Stern's Introductory Plant Biology - James Bidlack,Shelley Jansky

About the book

This introductory text assumes little prior scientific knowledge on the part of the student. It includes sufficient information for some shorter introductory botany courses open to both majors and nonmajors, and is arranged so that certain sections can be omitted without disrupting the overall continuity of the course. Stern emphasizes current interests while presenting basic botanical principles.

Key features

Most of the chapters include new opening photographs, revisions as suggested by reviewers, and updated additional readings.

Chapter 1: New text on use of ethanol in vehicles.

Chapter 4: A discussion of chimeras.

Chapter 6: An introduction to dendroclimatology.

Chapter 10: New art to expand upon presentation of the Calvin cycle.

Chapter 13: A discussion of transposable elements and an explanation of the United States National Plant Genome Initiative.

Chapter 17: A discussion of drug resistant bacteria.

Chapter 23: Clarification of the use of ¿n¿ and ¿x¿ for describing ploidy levels in plants.

Chapters 15 (Evolution), 16 (Taxonomy), and 25 (Ecology) have been extensively modified.

-An introductory section has been added to Chapter 15, outlining applications of evolutionary theory in agriculture, medicine, ecology, and biotechnology, and new photos have been added to enhance the discussion.

-Chapter 16 has been modified to include a discussion of challenges faced by taxonomists when classifying plants. Morphological, breeding, ecological, cladistic, eclectic, and nominalistic species concepts are also described.

-Chapter 25 has been significantly revised and updated to include new photographs as well as discussions of communities; the effect of soil mineral content on plant species distribution; trophic efficiency; allelopathy; life histories; the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles; succession, using Mount St. Helens as an example; climate change and its potential implications; wind, water, and soil erosion, land reclamation; loss of biodiversity; acid rain; wetlands; species invasions; and land restoration.

The same emphasis on traditional life cycles has been retained, as this is considered to be one of the most important attributes of the book, distinguishing it from most other plant biology books. Some of the life cycles have been enlarged and revised to make them more visible and accurately display structures described in the text.

To pique student interest and reinforce concepts, there is a considerable amount of ecology and ethnobotany included with traditional botany throughout the text.

A chapter outline, review questions, discussion questions, learning online topics, and additional reading lists are provided for each chapter. New terms are defined as they are introduced, and those used more than once are boldfaced and included in a pronunciation glossary.

Stern implements a traditional, micro to macro approach (cells to ecology) to organizing chapters.