extensively throughout the world studying insects, birds, and animals in their role as pollinators. They present an entertaining account of the information gathered in their travels, studies pertaining to the present worldwide status of the pollinators and the plants they pollinate, their predictions for the future, and their recommendations to avert the loss of pollinators and their habitats. The chapters on the monarch butterfly and the honeybee are most outstanding. The book can be read for general knowledge, as well for science and ecology research.?Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Buds 'n the Bees
Honey bees are less easily forgotten in 2008 than they were in 1997, when this book was published. Any crisis is good press, and several threats to honey bees - sudden hive collapse, viral and other infestations, etc - have put the hives on the front pages lately. A serious decline in the population of commercial pollinators does threaten America's agricultural productivity, especially of orchard crops. Doing something about it will require serious science and public support for serious science, so perhaps all of us ought to learn something about the buds and the bees.

The first chapter of The Forgotten Pollinators is titled "Silent Springs and Fruitless Falls: the Impending Pollinator Crisis". Clearly the authors are alarmed about public ignorance or indifference to the role of pollinators in the ecology of Earth today. However, the bulk of their book is not alarmist but informational. They describe in lively detail the physical mechanisms of pollination, the symbiotic interdependencies of diverse plants and their specific pollinators, and a bit of the history of human-related changes in populations of pollinators and thus of plant communities. As the book jacket declares, "plant-pollinator relationships offer vivid examples of the connections between endangered species and threatened habitats." Plant-pollinator relationships also offer remarkable proofs of Darwinian evolutionary theories, as flowers and beaks have co-evolved for adaptive mutual reproductive advantage.

The Forgotten Pollinators is solid science but it's also a chatty book, full of personal anecdotes and asides, written in easy-going non-technical prose. It's a book you might read in your study, in a lawn chair on your patio after planting your dahlia tubers, or even at the beach, as I did.

Dry but urgent
I have to commend the idea contained in this volume more than the text itself -- it is sort of a dry read. But VERY, VERY important and timely. Among botanists and entomologists the realization is growing that pollinator populations around the world are in steep decline. The authors launched THE FORGOTTEN POLLINATOR PROJECT to spread awareness of both the crisis and the urgency of protecting whole ecosystems. A flowering plant cannot exist without the species that facilitate fertilization of its seeds. Many flowers are very specifically tuned to one or a few species of insects, birds or mammals -- coevolved for mutual benefit. Because of ecosystem destruction and fragmentation it can become impossible for the right critter to get to the right flower at the right time. Party's over. This book has renewed currency 11 years after publication with the spreading collapse of honey bee populations.

Was entertaining..now important
I first read this book when it was published. It was entertaining and interesting. Each year after I saw my mango, tamarind, lychee trees in a very different way.

Now, (2007), with the global disappearance of major portions of the honeybee population, this book is relevant to survival.