The seventh volume in the series "Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals" describes aspects of the often-complex relationship between humans and marine mammals. From a primeval condition of occasional predators, during the last century humans have become a major factor negatively affecting the status of most marine mammals through over-hunting, habitat encroachment and environmental degradation. This has led to the extirpation of many marine mammal populations and even to the extinction of species. However, in parallel to this destructive drive, since antiquity humanity has been influenced by a strong fascination for marine mammals, which contributes today to an increased human appreciation of the natural world admixed with widespread concern for its degrading condition. The special status occupied by marine mammals in human imagination and affection stands in stark contrast with the current predicament of many populations still threatened by the doings of Homo sapiens: a condition emblematic of the relationship of humanity with nature, and key to understanding where humanity is heading.

Authored by world-class scientists and scholars, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, is an excellent reference for understanding the consequences of changing natural resources to the degradation of ecological integrity and the sustainability of life. Based on the content of the bestselling and CHOICE-awarded Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, this new edition demonstrates the major challenges that the society is facing for the sustainability of all well-being on the planet Earth. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying natural resources are presented in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the main systems of land, water, and air. It reviews state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of remote sensing and geospatial data with field-based measurements in the study of natural resources. Volume 4, Fresh Water and Watersheds, covers fresh water and watersheds, their health and conservation, protection, and management. Organized for ease of reference, it provides fundamental information on groundwater storage, water quality, supply and balance, and water resource vulnerability. New in this edition are discussions on water footprint assessment, water surface dynamics, and water management on a global scale. Understanding the conditions of watersheds is crucial for restoring areas with degraded water quality as well as protecting healthy waters from emerging problems. This volume demonstrates the key processes, methods, and models used through several practical case studies from around the world. Written in an easy-to-reference manner, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, as individual volumes or as a complete set, is an essential reading for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the science and management of natural resources. Public and private libraries, educational and research institutions, scientists, scholars, and resource managers will benefit enormously from this set. Individual volumes and chapters can also be used in a wide variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental science and natural science at different levels and disciplines, such as biology, geography, earth system science, and ecology.

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.

provides the first in-depth investigation of how non-timber forest products are an integral part of local, national, and global bioeconomies. reveals how essential these products are to creating a greener and more sustainable future will be of great interest to students and scholars of forest and natural resource management, bioeconomics, circular economy and ecological economics more widely

Wheat (Triticum L.), an annual herbaceous plant in Poacae (Gramineae) family, settles in the Triticeae (Hordeae) subfamily. The grasses (Poaceae Barnhart) are the fifth largest (monocotyledonous flowering) plant family and of great importance for human civilization and life. Cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, barley, and millet are the domesticated ones in the family. It is still the most vital economical plant family in modern times, providing food, forage, building materials (bamboo, thatch), and fuel (ethanol). Wheat has many accessions in national and international gene banks. The estimated number of wheats by FAO in 2010 is 856,000, and, followed by rice (774,000), and barley (467,000). However, the recent consumer's (misdirected) focus on gluten content and nutritional value urges scientists to reexamine their knowledge about wheat (i.e., origin, evolution, and general and special quality characteristics), as well as their wild relatives and landraces for newer possible genetic resources. Cultured or non-cultured ancestral wheats: einkorn, emmer, wild emmer, spelt, macha, and vavilovii are still limitedly grown on the higher areas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Israel, and Balkan countries. They are exploited mostly for their desired agronomic, and specific quality. In some cultures, wheat species are believed to be therapeutic, with bioactive compounds that reduce and inhibit stubborn illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer, and cardiovascular diseases. In this book, we summarize the importance of ancestral wheat species, and provide a prospect for their future with special considerations in terms of species conservation and improvement.

Authored by world-class scientists and scholars, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, is an excellent reference for understanding the consequences of changing natural resources to the degradation of ecological integrity and the sustainability of life. Based on the content of the bestselling and CHOICE-awarded Encyclopedia of Natural Resources, this new edition demonstrates the major challenges that the society is facing for the sustainability of all well-being on the planet Earth. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying natural resources are presented in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the main systems of land, water, and air. It reviews state-of-the-art knowledge, highlights advances made in different areas, and provides guidance for the appropriate use of remote sensing and geospatial data with field-based measurements in the study of natural resources. Volume 2, Landscape and Land Capacity, covers soils and landscape issues, their diversity and importance, and how soils are related to the landscapes in which they form. It includes discussions on land conservation, land-use and land-cover changes, and urban environments and unravels the complex bond between humans and soils. New in this edition are discussions on habitat conservation and planning, landscape epidemiology and vector-borne disease, and landscape patterns and changes. This volume demonstrates the key processes, methods, and models used through several practical case studies from around the world. Written in an easy-to-reference manner, The Handbook of Natural Resources, Second Edition, as individual volumes or as a complete set, is an essential reading for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the science and management of natural resources. Public and private libraries, educational and research institutions, scientists, scholars, and resource managers will benefit enormously from this set. Individual volumes and chapters can also be used in a wide variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental science and natural science at different levels and disciplines, such as biology, geography, earth system science, and ecology.

The European Union (EU) has a hugely important effect on the way in which environmental policies are framed, designed and implemented in many parts of the world, but especially Europe. The new edition of this leading textbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of the EU's environmental policies. Comprising five parts, Environmental Policy in the EU covers the rapidly changing context in which EU environmental policies are made, the key actors who interact to co-produce them and the most salient dynamics of policy making, ranging from agenda setting and decision making, through to implementation and evaluation. Written by leading international experts, individual chapters examine how the EU is responding to a multitude of different challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, energy insecurity, and water and air pollution. They tease out the different ways in which the EU's policies on these topics co-evolve with national and international environmental policies. In this systematically updated fourth edition, a wider array of learning features are employed to ensure that readers fully understand how EU environmental policies have developed over the last 50 years and how they are currently adapting to the rapidly evolving challenges of the twenty-first century, including the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying environmental policy and politics, climate change, environmental law and EU politics more broadly. The Open Access versions of chapters 19 and 20, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429402333, have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The book provides a comprehensive account of a tropical lake, Alchichica, considering that tropical limnology is by far less known and well-understood than temperate. Many of the well-known temperate limnology paradigms do not apply in tropical limnology, such as the 1C/m thermocline concept, or the role of phosphorous as a limiting nutrient. Lake Alchichica is - most likely - the best limnologically known Mexican lake up to date. Twenty years of continuous monitoring has led us to understand this deep, warm monomictic lake. The peculiar chemical composition of this saline lake - sodium-alkaline with a high concentration in magnesium waters, and groundwater-fed - led to the formation of its unique stromatolite ring that has become world-famous, studied by scientists from various countries. From a biological point of view, this relatively small maar lake displays a comparatively low species richness but surprisingly is plentiful in microendemic species for a recently-formed lake (13,000-6,300 years old, at the Late Pleistocene/Holocene Epoch), eleven of which already described, with more to come. Researchers and students interested in tropical limnology, extreme ecosystems, evolutionary biology, astrobiology, and microbiology will find this book a must-read.

The goal of this transdisciplinary book is to identify the problems and challenges facing implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - from the global, regional and local points of view. The valuation and conservation of biodiversity are critical first steps necessary for the adequate protection of the environment. The authors give insights into the the influences the CBD exerts, and current trends in the field.

This book brings together 45 years' worth of experience-derived information about more than 7,000 micro- and macro- species, which form the unique bio-diversity of the world's largest mangrove ecosystem, as it struggles against the natural and anthropogenic threats. Up to 1770, the estimated area of Sundarbans was around 36,000 km2, but has reduced over time to 25,000 km2, due to reclamation. This loss and the related degradation of habitats has caused historical species extinction and population decline. Whereas biodiversity conservation within and beyond the protected areas has been the watchword since the 1990s ("biodiversity, aesthetic values and integrity"), the initial two hundred years of imperial and post-colonial forest management focused primarily on revenue and production forestry, to the detriment of the ecology of the area. It will be of interest to researchers, in zoology, botany, ecology and conservation, as well as professionals, such as foresters, environmentalists, conservationists, resource managers, planners, government agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and naturalists.

This book brings together a selection of original studies submitted to Biodiversity and Conservation that address the conservation and biodiversity of vertebrates - particularly those in terrestrial habitats. Vertebrates are, along with plants, the best-known and most intensively studied components of biological diversity on Earth. While studies on vertebrates can be expected to provide models for other groups, they can also pose their own particular problems due to their relative mobility as in some migratory birds. In addition, many mammals & fish are also subject to extensive human exploitation for food or sport. The contributions in this volume are drawn from a wide range of countries - from Australasia, East Africa, Europe, and North, Central and South America. Collectively they provide a snap-shot of the types of studies and actions being taken in vertebrate conservation.

Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation and Co-existence examines the complexities surrounding the concept of wilderness. Contemporary wilderness scholarship has tended to fall into two categories: the so-called 'fortress conservation' and 'co-existence' schools of thought. This book, contending that this polarisation has led to a silencing and concealment of alternative perspectives and lines of enquiry, extends beyond these confines and in particular steers away from the dilemmas of paradise or paradox in order to advance an intellectual and policy agenda of plurality and diversity rather than of prescription and definition. Drawing on case studies from Australia, Aoteoroa/New Zealand, the United States and Iceland, and explorations of embodied experience, creative practice, philosophy, and First Nations land management approaches, the assembled chapters examine wilderness ideals, conflicts and human-nature dualities afresh, and examine co-existence and conservation in the Anthropocene in diverse ontological and multidisciplinary ways. By demonstrating a strong commitment to respecting the knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, this work delivers a more nuanced, ethical and decolonising approach to issues arising from relationships with wilderness. Such a collection is immediately appropriate given the political challenges and social complexities of our time, and the mounting threats to life across the globe. The abiding and uniting logic of the book is to offer a unique and innovative contribution to engender transformations of wilderness scholarship, activism and conservation policy. This text refutes the inherent privileging and exclusionary tactics of dominant modes of enquiry that too often serve to silence non-human and contrary positions. It reveals a multi-faceted and contingent wilderness alive with agency, diversity and possibility. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of conservation, environmental and natural resource management, Indigenous studies and environmental policy and planning. It will also be of interest to practitioners, policymakers and NGOs involved in conservation, protected environments and environmental governance.

This book provides the first collection of chapters written by scientists who have contributed to the understanding of disease ecology in the Galapagos Islands, an iconic and historic natural site. The Galapagos Archipelago straddles the equator in the eastern Pacific Ocean, almost 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, and includes 13 major islands, numerous smaller satellite islands, and many more even smaller islets. The wildlife on the Galapagos Islands today represents one of the best-preserved wild communities of plants and animals in the world, owing to the location of the islands at the intersection of major ocean currents, the commitment by Ecuador for the vast majority of the area to be left undeveloped, and the protection provided by the Galapagos National Park. Most of the animal species in Galapagos are endemic, occurring nowhere else. But they are descendants of ancestors that colonized earlier, and then, isolated from their mainland origins, evolved into forms that are recognized as distinct today. Since 2001, many of the authors of this book have been part of a four-institution partnership investigating the threats posed by pathogens to Galapagos avifauna. They approach the topic of disease ecology in a novel manner, starting with the history of arrival of both the birds themselves and the pathogens. This synthetic approach requires the integration of themes from veterinary medicine, epidemiology, population genetics, and phylogenetics.

Author Prof Jim Lynch is widely known and very experienced, well-connected with wide international networks, and globally distinguished. He was awarded the UNESCO Prize in Microbiology and Einstein Medal and Distinguished Scientist of the US Department of Agriculture. His OUP textbook Soil Microbiology was a bestseller. Taps directly into the topical area of the COVID-19 pandemic and One Health. Affordable and accessible to a wide interdisciplinary audience.

Key Features A timely book for a still pressing problem Contributions by many of the leading figures in the debate. Summarizes the many new contributions to the field of recent years. For the use of upper level seminars and courses A dialogue format will generate further discussion

In this second edition of a bestseller, authors Paul H. Brunner and Helmut Rechberger guide professional newcomers as well as experienced engineers and scientists towards mastering the art of material flow analysis (MFA) from the very beginning to an advanced state of material balances of complex systems. Handbook of Material Flow Analysis: For Environmental, Resource, and Waste Engineers, Second Edition serves as a concise and reproducible methodology as well as a basis for analysis, assessment and improvement of anthropogenic systems through an approach that is helpfully uniform and standardized. The methodology featured in this book is a vital resource for generating new data, fostering understanding, and increasing knowledge to benefit the growing MFA community working in the fields of industrial ecology, resource management, waste management, and environmental protection. This new second edition takes into account all new developments and readers will profit from a new exploration of STAN software, newly added citations, and thoroughly described case studies that reveal the potential of MFA to solve industrial ecology challenges.

The importance of the Neotropics to the world's climate, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity cannot be questioned. This book suggests that gradients are key to understanding both these issues and Neotropical ecosystem structure, function and dynamics in general. Those gradients are either spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal, where many temporal and spatio-temporal gradients are initiated by disturbances (e.g., tree-fall, landslide, cultivation). And in particular for the Neotropics, three large spatial gradients - latitude, longitude, altitude (elevation) - are of critical importance. The editor has over 30 years of experience investigating Neotropical gradients in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Peru and Ecuador, and has published 5 previous books on different aspects of the Neotropics. Once again he has assembled top-shelf Neotropical scientists and researchers, here to focus on gradients: their nature, interactions and how they structure ecosystems.

Focusing on ethnography and interviews with subsistence food producers, this book explores the resilience, innovation and creativity taking place in subsistence agriculture in America. To date, researchers interested in alternative food networks have often overlooked the somewhat hidden, unorganized population of household food producers. Subsistence Agriculture in the US fills this gap in the existing literature by examining the lived experiences of people taking part in subsistence food production. Over the course of the book, Colby draws on accounts from a broad and diverse network of people who are hunting, fishing, gardening, keeping livestock and gathering and looks in depth at the way in which these practical actions have transformed their relationship to labor and land. She also explores the broader implications of this pro-environmental activity for social change and sustainable futures. With a combination of rigorous academic investigation and engagement with pressing social issues, this book will be of great interest to scholars of sustainable consumption, environmental sociology and social movements.

Today, problems such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and illegal logging have provoked various policy responses that are often referred to as forest and nature governance. In its broadest interpretation, governance is about the many ways in which public and private actors from the state, market and/or civil society govern public issues at multiple scales. This book takes a fresh perspective on the study of forest and nature governance. Departing from 'practice theory', and building upon scholars like Giddens, Bourdieu, Reckwitz, Schatzki and Callon, it seeks to move beyond established understandings of institutions, actors, and knowledge. In so doing, it not only presents an innovative conceptual and methodological framework for a practice based approach, but also rich case studies and ethnographies. Finally, this book is about how actors involved in governance talk about and work with trees, forests, biodiversity, wildlife, and so on, while acting upon forest policies, environmental discourses, codes of conduct, or scientific insights.

examines how we can promote the role of indigenous peoples and local communities as environmental stewards and how we can ensure that their ways of life are protected. considers the lessons that can be learnt about the situation of indigenous peoples and local communities. investigates the nature and role of community protocols beyond issues of access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge

This book provides an integrated view of Atlantic coastal Patagonian ecosystems, including the physical environment, biodiversity and the main ecological processes, together with their derived ecosystem services and anthropogenic impacts. It focuses on the key components of the aquatic ecosystem, covering the lower levels (plankton) to the top predators like large mammals and birds, before turning to human beings as consumers and shapers of coastal marine resources. The book then presents an overview of how organisms that constitute the aquatic food webs have changed through time and how they likely will soon change due to global change processes and anthropogenic pressures. In this regard it offers a wealth of information such as long-term patterns in physical / atmospheric processes, biodiversity and the distribution of marine organisms, as well as the results of experimental studies designed to understand their responses under future scenarios shaped by both climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The book also covers various aspects of the past, present and potential future relationship of human beings with Patagonian coastal environments, including the utilization of sea products, tourism, and growth of cities.

The world's oceans cover 70% of the earth's surface and are home to a myriad of amazing and beautiful creatures. However, the biodiversity of the oceans is incre- ingly coming under serious threat from many human activities including overfi- ing, use of destructive fishing methods, pollution and commercial aquaculture. In addition, climate change is already having an impact on some marine ecosystems. This book discusses some of the major threats facing marine ecosystems by cons- ering a range of topics, under chapters discussing biodiversity (Chapter 1), fisheries (Chapter 2), aquaculture (Chapter 3), pollution (Chapter 4) and the impacts of increasing greenhouse gas emissions (Chapter 5). It goes on to explore solutions to the problems by discussing equitable and sustainable management of the oceans (Chapter 6) and protecting marine ecosystems using marine reserves (Chapter 7). Presently, 76% of the oceans are fully or over-exploited with respect to fishing, and many species have been severely depleted. It is abundantly clear that, in general, current fisheries management regimes are to blame for much of the widespread degradation of the oceans. Many policy-makers and scientists now agree that we must adopt a radical new approach to managing the seas - one that is precautionary in nature and has protection of the whole marine ecosystem as its primary objective. This 'ecosystem-based approach' is vital if we are to ensure the health of our oceans for future generations.

Ethnoprimatology is situated at the intersection between the biological and cultural subfields of anthropology. Research on the interface between human and nonhuman primates has been steadily increasing since 1997, when the term ethnoprimatology was first coined. Although there have been studies on human-nonhuman primate interactions in the tropical Americas, no single comprehensive volume has been published that integrates this information to fully understand it in this region. Eighteen novel chapters written by outstanding scholars with various backgrounds are included in this edited volume. They refer to the complex interconnections between different indigenous peoples with New World monkeys that sympatrically share their ancestral territories. Geographically, the range covers all of the Neotropics, from southern Mexico through northern Argentina. This work includes topics such as primates as prey and food, ethnozoology/ethnoecology, cosmology, narratives about monkeys, uses of primates, monkeys as pets, and ethnoclassification. Multiple views as well as diverse theoretical and methodological approaches are found within the pages. In sum, this is a compendium of ethnoprimatological research that will be prized by anthropologists, ethnobiologists, primatologists, conservationists, and zoologists alike. "This book... provides a historical benchmark for all subsequent research in ethnoprimatology in the Neotropics and beyond." - Leslie E. Sponsel, University of Hawaii at Manoa.