Animal behavior forms the interface between an organism's internal state and its environment, shaping survival and reproductive success. This chapter examines the evolutionary and ecological drivers of animal social organization, including resource acquisition, predation, and reproductive competition. It explores the diversity of animal societies, emphasizing the balance between the costs and benefits of group living. Key mechanisms promoting social cohesion, such as communication, dominance hierarchies, cooperation, altruism, and social learning, are discussed, along with their roles in the emergence of animal culture. The chapter highlights social systems as dynamic adaptations to ecological challenges and underscores their importance for predicting species responses to environmental change and guiding effective conservation strategies.
The accelerating biodiversity crisis requires innovative technologies to better understand and conserve animal populations and their habitats. This chapter explores how advances in remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), genomics, and bio-logging are transforming animal ecology and wildlife conservation. AI-powered remote sensing enables large-scale monitoring of habitat degradation, species distribution, population abundance, and illegal activities such as poaching. Genomic approaches provide non-invasive tools to assess genetic diversity, population connectivity, and detect elusive species. Bio-logging technologies generate detailed information on animal movement, behavior, health, and responses to environmental change. Despite these advances, widespread adoption is constrained by high costs, technical expertise requirements, and challenges in integrating diverse datasets. Standardized, collaborative, and cost-effective approaches are essential to translate these technologies into proactive and effective conservation strategies.
The biosphere is undergoing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis, marking the Sixth Mass Extinction and threatening ecosystem stability and vital services such as climate regulation, pollination, water purification, and food security. This chapter examines the major anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss, including habitat destruction and fragmentation, overexploitation of natural resources, climate change, pollution, and invasive alien species. It highlights how these stressors interact synergistically, accelerating species decline, disrupting ecological processes, and reducing ecosystem resilience. The chapter emphasizes the urgent need for integrated conservation strategies, sustainable resource management, habitat restoration, stronger environmental policies, and community participation. Addressing these interconnected threats is essential to conserving biodiversity, sustaining ecosystem functions, and securing the long-term health of the planet.
Plant growth-promoting bacteria contribute to agricultural sustainability by promoting plant growth, enhancing stress tolerance, and degrading pollutants such as organophosphate pesticides. This review documents 52 bacterial species capable of organophosphate degradation, with reported degradation efficiencies ranging from 40 to 99
Nitrogen losses and metabolic imbalance limit nitrogen use efficiency in wheat under conventional urea fertilization. This study examined whether nitrogen nano-fertilizers (N-NFs) improve nitrogen assimilation, reduce nitrogen leaching, and stabilize soil biochemical responses compared with urea. A field experiment was performed using 150 genetically diverse wheat cultivars grown under uniform agronomic management. Urea and N-NFs were applied at three nitrogen concentrations (150, 200, and 250 mg L⁻1) in a factorial design. Agronomic traits, nitrogen accumulation and leaching, nitrogen-assimilatory enzymes, oxidative stress indicators, antioxidant enzymes, and soil biochemical parameters were analyzed. Across nitrogen concentrations, N-NFs increased grain yield by 10–18
