UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) are designated areas in geographical regions of global socio-ecological significance. This definitive book shows their global relevance and contribution to environmental protection, biocultural diversity and education. Initiated in the 1970s as part of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, BRs share a set of common objectives, to support and demonstrate a balance between biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and research. The world's 701 BRs form an international, intergovernmental network to support the aims of sustainability science, but this purpose has not always been widely understood. In three distinct sections, the book starts by outlining the origins of BRs and the MAB Programme, showing how they contribute to advancing sustainable development. The second section documents the evolution of BRs around the world, including case studies from each of the five UNESCO world regions. Each case study demonstrates how conservation, sustainable development and the role of scientific research have been interpreted locally. The book concludes by discussing thematic lessons to help understand the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainability science, providing a unique platform from which lessons can be learned. This includes how concepts become actions on the ground and how ideas can be taken up across sites at differing scales. This book will be of great interest to professionals engaged in conservation and sustainable development, NGOs, policy-makers and advanced students in environmental management, ecology, sustainability science, environmental anthropology and geography.

A practical book for professionals who rely on water quality data for decision making, this book is based on three decades experience of three highly published water and watershed resource professionals. It focuses on the analysis of air pollution sensitive waters and the consequent effects associated with soil and water acidification, nutrient-N enrichment, or the effects of atmospherically deposited toxic substances. It also covers lake zooplankton and/or stream macroinvertebrate biomonitors. Explanations of the reasons behind various recommendations provide readers with the tools needed to alter recommended protocols to match particular study needs and budget.

In a perspective of sustainable management, the balance between ecological dynamics, social and economic are now at the heart of ecological modeling and environmental strategies screenwriting. Diversity and marine ecosystems function illustrates biodiversity, habitat diversity, structures and food webs in various oceans of the world and systems: pelagic and benthic ecosystems, coral reefs and seagrass beds, oasis of hydrothermal vents ridges or areas rich upwelling. Appropriate observation methods, long-term monitoring and modeling reveal the complexity of systems, trophic interactions and spatiotemporal dynamics. The ecosystem approach is a prerequisite to assess the state of these systems, their living resources and ecological services involved in local and global environmental changes.

In the context of sustainable development, recent land debates tend to construct two porous camps. On the one side, norms of land justice and their advocates dictate that people's rights to tenure security are tantamount and even sometimes key to successful conservation practice. On the other hand, biodiversity protection and conservation advocates, supported by global environmental organizations and states, remain committed to conservation strategies, steeped in genetics and biological sciences, working on behalf of a "global" mandate for biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Land Rights, Biodiversity Conservation and Justice seeks to illuminate struggles for land and territory in the context of biodiversity conservation. This edited volume explores the particular ideologies, narratives and practices that are mobilized when the agendas of biodiversity conservation practice meet, clash, and blend with the demands for land and access and control of resources from people living in, and in close proximity to, parks. The book maintains that, while biodiversity conservation is an important goal in a time where climate change is a real threat to human existence, the successful and just future of biodiversity conservation is contingent upon land tenure security for local people. The original research gathered together in this volume will be of considerable interest to researchers of development studies, political ecology, land rights, and conservation.

The present volume by the author is based on the outcome of extensive explorations in the Himalayas for more than a decade. It incorporates the original research findings along with that based on literature survey. It is intended to provide a comprehensive account of an important group of fungi which has a direct bearing on wood industry and forest ecosystem besides commercial application in bioremediation and pollution control. It is the first step in providing the mycologists with consolidated, systematically up-to-date and illustrative monograph of wood-rotting fungi of Himalayas. Every year the students of the post graduate colleges and universities particularly Indian sub-continent go in for fungal forays to collect fungi which forms part of their course curriculum. This book will serve as a field manual for identification. The book has more than 240 color photographs and 123 plates of camera lucida drawings covering all the fungi which have been reported till-to-date from the study area.

This volume contains studies on the evolution and function of lightweight constructions of planktonic and other organisms, and examples of how they can be used to create new solutions for radical innovations of lightweight constructions for technological application. The principles and underlying processes responsible for evolution and biodiversity of marine plankton organisms are highly relevant and largely unresolved issues in the field of marine science. Amongst the most promising objects for the study of evolution of stable lightweight constructions are marine organisms such as diatoms or radiolarians. Research in these fields requires interdisciplinary expertises such as in evolutionary modelling, paleontology, lightweight optimization, functional morphology, and marine ecology. Considerable effort and expert knowledge in production engineering or lightweight optimization is necessary to transfer knowledge on biogenic structures and evolutionary principles into new lightweight solutions. This book show methods and examples of how this can be achieved efficiently.

Written for non-experts, this volume introduces the mechanisms that underlie reticulate evolution. Chapters are either accompanied with glossaries that explain new terminology or timelines that position pioneering scholars and their major discoveries in their historical contexts. The contributing authors outline the history and original context of discovery of symbiosis, symbiogenesis, lateral gene transfer, hybridization or divergence with gene flow and infectious heredity. By applying key insights from the areas of molecular (phylo)genetics, microbiology, virology, ecology, systematics, immunology, epidemiology and computational science, they demonstrate how reticulate evolution impacts successful survival, fitness and speciation. Reticulate evolution brings forth a challenge to the standard Neo-Darwinian framework, which defines life as the outcome of bifurcation and ramification patterns brought forth by the vertical mechanism of natural selection. Reticulate evolution puts forward a pattern in the tree of life that is characterized by horizontal mergings and lineage crossings induced by symbiosis, symbiogenesis, lateral gene transfer, hybridization or divergence with gene flow and infective heredity, making the “tree of life� look more like a “web of life.� On an epistemological level, the various means by which hereditary material can be transferred horizontally challenges our classic notions of units and levels of evolution, fitness, modes of transmission, linearity, communities and biological individuality. The case studies presented examine topics including the origin of the eukaryotic cell and its organelles through symbiogenesis; the origin of algae through primary and secondary symbiosis and dinoflagellates through tertiary symbiosis; the superorganism and holobiont as units of evolution; how endosymbiosis induces speciation in multicellular life forms; transferrable and non-transferrable plasmids and how they symbiotically interact with their host; the means by which pro- and eukaryotic organisms transfer genes laterally (bacterial transformation, transduction and conjugation as well as transposons and other mobile genetic elements); hybridization and divergence with gene flow in sexually-reproducing individuals; current (human) microbiome and viriome studies that impact our knowledge concerning the evolution of organismal health and acquired immunity; and how symbiosis and symbiogenesis can be modelled in computational evolution.

The idea that nature provides services to people is one of the most powerful concepts to have emerged over the last two decades. It is shaping our understanding of the role that biodiverse ecosystems play in the environment and their benefits for humankind. As a result, there is a growing interest in operational and methodological issues surrounding ecosystem services amongst environmental managers, and many institutions are now developing teaching programmes to equip the next generation with the skills needed to apply the concepts more effectively. This handbook provides a comprehensive reference text on ecosystem services, integrating natural and social science (including economics). Collectively the chapters, written by the world's leading authorities, demonstrate the importance of biodiversity for people, policy and practice. They also show how the value of ecosystems to society can be expressed in monetary and non-monetary terms, so that the environment can be better taken into account in decision making. The significance of the ecosystem service paradigm is that it helps us redefine and better communicate the relationships between people and nature. It is shown how these are essential to resolving challenges such as sustainable development and poverty reduction, and the creation of a green economy in developing and developed world contexts.

The book , 'An Introduction to Phytoplanktons - Diversity and Ecology' is very useful as it covers wide aspects of phytoplankton study including the general idea about cyanobacteria and algal kingdom. It contains different topics related to very basic idea of phytoplanktons such as, types ,taxonomic description and the key for identification etc. Together with it, very modern aspects of phytoplankton study including different methodologies needed for research students of botany, ecology, limnology and environmental biology are also included. The first chapter is very basic and informative and describes algal and phytoplankton classification, algal pigments, algal bloom and their control, algal toxins, wetlands algae, ecological significance of phytoplanktons etc. A general key for identification of common phytoplankton genera is also included for students who will be able to identify these genera based on the light microscopic characters. In Chapters 2-4, different aspects of phytoplankton research like primary productivity, community pattern analysis and their ecological parameter analysis have been discussed with detailed procedures. Statistical analysis is also discussed in detail. Chapter 5 includes case studies related to review, phytoplankton diversity and dynamics.

Plants form mutualistic association with various microorganisms, particularly in the rhizosphere region. The association benefits both the partners in a number of ways. A single plant can support the growth of diverse microbes and in reciprocation these microbes help the plant in several ways. A great deal of knowledge is now available on the mechanisms of action of plant growth promoting microbes in forming association with their partner plant and benefitting it. With ever increasing population and to achieve food security it has become utmost necessary to utilize these friendly microbes to enhance the crop yield and quality in an ecofriendly and sustainable manner. We already know about the huge negative impact of chemicals used in agriculture on the humans and the ecosystems as whole. ‘Plant Microbes Symbiosis – Applied Facets’ provides a comprehensive knowledge on practical, functional and purposeful utility of plant-microbe interactions. The book reviews the utilization of beneficial microbes for crop yield enhancement and protection against diseases caused by phytopathogens and nutrient deficiencies. The tome also reviews the utility of plant growth promoting microbes in helping the plants to deal with abiotic stresses imposed by climate change and anthropogenic activities. The book showcases how plant-microbe interactions are or can be utilized for reclamation of stressed soils and degradation of pollutants in a most effective and environment friendly manner. It also ascertains the reasons for the below par performance of the microbial based inoculants. The utilization of biotechnological tools for development of next generation bioformulations to combat the new challenges and overcome past hurdles has been discussed. This wonderful association between plants and microbes if used properly will not only enhance the crop yields and reclaim barren lands but also make our planet a better place to live on for all of its habitants.

The earth’s biodiversity is a degree of ecosystem health which is vital to ecology and environmental sustainability. The microbial world is the largest unexplored reservoir. The agro-ecosystem enriched with rhizosphere implicit abundant and species-rich component of microbial diversity. Its global exploration designs a worldwide framework for agricultural sustainability adjoining benefits in its conservation. Agricultural sustainability requires a major share from ecosystem management which is better paid by microbial diversity and conservation. Diversity of bacteria influences plant productivity providing nutrient convenience from soil instead altering per se community and diversity in the rhizosphere where they may influence mechanistic competent and antagonistic micro-flora. The potential species among the diversity are therefore, essential subjective to their maintenance for use around the globe. Microbial population in agro-ecosystem is influenced by stresses, reduce functionality as a component. It is therefore, important to explore secrets of planned strategy so as to unravel the microbial diversity and conservation in agricultural development. Microorganisms are minute, pervasive in nature and alleged as disease host instead tiny recognize as employee of agro-ecosystem, indulge in agricultural development and potential contributor in world of ecological and economical wealth creation. This step pertinently would help to launch scientific motivation needed to support the refrain of microbial diversity and conservation.

Freshwater ecosystems have the greatest species diversity per unit area and many endangered species. This book shows that, rather than being a marginal part of terrestrial protected area management, freshwater conservation is central to sustaining biodiversity. It focuses on better practices for conserving inland aquatic ecosystems in protected areas, including rivers, wetlands, peatlands, other freshwater and brackish ecosystems, and estuaries. The authors define inland aquatic ecosystems, showing just how diverse and widespread they are. They examine the principles and processes that are essential for the conservation of freshwater ecosystems and aquatic species. Major categories of threats to freshwater ecosystems and the flow-on implications for protected area design are described. Practical case studies are used to illustrate principles and practices applied around the world. Specific management needs of the main types of freshwater ecosystems are considered, as well as the management of freshwaters in the broader landscape, showing how natural resource governance processes can be harnessed to better manage freshwater biodiversity. The book offers commentary on how to adapt freshwater conservation practices to climate change and ends with an insightful synthesis.

Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences focuses on innovative ways in which educators can enrich the plant science content being taught in universities and secondary schools. Drawing on contributions from scholars around the world, various methods of teaching plant science is demonstrated. Specifically, core concepts from ethnobotany can be used to foster the development of connections between students, their environment, and other cultures around the world. Furthermore, the volume presents different ways to incorporate local methods and technology into a hands-on approach to teaching and learning in the plant sciences. Written by leaders in the field, Innovative Strategies for Teaching in the Plant Sciences is a valuable resource for teachers and graduate students in the plant sciences.

This book provides insights into various aspects of marine faunal communities in India, which are extremely diverse due to the geomorphologic and climatic variations along the Indian coasts. Consisting of 30 chapters by experts in their respective fields, it is divided into two parts: ·       Part I: Tropical Marine Faunal Communities ·       Part II: Ecology and Conservation Part I highlights the diversity and distribution of Foraminifera; sponges associated with seagrass; Polychaeta; Opisthobranchia; oysters; copepods; horseshoe and brachyuran crabs; echinoderms; ascidians; fishes; fish parasites; and sea mammals. Topics of Part II include the status and environmental parameters of benthos; the status of coral reefs; the invasion of snowflake coral; the recovery of bleached corals; the socioeconomics and management of dugong; marine biodiversity conservation and management in India; the assessment of the marine fauna of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act; and marine biodiversity protected areas in India. This book will serve as a valuable reference work for marine scientists, as well as for environmental managers and policy makers.

This uniquely interdisciplinary textbook explores the exciting and complex relationship between Earth’s geological history and the biodiversity of life. Its innovative design provides a seamless learning experience, clarifying major concepts step by step with detailed textual explanations complemented by detailed figures, diagrams and vibrant pictures. Thanks to its layout, the respective concepts can be studied individually, as part of the broader framework of each chapter, or as they relate to the book as a whole. It provides in-depth coverage of: - Earth’s formation and subsequent geological history, including patterns of climate change and atmospheric evolution; - The early stages of life, from microbial ‘primordial soup’ theories to the fossil record’s most valuable contributions; - Mechanisms of mutual influence between living organisms and the environment: how life changed Earth’s history whilst, at the same time, environmental pressures continue to shape the evolution of species; - Basic ideas in biodiversity studies: species concepts, measurement techniques, and global distribution patterns; - Biological systematics, from their historical origins in Greek philosophy and Biblical stories to Darwinian evolution by natural selection, and to phylogenetics based on cutting-edge molecular techniques. This book’s four major sections offer a fresh cross-disciplinary overview of biodiversity and the Earth’s history. Among many other concepts, they reveal the massive diversity of eukaryotes, explain the geological processes behind fossilisation, and provide an eye-opening account of the relatively short period of human evolution in the context of Earth’s 4.6 billion-year history. Employing a combination of proven didactic tools, the book is simultaneously a reading reference, illustrated guide, and encyclopaedia of organismal biology and geology. It is aimed at school- and university-level students, as well as members of the public fascinated by the intricate interrelationship of living organisms and their environment.

Volume 9 is part of a multicompendium Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants, on plants with edible modified stems, roots and bulbs from Acanthaceae to Zygophyllaceae (tabular) and 32 selected species in Alismataceae, Amaryllidaceae, Apiaceae, Araceae, Araliaceae, Asparagaceae, Asteraceae, Basellaceae, Brassicaceae and Campanulaceae in detail. This work is of significant interest to medical practitioners, pharmacologists, ethnobotanists, horticulturists, food nutritionists, botanists, agriculturists, conservationists, and general public. Topics covered include: taxonomy; common/ vernacular names; origin/ distribution; agroecology; edible plant parts/uses; botany; nutritive/medicinal properties, nonedible uses and selected references.

This book discusses oxidative stress and hormesis from the perspective of an evolutionary ecologist or physiologist. In the first of ten chapters, general historical information, definitions, and background of research on oxidative stress physiology, hormesis, and life history are provided. Chapters 2-10 highlight the different solutions that organisms have evolved to cope with the oxidative threats posed by their environments and lifestyles. The author illustrates how oxidative stress and hormesis have shaped diversity in organism life-histories, behavioral profiles, morphological phenotypes, and aging mechanisms. The book offers fascinating insights into how organisms work and how they evolve to sustain their physiological functions under a vast array of environmental conditions.

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.

The book is a comprehensive manual of practice for execution of afforestation and tree planting programmes in arid and semi-arid tropics. It includes a compact running account of the technology of afforestation and the relevant principles and practices in management of afforestation projects. It provides a wide range of structured information and a number of model designs which can be gainfully put to use by the field level supervisors as also by the managers concerned with planning and control of such projects. Written by a practising specialist, the book is invaluable for anyone concerned with the practice of afforestation and tree planting, be he a tree hobbyist or a school teacher, a professional forester or a senior policy maker in government, an industrialist or a philanthropist, an environmental activist or a member of a community service organization.

True bugs (Heteroptera) are a diverse and complex group of plant-feeding and predatory insects important to food production, human health, the global economy and the environment. Within the nearly 43,000 species described around the world, Neotropical true bugs are particularly diverse, and much remains to be discovered about their biology and relations with other species. Inspired by the need for a comprehensive assessment, True Bugs (Heteroptera) of the Neotropics is the most complete and thorough review ever published. Experts in each of the seven infraorders have drawn together the scattered literature to provide detailed treatments of each major taxon. The most common and important species as well as select lesser known species in each major family are covered, highlighting morphology, classification, biology and ecology. The numerous color illustrations highlight key species and their adaptations, and importance to basic and applied sciences is discussed. Each chapter is based on an up-to-date review of the literature, and with a bibliography of more than 3,000 references, readers are presented with an unprecedented and vital and timely account of the true bugs of the Neotropical Region.

This book provides both the conceptual basis and technological tools that are necessary to identify and solve problems related to biodiversity governance. The authors discuss intriguing evolutionary questions, which involve the sometimes surprising adaptive capacity of certain organisms to dwell in altered and/or changing environments that apparently lost most of their structure and functionality. Space and time heterogeneities are considered in order to understand the patterns of distribution and abundance of species and the various processes that mold them. The book also discusses at which level-from genes to the landscape, including individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems-men should intervene in nature in order to prevent the loss of biodiversity.

The book covers interplay between pest management strategies and safety of pollinators. Detailed information is provided on pests and pollinators of temperate, subtropical and tropical fruit crops. Most of the fruit crops are highly cross pollinated and depend upon insects or benefit from insect pollination for fruit set. Insect pests on the other hand cause major economic damage on fruit crops in tropics, subtropics and temperate. Evidently, pest management in fruit crops on one hand and providing safety to the pollinators on the other is a challenging task in the context of increasing horticultural productivity without upsetting the ecological balance. This book aims to integrate and develop pest control strategies in a way to minimize their impact on beneficial insect species such as natural enemies and pollinators to enhance fruit production and quality. The book covers interplay between pest management strategies and safety of pollinators. Detailed information is provided on pests and pollinators of temperate, subtropical and tropical fruit crops. Pollinators play a crucial role in flowering plant reproduction and in the production of most fruits and vegetables. Most of the fruit crops are highly cross pollinated and depend upon insects or benefit from insect pollination for fruit set. Insect pests on the other hand cause major economic damage on fruit crops in tropics, subtropics and temperate. Evidently, pest management in fruit crops on one hand and providing safety to the pollinators on the other is a challenging task in the context of increasing horticultural productivity without upsetting the ecological balance. This book aims to integrate and develop pest control strategies in a way to minimize their impact on beneficial insect species such as natural enemies and pollinators to enhance fruit production and quality. Most of the fruit crops are highly cross pollinated and depend upon insects or benefit from insect pollination for fruit set. Insect pests on the other hand cause major economic damage on fruit crops in tropics, subtropics and temperate. Evidently, pest management in fruit crops on one hand and providing safety to the pollinators on the other is a challenging task in the context of increasing horticultural productivity without upsetting the ecological balance. This book aims to integrate and develop pest control strategies in a way to minimize their impact on beneficial insect species such as natural enemies and pollinators to enhance fruit production and quality. The book covers interplay between pest management strategies and safety of pollinators.

This book summarizes major aspects of the evolution of South American metatherians, including their epistemologic, phylogenetic, biogeographic, faunal, tectonic, paleoclimatic, and metabolic contexts. A brief overview of the evolution of each major South American lineage ("Ameridelphia", Sparassodonta, Didelphimorphia, Paucituberculata, Microbiotheria, and Polydolopimorphia) is provided. It is argued that due to physiological constraints, metatherian evolution closely followed the conditions imposed by global temperatures. In general terms, during the Paleocene and the early Eocene multiple radiations of metatherian lineages occurred, with many adaptive types exploiting insectivorous, frugivorous, and omnivorous adaptive zones. In turn, a mixture of generalized and specialized types, the latter mainly exploiting carnivorous and granivorous-folivorous adaptive zones, characterized the second half of the Cenozoic. In both periods, climate was the critical driver of their radiation and turnovers.

This book is divided in two parts, the first of which shows how, beyond paleontology and systematics, macroevolutionary theories apply key insights from ecology and biogeography, developmental biology, biophysics, molecular phylogenetics and even the sociocultural sciences to explain evolution in deep time. In the second part, the phenomenon of macroevolution is examined with the help of real life-history case studies on the evolution of eukaryotic sex, the formation of anatomical form and body-plans, extinction and speciation events of marine invertebrates, hominin evolution and species conservation ethics. The book brings together leading experts, who explain pivotal concepts such as Punctuated Equilibria, Stasis, Developmental Constraints, Adaptive Radiations, Habitat Tracking, Turnovers, (Mass) Extinctions, Species Sorting, Major Transitions, Trends and Hierarchies – key premises that allow macroevolutionary epistemic frameworks to transcend microevolutionary theories that focus on genetic variation, selection, migration and fitness. Along the way, the contributing authors review ongoing debates and current scientific challenges; detail new and fascinating scientific tools and techniques that allow us to cross the classic borders between disciplines; demonstrate how their theories make it possible to extend the Modern Synthesis; present guidelines on how the macroevolutionary field could be further developed; and provide a rich view of just how it was that life evolved across time and space. In short, this book is a must-read for active scholars and because the technical aspects are fully explained, it is also accessible for non-specialists. Understanding evolution requires a solid grasp of above-population phenomena. Species are real biological individuals and abiotic factors impact the future course of evolution. Beyond observation, when the explanation of macroevolution is the goal, we need both evidence and theory that enable us to explain and interpret how life evolves at the grand scale.

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions: Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem services