The present book combines three main aspects: five major mass extinctions; contributions on some other minor extinctions; and more importantly contributions on the current mass extinction. All three aspects are introduced through interesting studies of mass extinctions in diverse organisms ranging from small invertebrates to mammals and take account of the most accepted subjects discussing mass extinctions in insects, mammals, fishes, ostracods and molluscs.

Dust storms are a vital component of the environment. This book explores and summarises recent research on where dust storms originate, why dust storms are generated, where dust is transported and deposited, the nature of dust deposits and the changing frequency of dust storms over a range of time-scales. It is the first global study of causes and effects of dust storms, which are one of the increasing nature catastrophes.

This book offers a thorough and up-to-date treatment of the use of morphometric procedures in a wide variety of contexts. As one of the most dynamic and popular fields on the contemporary biological scene, morphometrics is gaining notice among researchers and students as a necessary complement to molecular studies in the understanding and maintenance of biodiversity. This is the first reference to meet that growing need.

The theory of the scattering of light by small particles is very important in a wide range of applications in atmospheric physics and atmospheric optics, ocean optics, remote sensing, astronomy and astrophysics and biological optics. This book summarises current knowledge of the optical properties of single small particles and natural light scattering media such as snow, clouds, foam aerosols etc. The book considers both single and multiple light scattering regimes, together with light scattering and radiative transfer in close-packed media. The third edition incorporates new findings in the area of light scattering media optics in an updated version of the text.

The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumes of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals."

Based on an International Workshop held in Arusha, Tanzania, this book presents state-of-the-art papers, real world applications, and innovative techniques for combating land degradation. It offers recommendations for effectively using weather and climate information for sustainable land management practices.

This book examines the origins, development and fate of intelligent species in the observable part of our universe. It scrutinizes what kind of information about extraterrestrial intelligent life can be inferred from our own biological, cultural and scientific evolution and the likely future of mankind. There is emphasis on the geological conditions and consequences of life's conquest of land as the pre-condition for the emergence of life with our type of technical intelligence.

Coastal East and Southeast Asia are characterized by wet growing seasons, and species-rich forest ecosystems develop throughout the latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. In this region, the Global Change Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystems in Monsoon Asia (TEMA) project was carried out as a unique contribution to the international project Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems. TEMA aimed to integrate forest ecosystem processes, from leaf physiology to meteorological budget and prediction of long-term change of vegetation composition and architecture through demographic processes. Special attention was given to watershed processes, where forest ecosystem metabolism affects the properties and biogeochemical budgets of freshwater ecosystems, and where rivers, wetlands, and lakes are subject to direct and indirect effects of environmental change. This volume presents the scaling-up concept for better understanding of ecosystem functioning.

Covering an area of over 130 million km2 spanning the Mediterranean, equator and tropics, the African continent features a spectacular geographic diversity. Consequently, it is characterised by extremely variable climatic, edaphic and ecological conditions, associated with a wide range of natural vegetation and wildlife, as well as human population density, crops and livestock.

In this book, Henry Le Houerou presents his bioclimatic and biogeographic classification of Africa. The extensive data provide the basis for comparisons between various African regions, and with regions on other continents such as Latin America or the Indian subcontinent. The results constitute a rational basis for national, regional and sub-regional rural development planning, and for agricultural research dealing with aspects such as plant and animal introductions, the extrapolation or interpolation of experimental or developmental findings, and ecosystems dynamics. Possible problems of applications are also examined."

In the summer of 2003, a workshop was held in Portsmouth, NH, to discuss land measurement techniques for the North American Carbon Program. Over 40 sci- tists representing government agencies, academia and nonprofit research organi- tions located in Canada, the US and Mexico participated. During the course of the workshop a number of topics were discussed, with an emphasis on the following: * The need for an intermediate tier of carbon measurements. This level of study would be more extensive than state-level inventories of the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, but less detailed than intensive ecos- tem studies sites such as those in Long Term Ecological Research network. This tier would ideally provide a basis to link and scale remote sensing measurements and inventory data, and supply data required to parameterize existing models (see Wofsy and Harriss 2002, Denning et al. 2005). * The design criteria that such a network of sites should meet. The network and s- pling design should be standardized, but flexible enough to be applied across North America. The design also needs to be efficient enough to be implemented without the need for large field crews, yet robust enough to provide useful information. Finally, the spatial scale must permit easy linkage to remotely sensed data. * The key variables that should be measured at each site, and the frequency of measurement.

This volume focuses on interaction between vegetation, relief, climate, soil and fauna in the treeline ecotone, and the effects of climate change and land use in North America and Europe.

The second edition of this widely cited textbook continues to provide a concise but comprehensive introduction to cave and subterranean biology, describing this fascinating habitat and its biodiversity. It covers a range of biological processes including ecosystem function, evolution and adaptation, community ecology, biogeography, and conservation. The authors draw on a global range of examples and case studies from both caves and non-cave subterranean habitats. One of the barriers to the study of subterranean biology has been the extraordinarily large number of specialized terms used by researchers; the authors explain these terms clearly and minimize the number that they use. This new edition retains the same 10 chapter structure of the original, but the content has been thoroughly revised and updated throughout to reflect the huge increase in publications concerning subterranean biology over the last decade.

Radiolaria are a very diverse marine siliceous microplankton group that have existed at least snice the Cambrian to the recent. This volume gives a representative view of research topics discussed at the 10th International Meeting of Radiolarian Palaeontologists. The articles of this volume cover mainly radiolarian biochronology and radiolarian fauna changes.

Advances in our understanding of the nitrogen cycle and the impact of anthropogenic activities on regional to global scales depend on the expansion of scientific studies to these fast-developing regions. This book presents a series of studies from across the Americas whose aim is to highlight key natural processes that control nitrogen cycling as well as discuss the main anthropogenic influences on the nitrogen cycle in both the tropical and temperate regions of the Americas.

This book provides a rich and illuminating account of the peripheries of urban, regional, and transnational development in South Korea. Engaging with the ideas of "core location," a term coined by Baik Young-seo, and "Asia as method," a concept with a century-old intellectual lineage in East Asia, each chapter in the volume discusses the ways in which a place can be studied in an increasingly globalized world. Examining cases set in the Jeju English Education City, anti-poverty and community activist sites, rural areas home to large numbers of migrant women, and Korea's Chinatowns, greenbelts, and textile factories, the collection develops a relational understanding of a place as a constellation of local and global forces and processes that interact and contradict in particular ways. Each chapter also explores multiple modes of urban marginality and discusses how understanding them shapes the methods of academic praxis for social justice causes and decolonialized scholarship. This book is the outcome of several years of interdisciplinary collaborations and dialogues among scholars based in geography, architecture, anthropology, and urban politics.

The Mediterranean Basin, California, Chile, the western Cape of South Africa and southern Australia share a Mediterranean climate characterized by cool wet winters and hot dry summers. These five regions have differing patterns of human settlement but similarities in natural vegetation and some faunal assemblages. The similarities are being enhanced by an increasing level of biotic exchange between the regions as time passes since European settlement in each region. This unique documentation of the introduced floras and faunas in these five regions of Mediterranean climate both increases our understanding of the ecology of biological invasions, and points the way to more effective management of the biota of these regions. This book is an initiative of a subcommittee of SCOPE (Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) which realized that the integrity of many natural ecosystems was being threatened by the ingress of invasive species.

This interdisciplinary book interprets early human evolution in the context of the local ecology and adaptation to specific habitats. It systematically assesses the possible role of climate change in driving early human evolution, and evaluates recent fossil finds from an ecological and biogeographic perspective, to provide a novel synthesis of hominid evolution.

Das Buch untersucht die Auswirkungen von Anderungen der Waldbewirtschaftung, derzeit vorwiegend von nadelbaumdominierten Reinbestanden in strukturierte Mischwalder. Innerhalb einer nachhaltigen und naturnahen Waldwirtschaft wird dieser Prozess als okologischer Waldumbau bezeichnet. Er wird aktuell von den offentlichen Forstverwaltungen in Deutschland und Mitteleuropa forciert.

Einleitend beschreiben die Autoren Ziele, Moglichkeiten und Erfordernisse des okologischen Waldumbaus. Basierend auf wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen werden die mit dem Waldumbau einhergehenden Probleme und die zu erwartenden Folgen unter okologischen, naturschutzfachlichen und betriebswirtschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten, verstandlich fur das Fachpublikum wie auch die Praxis, beleuchtet. Schwerpunkte sind dabei Effekte des Waldumbaus auf das Okosystem Wald und benachbarte Okosysteme, auf Stoffhaushalt, Artenzusammensetzung und Biodiversitat, ebenso wie die okonomischen Risiken, der Einfluss der Besitzverhaltnisse und die Technikfolgen."

The study of patterns and processes of evolution on islands has played an important role in the development of an understanding of how and why evolution occurs. Small, discrete pieces of the environment, islands are frequently isolated from the continental processes of gene flow and are thus inhabited by unique species. With such rapidily diversifying evolution, it is easy to see why islands have been referred to as 'natural experiments'. This unique book surveys our current knowledge and understanding of island evolution in several chapters written by experts in various aspects of microevolution, speciation, and adaptive radiation.

We shall limit our observations to the conditions in natural ecosystems, since it would be beyond the scope of this book to embark upon a consideration of secondary, man-made ecosystems. 2. Classification of the Geo-biosphere into Zonobiomes The biosphere is the thin layer of the earth's surface to which the phenomena connected with living matter are confined. On land, this comprises the lowest layer of the atmosphere permanently inhabited by living organisms and into which plants extend, as well as the root-containing portion of the lithosphere, which we term the soil. Living organisms are also found in all bodies of water, to the very depths of the oceans. In a watery medium, however, cycling of material is achieved by means other than those on land, and the organisms (plankton) are so different that aquatic ecosystems have to be dealt with separately. The biosphere is therefore subdivided into (a) the geo-biosphere comprising terrestrial ecosystems, and (b) the hydro-biosphere, comprising aquatic ecosystems, which is the field of hydrobiologists (oceanographers and limnologists) . Our studies are confined to the geo-biosphere (Walter 1976), which constitutes the habitat of man and is, therefore, of special interest. The prevailing climate, being the primary independent factor in the environment, can be used as a basis for further subdivision of the geo-biosphere since the formation of soil and type of vegetation are dependent upon it (see p. 3), and it has not yet been substantially influenced by man.

This is an introductory text to biogeography. The contents are arranged into four main parts. Part one deals with the Earth's physical processes and energy cycles, eg lunar and circadian patterns. Part two covers the evolution and development of the biosphere. Here, theories and evidence for the generation of the Earth's atmosphere and interactions between early organisms and the environment are covered. This is followed by sections on continental drift and its impact on flora and fauna along with a description of ice age events and their biogeographic implications. Part three provides examinations of varying situations such as freshwater, marine, terrestrial, island and climatic environments. The concluding chapters of this section look at environments linked by animal migrations and coevolution, and the interactions of soils, plants, animals and their products in functioning communities. Part four deals with the impact of mankind on the planet. Key aspects discussed here include the influence of agriculture, petroleum and petrochemicals, the creation and extermination of plants and animals, and urban industrial development on the evolution of patterns of life on our world.

Habitat loss and degradation are currently the main anthropogenic causes of species extinctions. The root cause is human overpopulation. This unique volume provides, for the very first time, a comprehensive overview of all threatened and recently extinct mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes within the context of their locations and habitats. The approach takes a systematic examination of each biogeographic realm and region of the world, both terrestrial and marine, but with a particular emphasis on geographic features such as mountains, islands, and coral reefs. It reveals patterns useful in biodiversity conservation, helps to put it all into perspective, and ultimately serves as both a baseline from which to compare subsequent developments as well as a standardization of the way threatened species are studied.

Conservation biology has emerged as one of the most important areas of ecology; using concepts from traditional resource management and modern population biology to preserve biological diversity. In order to really understand the problems of decreasing diversity and the solutions to maintaining it, the attention of ecologists must be focussed on larger spatial and temporal scales than they are traditionally used to. The book discusses methods and statistical techniques that can be used to analyze spatial patterns in geographic populations. These techniques incorporate ideas from fractal geometry to develop measures of geographic range fragmentation, and can be used to ask questions regarding the conservation of biodiversity.

Die folgenden Ausfiihrungen behandeln die Absehatzung der Seitendruek- ziffer A fiir den Orange-Fish-Tunnel in Siidafrika. 3 Der Tunnel solI eine Wassermenge von 50 m /see vom Verwoerd-Stausee des Orange-River in das Gebiet des grofSen Fish-River bringen, urn dieses zu bewassern. Die Gesamtlange des Tunnels betragt etwa 85 km, der Ausbruehsdureh- messer 6 m. Der Orange-Fish-Tunnel dureh6rtert eine im geologischen Sinne ruhige Landschaft. Er liegt im Karroo-Becken, welches von Sedimenten, vorwiegend Sandsteinen, Sehluffsteinen und Steinmergeln gefii11t ist. Die Ablagerungen sind dureh einen haufigen Weehsel dieser Gesteins- arten sowohl in horizontaler wie in vertikaler Erstreckung gekennzeiehnet und werden von Dolerit-Intrusionen durehadert. Der Tunnel wird von mehreren Orten zugleieh vorgetrieben. Yom Ein- lafSbauwerk aus, von sieben Zugangssehaehten und vom AuslafSbauwerk aus. Es war vorgesehen, den Tunnel mit einem rasehen Vortrieb aufzufahren. Ober weite Strecken (etwa 85 %) des Tunnels war eine geringfiigige, provi- sorische Sicherung durch Anker sowie eine endgiiltige Betonauskleidung von etwa 23 em Dicke vorgesehen (diese fiir die ganze Tunnellange). Beim Tunnelvortrieb sind jedoeh unerwartete Sehwierigkeiten aufgetre- ten, und auch in der betonierten endgiiltigen Auskleidung stellten sich Risse ein, die nicht erwartet worden waren. 2. Abschatzung der Seitendruckziffer aus der Geologischen Vorgeschichte Yom Kenntnisstand des Untertagebaues zum Zeitpunkt der Projektierung des Orange-Fish-Tunnel ausgehend ist zu sagen, dafS in etwa mit A-Werten im Bereich von 0,25 bis 1,2 zu rechnen war.

When and where did the ancestors of modern birds evolve? What enabled them to survive the meteoric impact that wiped out the dinosaurs? How did these early birds spread across the globe and give rise to the 10,600-plus species we recognise today from the largest ratites to the smallest hummingbirds? Based on the latest scientific discoveries and enriched by personal observations, The Ascent of Birds sets out to answer these fundamental questions. The Ascent of Birds is divided into self-contained chapters, or stories, that collectively encompass the evolution of modern birds from their origins in Gondwana, over 100 million years ago, to the present day. The stories are arranged in chronological order, from tinamous to tanagers, and describe the many dispersal and speciation events that underpin the world's 10,600-plus species. Although each chapter is spearheaded by a named bird and focuses on a specific evolutionary mechanism, the narrative will often explore the relevance of such events and processes to evolution in general. The book starts with The Tinamou's Story, which explains the presence of flightless birds in South America, Africa, and Australasia, and dispels the cherished role of continental drift as an explanation for their biogeography. It also introduces the concept of neoteny, an evolutionary trick that enabled dinosaurs to become birds and humans to conquer the planet. The Vegavis's Story explores the evidence for a Cretaceous origin of modern birds and why they were able to survive the asteroid collision that saw the demise not only of dinosaurs but of up to three-quarters of all species. The Duck's Story switches to sex: why have so few species retained the ancestral copulatory organ? Or, put another way, why do most birds exhibit the paradoxical phenomenon of penis loss, despite all species requiring internal fertilisation? The Hoatzin's Story reveals unexpected oceanic rafting from Africa to South America: a stranger-than-fiction means of dispersal that is now thought to account for the presence of other South American vertebrates, including geckos and monkeys. The latest theories underpinning speciation are also explored. The Manakin's Story, for example, reveals how South America's extraordinarily rich avifauna has been shaped by past geological, oceanographic and climatic changes, while The Storm-Petrel's Story examines how species can evolve from an ancestral population despite inhabiting the same geographical area. The thorny issue of what constitutes a species is discussed in The Albatross's Story, while The Penguin's Story explores the effects of environment on phenotype in the case of the Emperor penguin, the harshest on the planet. Recent genomic advances have given scientists novel approaches to explore the distant past and have revealed many unexpected journeys, including the unique overland dispersal of an early suboscine from Asia to South America (The Sapayoa's Story) and the blackbird's ancestral sweepstake dispersals across the Atlantic (The Thrush's Story). Additional vignettes update more familiar concepts that encourage speciation: sexual selection (The Bird-of-Paradise's Story); extended phenotypes (The Bowerbird's Story); hybridisation (The Sparrow's Story); and 'great speciators' (The White-eye's Story). Finally, the book explores the raft of recent publications that help explain the evolution of cognitive skills (The Crow's Story); plumage colouration (The Starling's Story); and birdsong (The Finch's Story)