This chapter provides more information on manipulating text, presenting two examples. Example 1 focuses on standardizing names in a phylogenetic tree description, using R to reformat taxon names, create lists, sort data and use wildcards for when some things you are interested in don't have exactly ...

Food webs are fundamental in much of ecology and there has been a steady increase in studying their structure and properties over the past 50 years, nowadays often utilizing molecular methods too. First, this chapter will create code to draw a food web, then it will introduce the package cheddar....

This book is extensively illustrated, and addresses both fundamental traditional techniques and new methodologies. The chapters aim to provide an introduction to basic techniques for laboratory and field work with plant-parasitic and free-living soil-dwelling nematodes. The coverage highlights...

Nematodes can be present in various parts of plants or at various depths in the soil, depending on the circumstances and the life stage. This means that one should be aware of these possibilities when collecting samples. Also, samples should be taken from the proper matrix at the appropriate time,...

A nematological culture is a method of multiplying nematodes by enabling them to reproduce and increase in a culture medium or a specific host under controlled conditions. This chapter presents culturing techniques, focused mainly on plant-parasitic nematodes and entomopathogenic nematodes, with...

This chapter provides an overview of the practical methodologies that can be used to identify and characterize the tandem repeats that are most frequently used as genetic markers in nematodes (including plant-parasitic and entomopathogenic nematodes), namely satellite DNA and microsatellites. The...

This chapter focuses primarily on the use and evaluation of fungal nucleotide sequences to obtain information that can be used to elucidate relationships between strains and specimens. The importance of the reexamination and evaluation of older material in order to identify new species derived from ...

This chapter briefly describes the taxonomy and life cycle of lice and mange mites. The clinical presentation and effects on cattle performance of chorioptic (Chorioptes bovis), sarcoptic (Sarcoptes scabiei), psoroptic (Psoroptes ovis) and demodectic (Demodex bovis and D. ghanensis) mange, and the...

The trajectory of plant invasions - for better or for worse - can be tied to interactions between plants and the soil community. Here, we highlight five broad ways in which belowground interactions can influence the trajectory of biological invasions by non-native plant species. First, many...

This chapter focuses on how transcriptomics has boosted research in pest science, the lessons it teaches and possible directions for future study. Some of the biggest areas for future research, i.e. transcriptome characterization of insect pests, invasive species and biological control agents,...