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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > Biodiversity
1. First book to adapt and explain health promotion, harm reduction and health equity issues in a One Health context and in terms of animal health. 2. Action oriented, focusing on principles and lessons learned in case studies to demonstrate how to inspire actions to protect the shared health of people, animals and environments. 3. Emphasizes what we can do to keep things healthy, thus addressing the growing calls to shift from a reactive to proactive approach in One Health. 4. Examines One Health in terms of the wider threats to the world, like climate change, thus expanding its scope of practice and helping find common ground between many emerging fields that are trying to co-manage human-animal and environmental health.
The book is the first comprehensive analysis of the macroecology and geobotany of endemic vascular plants with case-studies and analyses from different regions in the world. Endemism is a pre-extinction phenomenon. Endemics are threatened with extinction. Due to international nature conservation policies and due to the perception of the public the concept s importance is increasing. Endemism can result from different biological and environmental processes. Depending on the process conservation measures should be adapted. Endemic vascular plant taxa, in the setting of their species composition and vegetation types are important features of landscapes and indicators of the quality of relating habitats. The book is an important basis for biologists, ecologists, geographers, planners and managers of nature reserves and national parks, and people generally interested in nature conservation and biogeography of vascular plants."
This volume presents key contributions of the First National Conference on Invasive Alien Species, held in Spain in 2003. Topics included cut across all aspects of non-native species invasions. Experts from universities, public administration, NGOs and environmental enterprises and authorities on biological invasions from other countries participated in the conference, which aimed to go beyond national boundaries to tackle the complex biological issues of invasive alien species.
-- Uniquely brings together a broad background of fisheries scientists in one place at one time to address a subject of critical environmental importance. -- The subject of Fisheries Engineering is topical and paramount as larger-scale changes in the earth's ecosystem affect the sustainability of our natural resources. -- Essential reading for fisheries professionals, environmental managers, and academically oriented individuals with interests in fisheries, the environment, and/or sustainable ecosystems, as well as inspiring students with interests in the interaction between fisheries and the environment. -- Should be recommended reading on courses on Fisheries Resource Management, Fisheries Engineering, and Fisheries Science.
This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of urban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, values and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and globalisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cultures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This collection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens. The chapters cover several themes such as how engagements with nature contribute to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; the implications that diversity has on the provision, design and management of urban environments; and the threats inhibiting residents' abilities to engage meaningfully with nature. The book challenges the dominant discourse, Western ideological understandings and meta-narratives of modernisation and unilineal urban transitions. A timely addition to the literature, Urban Nature: Enriching Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture offers an alternative to Western ideological understandings of nature and values and will be of great interest to those working in human and environmental urban ecology. It will also be key reading for students in the relevant fields of anthropology, development studies, geography, social ecology and urban studies.
Based on graph theory studies this book seeks to understand how tropical species interact with each other and how these interactions are affected by perturbations in some of the most species-rich habitats on earth. Due to the great diversity of species and interactions in the tropics, this book addresses a wide range of current and future issues with empirical examples and complete revisions on different types of ecological networks: from mutualisms to antagonisms. The goal of this publication is not to be only for researchers but also for undergraduates in different areas of knowledge, and also to serve as a reference text for graduate-level courses mainly in the life sciences.
This book investigates the introduction of invasive species and their behavior in oceanic islands. How can we define invasive species? What is their history? How did they come to dominate and transform ecosystems? These are relevant questions when trying to understand the behavior of invasive species-primarily in fragile ecosystems such as islands-and to understand the biological, ecological, social and economic impacts of invasions. We chose the Galapagos Islands, a place well-known to be unique in the study of evolution, as a laboratory to analyze the interactions between invasive and endemic species, to understand the makeup of the ecosystems emerging after invasions have occurred, to describe the relationships of invasives with the people that live in these islands, and to try to develop comprehensive analyses on this topic from multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary points of view. For a long time, the discussion has been about how proper management of the species could achieve two main goals: the eradication of the species to recover affected ecosystems and the conservation of endemic species. The discussion has taken on other nuances, including the suggestion that an invasive species, when it is already adapted to an ecosystem, forms an integral part of it, and thus eradication would in itself go against conservation. On the other hand, some invasive species are not only part of the biological compound of the island ecosystems, but they also form part of the social and cultural history of the inhabited islands. Some of these identified by the local inhabitants are species of real or potential economic value.
This book explores the emergence and development of the legal concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing, and its application in agriculture. Developed in the 1990s, the concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing has been deployed in an ever-wider variety of international instruments, including those on biodiversity, climate change and human rights. A lack of clarity persists, however, on what fair and equitable benefit-sharing requires and entails, and whether its implementation supports or eventually undermines equity and justice. This book examines these questions in the area of land, food and agriculture, addressing for the first time several instances of the agricultural production chain, including research and development, land governance and land use and access to markets. It identifies challenges regarding implementation of the concept as enshrined in environmental treaties and soft-law instruments, with a focus on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. It investigates its role, enabling conditions and limitations, in a contradictory policy context involving environmental, food security and human rights objectives but also a growing web of multilateral and bilateral trade and investment agreements. Linking international law research with a socio-legal analysis, the book addresses four grassroots examples, which offer ideas for institutional and legal innovation from the local to the global level. This interdisciplinary title will be of great interest to students and scholars of international environmental law, agriculture, land law, development studies and global governance, as well as policymakers and practitioners working in these fields. "The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429198304, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."
Large carnivores include iconic species such as bears, wolves and big cats. Their habitats are increasingly being shared with humans, and there is a growing number of examples of human-carnivore coexistence as well as conflict. Next to population dynamics of large carnivores, there are considerable attitude shifts towards these species worldwide with multiple implications. This book argues and demonstrates why human dimensions of relationships to large carnivores are crucial for their successful conservation and management. It provides an overview of theoretical and methodological perspectives, heterogeneity in stakeholder perceptions and behaviour as well as developments in decision making, stakeholder involvement, policy and governance informed by human dimensions of large carnivore conservation and management. The scope is international, with detailed examples and case studies from Europe, North and South America, Central and South Asia, as well as debates of the challenges faced by urbanization, agricultural expansion, national parks and protected areas. The main species covered include bears, wolves, lynx, and leopards. The book provides a novel perspective for advanced students, researchers and professionals in ecology and conservation, wildlife management, human-wildlife interactions, environmental education and environmental social science.
Soils with high Ni contents occur in several parts of the world, especially in areas with ultramafic rocks which cause serious environmental impacts. This book aims to extend the knowledge on the risks and problems caused by elevated Ni contents and to cover the existing gaps on issues related to various aspects and consequences of high Ni contents in soils and plants. Nickel in Soils and Plants brings together discussions on Ni as a trace element and as a micronutrient essential for plant growth and its role in plant physiology. It analyzes the biogeochemistry of Ni at the soil plant interface, and explains its behavior in the rhizosphere resulting in Ni deficiency or toxicity, or Ni tolerance of various Ni hyperaccumulators. Included are Ni resources and sources, the origin of soil Ni, its geochemical forms in soils and their availability to plants, a special reference on soils enriched with geogenic Ni, such as serpentine soils, and the special characteristics of those ecosystems. Recent advancements in methods of Ni speciation, including the macroscale and X- ray absorption spectroscopy studies as well as serious views on Ni kinetics, are also covered. Written by a team of internationally recognized researchers and expert contributors, this comprehensive work addresses the practical aspects of managing Ni in soils and plants for agricultural production, and managing soils with high Ni levels by using organic and inorganic amendments. The text also addresses practical measures related to Ni toxicity in plants, the removal and recovery of Ni from high Ni wastes, and offers environmentally friendly innovative processes for mining Ni from soils containing high Ni levels.
Forestry today, like many other sectors that traditionally rely on material goods, faces significant global drivers of societal change that are less often addressed than the environmental concerns commonly in the spotlight of scientific, political, and news media. There are three major interconnected issues that are challenging forestry at its foundation: urbanization, tertiarization, and globalization. These issues are at the core of this book. The urbanization of society, a process in development from the first steps of industrialization, is particularly significant today with the predominance and quick growth rate of the world's urban population. Ongoing urbanization is creating new perspectives on forestry, inducing changes in its social representation, and changing lifestyles and practices with a tendency toward dematerialization. The process of urbanization is also creating a disconnect and in some ways is leaving behind rurality, the sector of society where forestry has traditionally developed and taken place over centuries. The second issue covered in this book is the tertiarization of the economy. In society today, the sector of services largely dominates the economy and occupies the major part of the world's active population. This ongoing process modifies professional modalities and ways of life and opens new doors to forests through the immaterial goods they provide. It also profoundly changes the framework, rules, processes, means of production, exchanges between economic factors, and the processes of innovation. The third issue is undoubtedly globalization in its economic, political, and social components. Whether it's through bridging distances, crossing borders, accelerating changes, standardizing practices, leveling hierarchical structures, or pushing for interdependence, globalization impacts everyone, everywhere in multiple ways. Forestry is no exception. Forestry in the Midst of Global Changes focuses on these global drivers of change from the perspective of their relationships with how society functions. By analyzing them in depth through multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and even transdisciplinary approaches, this book is helping to design the forestry of tomorrow.
This book highlights classification patterns and underlying ecological drivers structuring the vegetation of selected indigenous subtropical forests in South Africa. It uses original field sampling and advanced numerical data analysis to examine three major types of forest - Albany Coastal Forests, Pondoland Coastal Scarp and Eastern Scarp - all of which are of high conservation value. Offering a unique and systematic assessment of South African ecology in unprecedented detail, the book could serve as a model for future vegetation surveys of forests not only in Africa, but also around the globe.
Agroecology: A Transdisciplinary, Participatory and Action-oriented Approach is the first book to focus on agroecology as a transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented process. Using a combined theoretical and practical approach, this collection of work from pioneers in the subject along with the latest generation of acknowledged leaders engages social actors on different geo-political scales to transform the global agrifood system. The book is divided into two sections, with the first providing conceptual bases and the second presenting case studies. It describes concepts and applications of transdisciplinary research and participatory action research (PAR). Transdisciplinary research integrates different academic disciplines as well as diverse forms of knowledge, including experiential, cultural, and spiritual. Participatory action research presents a way of engaging all relevant actors in an effort to create an equitable process of research, reflection, and activity to make desired changes. Six case studies show how practitioners have grappled with applying this integration in agroecological work within different geographic and socio-ecological contexts. An explicit and critical discussion of diverse perspectives in the growing field of agroecology, this book covers the conceptual and empirical material of an agroecological approach that aspires to be more transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented. In addition to illustrating systems of agroecology that will improve food systems around the world, it lays the groundwork for further innovations to create better sustainability for all people, ecologies, and landscapes.
Farm dams, creeklines, vegetation and rocky outcrops are natural assets that are essential for healthy, sustainable farms. Protecting and enhancing these elements of natural capital on farms not only supports biodiversity, but also contributes to farm productivity and to the well-being of farmers and farming communities. Natural Asset Farming: Creating Productive and Biodiverse Farms reveals seven key natural assets and why they are so valuable for biodiversity and productivity on farms. Drawing on two decades of long-term ecological monitoring and knowledge exchange with farmers, Landcare groups and natural resource management experts, this book is a tool for building and enhancing natural assets in agricultural landscapes. In bringing together ecological science and the experience of farmers in the wheat-sheep belt of south-eastern Australia, Natural Asset Farming will help foster ideas, boost resilience and improve the sustainability of agricultural production. Features: Shows why protecting and enhancing natural assets can be a fantastic investment for a farm, delivering biodiversity, productivity and well-being benefits. Includes insights and experience from farmers who have undertaken natural asset management actions. Explores the science of managing natural assets on farms. Provides principles on how to manage natural assets on farms. Includes images that show the key features of an enhanced natural asset.
Genetic erosion is the loss of genetic diversity within a species. It can happen very quickly, due to catastrophic events, or changes in land use leading to habitat loss. But it can also occur more gradually and remain unnoticed for a long time. One of the main causes of genetic erosion is the replacement of local varieties by modern varieties. Other causes include environmental degradation, urbanization, and land clearing through deforestation and brush fires. In order to conserve biodiversity in plants, it is important to targets three independent levels that include ecosystems, species and genes. Genetic diversity is important to a species' fitness, long-term viability, and ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Chapters in this book are written by leading geneticists, molecular biologists and other specialists on relevant topics on genetic erosion and conservation genetic diversity in plants. This divisible set of two volumes deals with a broad spectrum of topics on genetic erosion, and approaches to biodiversity conservation in crop plants and trees. Volume 1 deals with indicators and prevention of genetic erosion, while volume 2 covers genetic diversity and erosion in a number of plants species. These two volumes will also be useful to botanists, biotechnologists, environmentalists, policy makers, conservationists, and NGOs working to manage genetic erosion and biodiversity.
Despite carefully constructed conservation interventions, deforestation in Indonesia is not being stopped. This book identifies why large-scale international forest conservation has failed to reduce deforestation in Indonesia and considers why key stakeholders have not responded as expected to these conservation interventions. The book maps the history of deforestation in Indonesia in the context of global political economy, exploring the relationship between international trade, the interests and ideology behind global sustainability programmes and the failures of forest conservation in Indonesia. Global economic and political ideologies are shown to have profoundly shaped deforestation. The author argues that the same forces continue to prevent positive outcomes. Case study chapters analyse three major international programmes: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), the Norway-Indonesia bilateral partnership, and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Indonesia. The findings provide insight into the failures of global climate change policy and suggest how the book's theoretical model can be used to analyse other complex environmental problems. The book is a useful reference for students of environmental science and policy, political theory, international relations, development and economics. It will also be of interest to forestry professionals and practitioners working in NGOs.
This volume systematically analyses why legal doctrines for the protection of biodiversity are not sufficiently effective. It examples implementation in Australia and Brazil, two megadiverse countries with very differing legal and cultural traditions and natural environments. Substantial effort goes into the development and interpretation of legal doctrines for the protection of biodiversity in national and international law. Despite this, biodiversity continues in steep decline. Nowhere is this more evident than in megadiverse countries, such as Australia and Brazil, which possess the greatest number and diversity of animals and plants on Earth. The book covers a wide range of topics, including farming, mining, marine environments, indigenous interests and governance. Achieving Biodiversity Protection in Megadiverse Countries highlights specific causes of underperformance in protecting diverse terrestrial and marine environments. It provides proposals for more effective implementation in these two jurisdictions, relevant to other megadiverse territories, and for biodiversity protection generally. Each chapter was written by teams of Australian and Brazilian authors, so that similar issues are considered across both jurisdictions, to provide both country-specific and generalisable insights. Achieving Biodiversity Protection in Megadiverse Countries will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law and governance and biodiversity conservation, as well as policymakers, practitioners and NGOs working in these fields.
Conservation Biology for All provides cutting-edge but basic
conservation science to a global readership. A series of
authoritative chapters have been written by the top names in
conservation biology with the principal aim of disseminating
cutting-edge conservation knowledge as widely as possible.
Important topics such as balancing conversion and human needs,
climate change, conservation planning, designing and analyzing
conservation research, ecosystem services, endangered species
management, extinctions, fire, habitat loss, and invasive species
are covered. Numerous textboxes describing additional relevant
material or case studies are also included.
"Biodiversity" refers to the variety of life. It is now agreed that there is a "biodiversity crisis", corresponding to extinction rates of species that may be 1000 times what is thought to be "normal". Biodiversity science has a higher profile than ever, with the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services involving more than 120 countries and 1000s of scientists. At the same time, the discipline is re-evaluating its foundations - including its philosophy and even core definitions. The value of biodiversity is being debated. In this context, the tree of life ("phylogeny") is emerging as an important way to look at biodiversity, with relevance cutting across current areas of concern - from the question of resilience within ecosystems, to conservation priorities for globally threatened species - while capturing the values of biodiversity that have been hard to quantify, including resilience and maintaining options for future generations. This increased appreciation of the importance of conserving "phylogenetic diversity", from microbial communities in the human gut to global threatened species, has inevitably resulted in an explosion of new indices, methods, and case studies. This book recognizes and responds to the timely opportunity for synthesis and sharing experiences in practical applications. The book recognizes that the challenge of finding a synthesis, and building shared concepts and a shared toolbox, requires both an appreciation of the past and a look into the future. Thus, the book is organized as a flow from history, concepts and philosophy, through to methods and tools, and followed by selected case studies. A positive vision and plan of action emerges from these chapters, that includes coping with inevitable uncertainties, effectively communicating the importance of this "evolutionary heritage" to the public and to policy-makers, and ultimately contributing to biodiversity conservation policy from local to global scales.
This open access book presents the proceedings volume of the YOUMARES 8 conference, which took place in Kiel, Germany, in September 2017, supported by the German Association for Marine Sciences (DGM). The YOUMARES conference series is entirely bottom-up organized by and for YOUng MARine RESearchers. Qualified early career scientists moderated the scientific sessions during the conference and provided literature reviews on aspects of their research field. These reviews and the presenters' conference abstracts are compiled here. Thus, this book discusses highly topical fields of marine research and aims to act as a source of knowledge and inspiration for further reading and research.
This book is the first to explore in detail the systematics and taxonomy of the digenean fauna of fish in Indian marine waters. It includes morphological descriptions of 648 species in 190 genera and 30 families. The figures from the original publications are enhanced and made more attractive. Each description is accompanied by information on hosts and distribution. Digenetic trematodes, usually known as Digeneans, are the most diverse group of metazoan parasites of marine fishes. They are parasitic flatworms (Phylum Platyhelminthes) with a complex life-cycle and as adults inhabit mainly the alimentary system and associated organs, but also occur in the blood, under the scales, in the body cavity and in the gall and urinary bladders. Keys to families, genera and species are provided, except for a few large and controversial genera, where morphological characters are insufficient for identification. Although there is extensive literature on Digeneans, it is scattered and largely in obscure local journals. Bringing together most of the primary literature on the subject, this book provides a primer for further study and a starting point for the use of modern molecular methods for the fauna of this region. Unique in its scope, it is a valuable resource for students, professional parasitologists and ecologists as well as fishery and wildlife biologists.
This book presents the main drivers of benthic structure and processes in estuaries from the 8,000 km-Brazilian coast, assesses the influence of natural and human disturbance, and discusses their ecological importance and management needs. Estuaries are unique coastal ecosystems often with low biodiversity that sustain and provide essential ecological services to mankind. These ecosystems include a variety of habitats with their own sediment and fauna dynamics, all of them globally altered or threatened by human activities. Mangroves, saltmarshes, tidal flats and other confined estuarine systems are under increasing stress by overfishing and other human activities leading to habitat and species loss. Combined changes in estuarine hydromorphology and in climate pose severe threats to estuarine ecosystems at a global scale.
Igapo forests are a common part of the Amazon whose ecosystems are critical to our shared human future. The introduction addresses the structure, function and dynamics of igapo forests in the Amazon basin, focusing on their uniqueness due to their high level of complexity defined as the many ways that different components of igapo forests in the Amazon basin ecosystem interact and also on how those interactions are on a higher-order compared to other tropical forests. The text then breaks down the igapo ecosystem using these sections: (1) Igapo forests over space and time, (2) Water, light and soils, (3) The carbon cycle, (4) Litter, fungi and invertebrates, (5) Vertebrates, (6) Plant population studies, (7) Plant community studies, and (8) Human impacts and management. Experts from around the world serve as chapter authors that review what is known about their specific part of the igapo ecosystem, what research they have done, and also what needs to be done in the future.
The aim of this first book is to introduce the readers of the series to why Cuatro Cienegas Basin (CCB) is so unique, starting with the reason why astrobiologists became interested in this oasis in the first place; namely, the high diversity and abundance of stromatolites and microbial mats in continental waters to be found in the desert oasis. As NASA has long since discovered, the basin may offer the best analog of early Earth. In essence, CCB is a time machine that can take us far back and forth in time. In the respective chapters, the contributing authors explain the extraordinary microbial diversity of Cuatro Cienegas Basin from various perspectives. In order to do so, they explain their journey as well as the different tools used to unravel the basin's mysteries, such as: Why are there so many species in a place without food? How has life there survived the enormity of tectonic shifts through the ages, maintaining its ancient marine heritage?
This volume provides a reference textbook and comprehensive compilation of multifaceted perspectives on the legal issues arising from the conservation and exploitation of non-human biological resources. Contributors include leading academics, policy-makers and practitioners reviewing a range of socio-legal issues concerning the relationships between humankind and the natural world. The Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law includes chapters on fundamental and cutting-edge issues, including discussion of major legal instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol. The book is divided into six distinct parts based around the major objectives which have emerged from legal frameworks concerned with protecting biodiversity. Following introductory chapters, Part II examines issues relating to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, with Part III focusing on access and benefit-sharing. Part IV discusses legal issues associated with the protection of traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and indigenous human rights. Parts V and VI focus on a selection of intellectual property issues connected to the commercial exploitation of biological resources, and analyse ethical issues, including viewpoints from economic, ethnobotanical, pharmaceutical and other scientific industry perspectives. |
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