Dr. Estelle Levetin,
University of Tulsa Karen McMahon,
University of Tulsa
ISBN: 0072970065 Copyright year: 2008
New to this Edition
Color is an essential part of the allure of plants, and we are
extremely pleased that the fifth edition of Plants and Society
now includes figures and tables in brilliant color. More than
350 photographs, many of them new, and nearly 200 drawings
are in full color. We have updated and incorporated new
information into most of the chapters. We have also tried to
respond to many of the suggestions made by reviewers. The
scientific method has been added as a new section in Chapter
1 to clarify the process of science and dispel misinformation
about the scientific theory prevalent in the popular media. In
Chapter 3, the discovery of the world’s smallest genome in
bacteria, which live inside insect pests, makes the case for
the evolution of organelles from once free-living microbes.
Additionally, this chapter includes a report on how the
number of stomata in fossil tree leaves can be used to estimate
altitude of populations in the geological past. The topsy-turvy
role of carnivorous plants in food webs is expanded with
the discovery of one species that digests leaf litter on the
rain forest floor. Chapter 7 describes the knowledge learned
from sequencing the first tree genome, and in Chapter 15, the
development of genetically engineered trees for forestry and
agriculture is promising. Knowledge from phylogenetics has
brought updates to the classification system. The molecular
classification of plants in the APG (American Phylogeny
Group) system is introduced in Chapter 8, and Chapter 9 now
includes a discussion on the three-domain system of Archaea,
Bacteria, and Eukarya.
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2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education