A Classification of Life Forms of the Sonoran Desert, With Emphasis on the Seed Plants and Their Survival Strategies

Autor: Crosswhite, Frank S., Crosswhite, Carol D.
Rok vydání: 1984
Zdroj: CALS Publications Archive. The University of Arizona..
Druh dokumentu: Článek
ISSN: 0734-3434
Popis: Taxonomists have published large numbers of scientific articles, monographs and books attempting to classify the creatures which live on earth. Paradoxically, although form (morphology) has been the criterion most widely used by taxonomists to separate the various types of life (creatures) one from the other to produce classification schemes, relatively little attention has been devoted to classifying "life forms" per se. Perhaps this has resulted from a tendency to emphasize phylogenetic reconstruction in preference to the importance of form in relation to function in life. Indeed taxonomists have traditionally studied preserved (dead) specimens from which it can be notoriously difficult to make interpretations relating to functional adaptations. The classification of life forms is only superficially taxonomic. To classify them it is necessary to understand them. To understand them we need to know about their physiological ecology.
Databáze: Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations