How do ecosystems combine function and adaptability despite comprising large ensembles of individual populations that are not subject to any central control? This question is addressed in The Dynamic Nature of Ecosystems by replacing the prevailing static view of the balance of nature with a more dynamic perspective. It argues that it is the trade-off between the irregular, chaotic dynamics at the population level and the spatio-temporal organization of the system as a whole, that shapes ecological systems. Such a trade-off is mediated by the effects of positive feedback that link populations across time and space. By rejecting a purely mechanistic perception, this volume sets out to develop a new framework within which the dynamic nature and organization of ecosystems can be understood. Such a perspective leads to emphasizing uncertainty as an essential part of ecological systems instead of viewing it as an obstacle impeding quantitative evaluations and predictions.

The Executive's Guide to 21st Century Corporate Citizenship is a succinct handbook that provides senior managers with everything they need to understand how corporate citizenship builds reputation, delivers value to the bottom line, and mobilizes an organization's employees and customers. It shows how integrating sustainability and social impact to improve your operating context can also improve your company's competitive position, and steers readers through the field of corporate citizenship to provide actionable insights based on empirical research. The book features tools that will prove valuable for every business person thinking about how to maximize business and social value, while the concepts addressed in the book are essential for executives leading manufacturing B2B or B2C companies that are managing complex supply chains, integrated operations, and corporate reputation. This book provides a major update on how to 'do' corporate citizenship and will help you win the reputation battle and deliver value to society while creating the most successful business possible in today's competitive landscape.

This book presents modern Bayesian analysis in a format that is accessible to researchers in the fields of ecology, wildlife biology, and natural resource management. Bayesian analysis has undergone a remarkable transformation since the early 1990s. Widespread adoption of Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques has made the Bayesian paradigm the viable alternative to classical statistical procedures for scientific inference. The Bayesian approach has a number of desirable qualities, three chief ones being: i) the mathematical procedure is always the same, allowing the analyst to concentrate on the scientific aspects of the problem; ii) historical information is readily used, when appropriate; and iii) hierarchical models are readily accommodated. This monograph contains numerous worked examples and the requisite computer programs. The latter are easily modified to meet new situations. A primer on probability distributions is also included because these form the basis of Bayesian inference. Researchers and graduate students in Ecology and Natural Resource Management will find this book a valuable reference.

discusses the long evolution of the idea that foreign state and private financing can be used to protect tropical forests and the carbon stored within them, resulting in both local economic development and global climate benefits. links the literature on REDD+ with that covering Indonesias recent democratic regression, highlighting how the countrys environmental performance is inextricably linked to the timbre of its political governance. This book will be of great interests to students and scholars of political ecology, deforestation, climate change, environmental politics, natural resource management and environmental conservation.

How do we get to know air? Aeropolis: Queering Air in Toxicpolluted Worlds offers a speculative and interdisciplinary framework to reorient common understandings of air and air pollution as matter “out there.� Aeropolis contests regimes of managing air which ultimately operate toward upholding dominant modes of world-making that are dependent on forms of exclusion and inequity. Instead, Aeropolis proposes that air is thought of as a city, to center its social, cultural, political, ecological entanglements. Drawing upon feminist technoscience and queer ecological frameworks, Aeropolis moves away from solutions toward a methodology of “designing-thinking-making� that redirects and connects our understandings of air—as designers, as citizens—with ongoing struggles for just futures. Moving through a series of design interventions, histories of air, and theoretical coordinates, Aeropolis thinks with air across its many forms—through smog and dust, bodies and breath, pollen and weeds, and from urban design to geopolitics, polluted environments to open data, parks to aerial infrastructures. It insists that we acknowledge the diversity of air and its relation to humans, non-humans, and environments, both physically and affectively. That we become sensible to air by following its unruliness—by living, breathing, seeing, holding, touching, queering airs. With contributions from María Puig de la Bellacasa and Timothy K. Choy.

The annual Congress of the Italian Biochemical and Molecular Biology Society (SIB) was held in September 1999 in Alghero, Sardegna, Italy. The programme envisaged a symposium on molecular adaptations of haemoglobin function in ver- tebrates. Haemoglobin specialists from several countries were invited to speak at the symposium and paved the way for wide-ranging and stimulating discussions. The symposium contributions have been collected together in this volume. The structure/function relationship in haemoglobins from vertebrates (fishes populat- ing temperate and polar environments, diving birds, marine and terrestrial mam- mals) has been tackled from many angles, focusing on the adaptation of the oxy- gen-transport system to the constraints dictated by the environment. Eleven arti- cles review some of the most recent developments of the studies on this ancient oxygen-transport protein, characterized by high conservation during evolution. The volume offers the reader an updated, state-of-the-art summary of a field that is enjoying a true renaissance. Covering the topic from several viewpoints, the volume includes protein chemistry (amino acid sequence, secondary, tertiary and quaternary structures, thermodynamics of oxygen-binding features), molecular biology (globin gene structure, sequence, organization, expression and regulation) and evolution. In this representation of effective multidisciplinary and multina- tional collaborative efforts, reference is available to a wide range of disciplines and biological systems. The tools of the investigators comprise advanced and powerful methodologies developed in recent years, e. g.

In 2020, Christiaan De Beukelaer spent 150 days covering 14,000 nautical miles aboard the schooner Avontuur, a hundred-year-old sailing vessel that transports cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. Embarking in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he wanted to understand the realities of a little-known alternative to the shipping industry on which our global economy relies, and which contributes more carbon emissions than aviation. What started as a three-week stint of fieldwork aboard the ship turned into a five-month journey, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced all borders shut while crossing the ocean, preventing the crew from stepping ashore for months on end. Trade winds engagingly recounts De Beukelaer's life-changing personal odyssey and the complex journey the shipping industry is on to cut its carbon emissions. The Avontuur's mission remains crucial as ever: the shipping industry urgently needs to stop using fossil fuels, starting today. If we can't swiftly decarbonise shipping, we can't solve the climate crisis. -- .

This book sets out to reframe the theory of real options so that it can be used to support environmental investments for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Climate change policy often involves making decisions that concern extended time periods, and doing so under considerable uncertainty. By expanding and broadening the framework of real options, this book first introduces readers to new ways of quantifying investment decisions that can much more effectively address the shape and size of the uncertainty than traditional approaches using Net Present Value. In turn, the second part of the book applies this new theoretical framework to climate change policy by presenting a number of examples, and by providing a general perspective on investment decisions related to climate change and how to prioritize them.

With changing business needs and increased levels of consumer awareness concerning social and ecological issues, organisations need to realign their profitability strategies in order to demonstrate their engagement with sustainable practices. Sustainability Marketing: New directions and practices explores how an increase in customer's desire for sustainable products can form a key part of new marketing strategies. The authors shed new light on strategies that capture the benefits of sustainability from an ecological, social and profitability standpoint in business, while explaining the strategic intent required for building marketing strategies that will provide a competitive advantage. The book harnesses the Triple Bottom Line concept by highlighting the significance of developing, refining, and implementing marketing strategies with a key focus on sustainability, in order to leave a positive impact upon the planet and people. Sustainability Marketing provides solutions to scholars, marketers and decision makers aiming to gain an advantage in businesses where sustainability is increasingly prioritised.

This volume investigates the contemporary fauna that inhabit the Cuatro Cienegas Basin. Divided into 15 chapters, it addresses and describes their diversity, taxonomic and biogeogaphic affinities, and ecological characteristics. The Cuatro Cienegas Valley is a unique oasis in the south-central region of the State of Coahuila, part of the Sonoran Desert, in Mexico. Several clues, specially derived from the study of the microbiota, suggest a very ancient origin of the valley and its permanence through time. This condition had promoted a high level of endemism and led to unique interactions between the resident species.

Over the past 30 years sustainability has become increasingly important to scholarly research and business in practice. This book explores a variety of challenges faced by businesses when becoming sustainable and how this links to economic development and its corruption, ethical and taxation implications. Showcasing an interdisciplinary approach, the chapters explore topics such as business ethics, corporate responsibility, tax governance and sustainability practice.

This book examines the politics of harm in the context of palm oil production in Colombia, with a primary focus on the Pacific coast region. Globally, the palm oil industry is associated with practices that fit the most conventional definitions and perceptions of crime, but also crucially, forms of social and environmental harm that do not fit strictly legalistic definitions and understandings of crime. Drawing on rich field-based data from the region, Mol contributes empirically to an awareness of the constructions, practices, and the lived and perceived realities of harm related to palm oil production. She advances criminological debate around 'harm' by putting forward a theoretical and analytical approach that redirects the debate from a central concern with the academic contestedness of harm within criminology, towards a focus on the 'on-the-ground' contestedness of palm oil-related harm in Colombia. Detailed analysis and arresting conclusions ensure this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of Green and Critical Criminology, Environmental Sociology, and International and Critical Development Studies.

Vents and seeps are the epitome of life in extreme environments, but there is much more to these systems than just black smokers or hydrocarbon seeps. Many other ecosystems are characterized by moving fluids and this book provides an overview of the different habitats, their specific conditions as well as the technical challenges that have to be met when studying them. The book provides the current state of the art and will be a valuable resource for everybody that has an interest in such environments.

This book is about understanding the value of environmental services in South Asia. It provides an overview of different environmental problems in South Asia and examines how economic valuation techniques can be used to assess these problems. It brings together multiple case studies on valuation undertaken by economists and environmental scientists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka under the aegis of the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). The book addresses the challenges of valuing environmental changes that are unique to developing countries. Each chapter starts with a description of an environmental problem and the valuation strategy used, followed by a discussion of estimation methods and results. It is designed to serve as a reference book for students, teachers, researchers, non-government organizations, and practitioners of environmental valuation. Those interested in development and environmental economics, and natural resource management policies, will also find it useful.

The Routledge Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene provides a critical survey into the function of law and governance during a time period when humans have power to impact the Earth system. The Anthropocene is a 'crisis of the earth system'. This book addresses its implications for law and legal thinking in the 21st century. Unpacking the challenges of the Anthropocene for advocates of ecological law and politics, this handbook pursues a range of approaches to the scientific fact of anthropocentrism, with contributions from lawyers, philosophers, geographers and environmental and political scientists. Rather than adopting a hubristic normativity, the contributors engage methods, concepts and legal instruments in a way that underscores the importance of humility and an expansive ethical worldview. Contributors to this volume are the leading scholars and future leaders in the field. Rather than upholding orthodoxy, the handbook also problematizes received wisdom and is grounded in the conviction that the ideas we have inherited from the Holocene must all be open to question. Engaging such issues as the Capitalocene, Gaia theory, the rights of nature, posthumanism, the commons, geoengineering and civil disobedience, this handbook will be of enormous interest to academics, students and others with interests in ecological law and the current environmental crisis.

This edited volume comprises ideas, visions, strategies, and dreams of entrepreneurs, managers, scientists and political experts who share their best practice experience relating to the joint goal of a more sustainable, humanistic, and responsible fashion industry. Readers will find a variety of approaches and strategies that in sum represent a rich pool of insights and cases for anyone interested in the study of new management perspectives and in the systematic advancement of sustainable fashion.In 14 chapters, international authors discuss topics such as Sustainable Business Models, Cradle-to-Cradle, Circular Economy, Human Rights, Ethical Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Fashion Consumption, Certification and Auditing, Traceability, Impact Measurement, and Industry Transformation. Business case studies include H&M, Filippa K, Melawear, Otto, Tauko, and Tchibo. Further brands that are discussed in the book are Prada, Burberry, Hermes, Hugo Boss, and many more. The book demonstrates that sustainable fashion can hardly be realized by just one actor or by using just one business tool or governance instrument. The sustainable transformation of the textile sector requires concerted action of businesses, governments, NGOs, and consumers to clearly demonstrate a coalition for change and a willingness and power to end inhumane and unsustainable business practices in the 21st century. The sum of innovative approaches and solutions presented in this book shows that the momentum for change is strong and that mutual learning, respect and collaboration can lead to interesting and effective new paths of co-creation and shared responsibility in the fashion industry.

This book presents an important discussion on urbanization and sustainable soil management from a range of perspectives, addressing key topics such as sustainable cities, soil sealing, rehabilitation of contaminated soils, property rights and liability issues, as well as trading systems with regard to land take. This third volume of the International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is divided into four parts, the first of which explores several aspects of the topic "urbanization and sustainable management of soils." The second part then covers recent international developments, while the third part presents regional and national reports, and the fourth discusses cross-cutting issues. Given the range of key topics covered, the book offers an indispensible tool for all academics, legislators and policymakers working in this field. The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy" series discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land - at the international, national and regional level.

This book brings a unique perspective to animal movement studies because all cases came from tropical environments where the great diversity, either biological and structurally (trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes), presents the animal with several options to fulfill its live requirements. These conditions have forced the evolution of unique movement patterns and ecological strategies. Movement is an essential process in the life of all organisms. Animals move because they are hungry, thirsty, to avoid being eaten, or because they want to find mates. Understanding the causes and consequences of animal movement is not an easy task for behavioural ecologists. Many animals are shy, move in secretive ways and are very sensible to human presence, therefore, studying the movements of mammals in tropical environments present logistical and methodological challenges that have recently started to be solved by ecologist around the world. In this book we are compiling a set of extraordinary cases where researchers have used some of the modern technology and the strongest methodological approaches to understand movement patterns in wild tropical mammals. We hope this book will inspire and encourage young researchers to investigate wild mammals movements in some of the amazing tropical environments of the world.

The first accessible text on the topic of animals as environmental predictors, bringing together the literature from as far back as 18th century through to the present day. - Covers wider terrain than other titles in a relatively unexplored subject area. The text discusses climate change (highly topical) and how animals may be able to be used to predict future weather and climatic events. There is international potential as the climate challenge is global, and the examples span worldwide case studies. The sources used include myths, anecdotes, news articles and stories backed up by relevant scientific literature in international peer-reviewed journals. Each chapter starts with a short fictitious story to set the scene and anecdotes from indigenous cultures are especially interesting. The author draws on his vast expertise in biochemistry and cell biology. The science does not impede the less technical reader, due to the engaging mix of stories, anecdotes, personal observations and scientific underpinnings.

The first accessible text on the topic of animals as environmental predictors, bringing together the literature from as far back as 18th century through to the present day. - Covers wider terrain than other titles in a relatively unexplored subject area. The text discusses climate change (highly topical) and how animals may be able to be used to predict future weather and climatic events. There is international potential as the climate challenge is global, and the examples span worldwide case studies. The sources used include myths, anecdotes, news articles and stories backed up by relevant scientific literature in international peer-reviewed journals. Each chapter starts with a short fictitious story to set the scene and anecdotes from indigenous cultures are especially interesting. The author draws on his vast expertise in biochemistry and cell biology. The science does not impede the less technical reader, due to the engaging mix of stories, anecdotes, personal observations and scientific underpinnings.

The book deals with the economics of conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in low income countries. This is done by developing concepts and discussing case studies. Only discussing the issues of access to and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources, unfortunately public discussion has neglected the serious problem of financing the conservation efforts because to date the issues of access to and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources have merely been discussed. The global situation of the conserved genetic resources is alarming, mainly due to the fact that the institutes, above all those in developing countries, do not have enough financial resources. Hence, it is imperative that  the costs are taken into consideration. The contributions are grouped around theoretical approaches and empirical studies. The estimation of conservation costs help to allocate the appropriate financial assistance to the relevant countries for conserving their natural resources and assist in rationing scarce resources among competing crops which need to be covered under the conservation programmes.

This book is a practical approach to insuring financial sustainability of US colleges, presented through the lens of organizational strategic thinking. The book does not simply offer models of how colleges can become financially sustainable in cost cutting, online education, international student recruiting, etc. Rather, it presents a succinct historical perspective of how foundational problems emerged, how some universities transformed themselves, and introduces an organizational strategic thinking process that can be used to develop unique solutions for almost any institution.

Understanding Nature is a new kind of ecology textbook: a straight-forward resource that teaches natural history and ecological content, and a way to instruct students that will nurture both Earth and self. While meeting the textbook guidelines set forth by the Ecological Society of America, Understanding Nature has a unique ecotherapy theme, using a historical framework to teach ecological theory to undergraduates. This textbook presents all the core information without being unnecessarily wordy or lengthy, using simple, relatable language and discussing ecology in ways that any student can apply in real life. Uniquely, it is also a manual on how to improve one's relationship with the Earth. This is accomplished through coverage of natural history, ecology, and applications, together with suggested field activities that start each chapter and thinking questions that end each chapter. The book includes traditional ecological knowledge as well as the history of scientific ecological knowledge. Understanding Nature teaches theory and applications that will heal the Earth. It also teaches long-term sustainability practices for one's psyche. Professor Louise Weber is both an ecologist and a certified ecopsychologist, challenging ecology instructors to rethink what and how they teach about nature. Her book bridges the gap between students taking ecology to become ecologists and those taking ecology as a requirement, who will use the knowledge to become informed citizens.

- examines the five major religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism - and provides a balanced, objective critique of both the beliefs and practices employed which lead to both the protection and exploitation of animals - draws on scripture as well as leading historical and contemporary figures in the religions, from early Christian saints to royal figures like Ashoka - compares the teachings of old with contemporary practice and showcases what the major religions are doing to protect or exploit animals, from moving their investments away from animal-exploiting companies or running animal sanctuaries to participating in or condoning animal sacrifice, cruel sports and factory farming - challenges religious leaders and followers to re-examine their religion's teachings and to raise their official or personal practices in relation to the well-being of animals. - essential reading for those interested in the role of religion in animal welfare, human-animal studies, and animal ethics more broadly.