![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology
The conference "Combating Desertification with Plants" was held in Beer Sheva, Israel, from November 2-5, 1999, and was attended by 70 participants from 30 countries and/or international organisations. Desertification - the degradation of soils in drylands - is a phenomenon occurring in scores of countries around the globe. The number of people (in semiarid regions) affected by the steady decline in the productivity of their lands is in the hundred millions. The measures required to halt and reverse the process of desertification fall into many categories - policy, institutional, sociological-anthropological, and technical. Although technical "solutions" are not currently in vogue, the conference organizers felt that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of "participatory approaches." Hence IPALAC - The International Program for Arid Land Crops - whose function is to serve as a catalyst for optimizing the contribution of plant germplasm to sustainable development in desertification-prone regions - felt the time was opportune for providing a platform for projects where the "plant-driven" approach to development finds expression. Some 45 papers were delivered at the conference, falling into the categories of this volume: Overview, Potential Germplasm for Arid Lands, Introduction, Domestication and Dissemination of Arid Land Plants, Land Rehabilitation, and Mechanisms of Plant Transfer. The conference was funded by UNESCO (Division of Ecological Sciences), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and MASHAV, Israel's Center for International Development Cooperation.
Late Quaternary Environmental Change: Physical and Human
Perspectives
Animals are a major link between the water column (pelagic) and the bottom (benthic) habitats in most shallow systems. This coupling is dominated by active processes such as suspension-feeding in which the organism actively uses energy to pump water that is then filtered to remove suspended particles that are consumed while undigested remains are deposited on the bottom. As a result of this feeding on and metabolism of particles, the animals excrete dissolved inorganic and organic waste back into the water column, and thus, become major components in the cycling and feedback of essential elements. With relatively high weight specific filtration rates of 1a" 10 liters/hour/gram dry tissue and a propensity to form large aggregated populations (beds, reefs, schools and swarms), these organisms can play an important role in regulating water column processes. Although estuarine bivalve molluscs such as oysters and mussels dominate the suspension-feeder literature, other groups including plankton and nekton that are found in estuarine as well as other aquatic systems are also potentially important removers of suspended particles. Thus, a significant part of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop focused on suspension-feeders as controllers of plankton abundance, biomass and diversity, system metabolism, nutrient cycling and scale dependency. Systems dominated by suspension-feeders are typically impacted by human activities including recreation, aquaculture, human and industrial pollution, and bilge water from shipping. Suspension-feeders are often impacted by fisheries and over-exploitation. These impacts commonly result in changes in ecosystem structure either through the food chainconcentration of harmful substances or diseases, the introduction of alien species of suspension-feeders, or the instability of suspension-feeders systems through species displacement or phase shifts in the dominance between different suspension-feeding components such as nekton or zooplankton. These issues were addressed near the close of the workshop along with conclusions and syntheses developed by the working groups.
This text looks at the biology, temporal and spatial distribution patterns and the functional role of planktonic protozoa in fresh, brackish and marine waters. In recent years the importance of these organisms in ecological processes such as the flow of energy and the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in planktonic systems has become widely appreciated.
***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS - FINALIST 2021*** This timely book is a sequel to John Grant's Green Marketing Manifesto (2007) the award-winning and bestselling definitive guide to green marketing (and not greenwashing). Fast forward to mid-2020. Climate Change is back at the top of the public and political agenda. Even after covid-19, hundreds of big-name CEOs are committing to a #greenrecovery. And surveys show widespread global public support for this and recent shifts in sustainable behaviours and attitudes in markets ranging from organic food to flying. Sustainable brands are significantly outperforming conventional ones. As are sustainability related stock prices. Companies like Unilever continue to set ambitious targets related not just to climate, but biodiversity and deforestation, plastics, social justice, regenerative farming. Sustainability related trends such as plant-based foods and electric vehicles are showing steep growth and creating tomorrow's superbrands (Impossible, TESLA...). This book is packed with up to date learnings, case examples and trends, covering everything from eco labelling, transparency and the circular economy; to rebound effects, sustainable finance, blockchain and regenerative farming. A core message being that to drive sustainability, marketers firstly do really need to properly understand sustainability, its many applications and implications. Secondly to be effective, marketers need to understand what it means to their consumers and other significant audiences. Hence the book takes a long hard look at what was driving all the protests, boycotts and petitions in 2019 and what ideas, causes and platforms caught the public imagination. The ultimate goal is to go beyond marketing that simply looks good, to marketing that does good. This book helps in achieving that goal by showing the reader how to: Uncover strategies for sustainable marketing that actually deliver on green and social objectives, not just greenwashing Reconceptualise marketing and business models, and learn to recognise the commercial strategies and approaches that are no longer fit for purpose Learn how hot topics like the climate crisis, biodiversity, social justice, single use plastics and supply chain transparency influence green and social marketing Read about numerous examples and case studies from both brand leaders and challengers that have developed innovations and fresh creative approaches to green and social marketing Get practical tools, models, facts, strategies, workshop and project processes and business case rationales - so that you can build your own plans and proposals This book is intended to assist marketers, by means of clear and practical guidance, through a complex transition towards meaningful marketing that makes a positive creative impact on the climate crisis and on improving human life in troubled times. Aimed both at big companies that are trying to be good, and good companies that are trying to be big.
The MacArthur grant-winning environmental justice activist's riveting memoir of a life fighting for a cleaner future for America's most vulnerable A Smithsonian Magazine Top Ten Best Science Book of 2020 Catherine Coleman Flowers, a 2020 MacArthur "genius," grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, a place that's been called "Bloody Lowndes" because of its violent, racist history. Once the epicenter of the voting rights struggle, today it's Ground Zero for a new movement that is also Flowers's life's work-a fight to ensure human dignity through a right most Americans take for granted: basic sanitation. Too many people, especially the rural poor, lack an affordable means of disposing cleanly of the waste from their toilets and, as a consequence, live amid filth. Flowers calls this America's dirty secret. In this "powerful and moving book" (Booklist), she tells the story of systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that foster Third World conditions not just in Alabama, but across America, in Appalachia, Central California, coastal Florida, Alaska, the urban Midwest, and on Native American reservations in the West. In this inspiring story of the evolution of an activist, from country girl to student civil rights organizer to environmental justice champion at Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative, Flowers shows how sanitation is becoming too big a problem to ignore as climate change brings sewage to more backyards-not only those of poor minorities.
It has been increasingly recognized that trees and vegetation in urban areas provide a number of ecological services beyond beautifying cities. The purpose of urban forestry is to use trees and natural habitat patches to ameliorate negative environmental impacts of cities and to contribute to the creation of more livable, ecological sustainable eco-cities. Ecology, Planning, and Management of Urban Forests takes an international approach to sharing knowledge about the management of urban forests that has been learned through studies in many different regions. This allows the reader to evaluate methods and management that are appropriate for particular geographic, environmental and socio-political contexts. Urban forests are also approached on regional and landscape scales to encompass more natural environments in and around cities, rather than within arbitrary municipal boundaries.
This book focuses on the water-energy-climate nexus, which can be used to improve energy security and quality of life for millions of people in developing countries. It enhances the reader's understanding of the link between energy and climate, through the development of new approaches to and methods for energy generation, energy use, and climate change adaptation and resilience. By presenting case studies and research reports, the book addresses the relevant issues needed in order to analyze and successfully implement technologies in the water-energy-climate nexus. It focuses on the contributions of higher education institutions in terms of capacity-building for energy efficiency, energy access and energy security, as they relate to climate change mitigation. The book combines results from the authors' own research with detailed analyses, and the research presented lays the foundation for innovative new concepts and ideas, which the authors subsequently discuss. The book will appeal to all those interested in the links between energy issues, sustainability and climate change, as it focuses on the exchange between science and technology experts, as well as decision makers. It also supports students studying renewable energies and energy security, while serving as a valuable reference source for researchers, professionals, practitioners and scientists.
The book traverses several pathways including the basics of science and geography, geopolitics and international relations, strategic and security studies, policy-related and diplomatic dialogues, as-well as socio-cultural and economic perspectives in order to bring out a holistic picture of how environmental change has shaped the international system and India's position in it. The central argument of the book that environmental change can change/is changing geography and in turn can change/is changing international relations has been substantiated by detailed analysis of the drivers of India's environmental policies, international climate change negotiations, role of state and non-state actors in the international environmental discourse both in theory and practice, and finally the interconnectedness between environmental change and national security. The volume tries to find the right balance between the international scene embodied by the negotiations driven by hardcore economics on the one hand, and the domestic realities of India that steer its climate change policy based on energy security and developmental concerns. The need to address the larger issue of environmental change rather than concentrating on one aspect of it - climate change - to reduce the amount of polarisation that surrounds the global environmental debate especially in the wake of the introduction of the issue at the United Nations Security Council, has been reiterated throughout the work. It contains policy recommendations in terms of methods of adaptation, mitigation, energy management/diversification, enhancement of the role of think tanks as well as diplomatic manoeuvring (principles-based) at the climate change negotiations and other international debates. This area of study is comparatively new in India while the West has been dedicating a significant amount of resources towards research in energy and environmental security for the past two decades. Therefore, one of the objectives of the book is to evolve an Indian perspective on these strategic issues in a Western literature-dominated arena. Though the book brings to light several gaping holes in India's policy and strategy, it contends that India has a plethora of options and opportunities to not only maintain its own national security but also help the world 'adapt' and 'mitigate' in times of environmental chang
A comprehensive text and reference book covering all the aspects of biodiversity science for students and researchers of biodiversity, plant science, biotechnology, as well as zoology.
This book addresses the climate change crisis through scientific, historical, and spiritual lenses. Using Bernard Lonergan's functional specialization method, developed to facilitate collaboration among specialists, Raymaker and Durrani not only analyze data and rebut the claims of climate change deniers, but also look for inspiration to motivate and coordinate needed action by persons, groups, and nations. The book is wide-ranging in its historical examination of leaders who have shown us ways to work together constructively in finding solutions to problems. Lonergan's method helps us study the past with a view to change the future. To do so, we must first reform ourselves.
This open access edited book brings together a number of theories under the umbrella of humanistic governance to develop a persuasive alternative perspective on governance, particularly for democratic organisations such as co-operatives. It examines how we can move beyond a profit-first approach to governance, into a framework that prioritises human dignity in all aspects of an operation. This book also discusses key issues for different types of cooperatives and how these might be addressed. And, finally, it addresses how cooperatives can better cope with dynamic change processes. This book will be of interest for academics working in the areas of stakeholder governance, social solidarity economy, ethical management and co-operatives.
This book is the first volume of a new ser ies on solar energy researeh and developnent whieh is earried out in the European Communi ty. The Commission of the European Cammunity's Directorate General (XII) for Researeh, Scienee and Edueation is eurrently implementing, on a eost-sharing hasis, a solar energy R+D programme through eontraets wi th European industry, researeh institutions and universities. This programme eovers the following sectors : Project A Solar Energy Applieations to Dwellings project B Thermo-mech. Solar Power Plants project C Photovoltaie Power Generation project D Photochemieal, Photoelectrochemical and Photobiological Processes project E Energy fram Biamass project F Solar Radiation Data project G Wind Energy project H Solar Energy in Agricul ture and Industry In the course of the programme the Commission organises each year several coordination meetings to which the contractors within each sector are invited to present details of their work. As the information presented at these meetings is recent and of high interest for other researchers working in these particular sectors, the Commission has decided to start this new ser ies of publieations in cooperation with D. Reidel Publishing Campany in order that this new infor- mation ean be quickly and widely circulated for the benefit of advancement and progress in the whole field of solar energy.
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy, and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics, in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.
New edition of one of the first primers of sustainability. Takes a holistic approach to the concept of sustainability. Covers some of the new developments such as Covid19, reporting and measurement and corporate behaviour.
This edited volume addresses a rising concern among natural resource scientists and management professionals about decline of the many plant and animal species associated with early-successional habitats, especially within the Central Hardwood Region of the USA. These open habitats, with herbaceous, shrub, or young forest cover, are disappearing as abandoned farmland, pastures, and cleared forest patches return to forest. There are many questions about "why, what, where, and how" to manage for early successional habitats. In this book, expert scientists and experienced land managers synthesize knowledge and original scientific work to address questions on such topics as wildlife, water, carbon sequestration, natural versus managed disturbance, future scenarios, and sustainable creation and management of early successional habitat in a landscape context.
The species-area relationship (SAR) describes a range of related phenomena that are fundamental to the study of biogeography, macroecology and community ecology. While the subject of ongoing debate for a century, surprisingly, no previous book has focused specifically on the SAR. This volume addresses this shortfall by providing a synthesis of the development of SAR typologies and theory, as well as empirical research and application to biodiversity conservation problems. It also includes a compilation of recent advances in SAR research, comprising novel SAR-related theories and findings from the leading authors in the field. The chapters feature specific knowledge relating to terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms, ensuring a comprehensive volume relevant to a wide range of fields, with a mix of review and novel material and with clear recommendations for further research and application.
The book collects a selection of the papers presented at the meeting held in the context of the Joint Programme on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity (JP-BiCuD). Recognizing the inextricable link between biological and cultural diversity, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) joined forces, and in 2010 launched the Joint Programme on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity (JP-BiCuD). The first meeting for the implementation of the JP-BiCuD was held in Florence (Italy) in April 2014 and produced the UNESCO-sCBD Florence Declaration, which highlights the concept of biocultural diversity. The European rural territory is predominantly a biocultural, multi-functional landscape, providing a crucial and effective space for integration of biological and cultural diversity, suggesting the need to revise some of the current strategies for the assessment and management of biodiversity.
This book is a celebration of the humble gudgeon, the angler's favourite 'tiddler'. This much-loved little fish is long overdue a little book all of its own. Scientist, author and broadcaster Dr Mark Everard tells tales about the biology of the gudgeon, gudgeon fishing, and the diverse social quirks and values of this most popular of little fishes.
Novel Aspects of Insect-Plant Interactions Edited by Pedro Barbosa and Deborah K. Letourneau Focusing on three trophic levels, this study widens the current understanding of the ecological interactions between plants, herbivores, and their parasitoids and predators. Emphasized are the mediating effects of plant-derived allelochemicals on those interactions. The book also covers microorganisms as mediators of intertrophic and intratrophic interactions; theory and mechanisms: plant effects via allelochemicals on the third trophic level; and key roles of plant allelochemicals in survival strategies of herbivores. 1988 (0 471-83276-6) 362 pp. Plant-Animal Interactions Evolutionary Ecology in Tropical and Temperate Regions Edited by Peter W. Price, Thomas M. Lewinsohn, G. Wilson Fernandes and Woodruff W. Benson An outgrowth of an international symposium on Evolutionary Ecology of Tropical Herbivores held at UNICAMP, Brazil, this unique collaborative effort from leading scientists worldwide is the first comparative analysis of the existing ecological systems of temperate and tropical regions. In-depth and timely, the book's manifold analyses includes a discussion of tropical and temperate comparisons; mutualistic relationships between plants and animals; antagonistic relationships between plants and animals; plant-butterfly interactions; specificity in plant utilization; and community patterns in natural and agricultural systems. Amply illustrated with 150 detailed graphics, the book provides a fascinating visual tour of the flora and fauna described. 1991 (0 471-50937-X) 639 pp. Integrated Pest Management Systems and Cotton Production Edited by Raymond E. Frisbie, Kamal M. El-Zik and L. Ted Wilson This work sheds light on the link between the thriving U.S. cotton crop and integrated pest management. It offers a unique theoretical and conceptual framework for studying the cotton-IPM system. Other relevant issues such as the development and use of pest models, quantitative sampling principles in cotton IPM, economic injury levels and thresholds for cotton pests, and strategies and tactics for managing weeds, plant pathogens, nematodes, and insects are also described. Covering every facet of IPM technology, this is a significant contribution to the literature of pest management. 1989 (0 471-81782-1) 437 pp.
Dynamic Sedimentary Environments of Mangrove Coasts provides knowledge on the importance of sedimentary dynamics in managing mangrove forests. In the first part of the book, the editors seamlessly offer a general introduction of mangrove sedimentary dynamics. This leads into more in-depth information on soil surface elevation change, sea level rise, and the importance of sedimentary dynamics in the loss or gain of blue carbon. The book concludes the discussion of mangrove sedimentary dynamics by addressing the issues of climate change (e.g. sea level rise and blue carbon) on mangrove restoration and sediment. This book will assist coastal managers and academics in addressing the gaps in mangrove restoration and coastal management. As such, it will be a valuable reference for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, academics in the field of coastal restoration, and coastal management practitioners. |
You may like...
Egypt 2020
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Paperback
R2,047
Discovery Miles 20 470
How To Write Poetry For Teenagers - Your…
Howexpert, Deidre Simpson
Hardcover
R719
Discovery Miles 7 190
|