The Forgotten Pollinators
By: Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan ; with a foreword by Edward O. Wilson ; illustrations by Paul Mirocha.
Contributors: Nabhan, Gary Paul.
Publisher: Island Press [for] Shearwater Books
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
Subjects: Pollinators; Animal-plant relationships; Biological diversity
Description: 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 others 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 animals and demonstrates 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."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-240) and index.