Die vorliegende Publikation thematisiert aktuelle Probleme integrativer Modellierung vor dem Hintergrund des Ziels der Forschung zum globalen Wandel. Dabei werden insbesondere Fragen der Modellbildung und Szenarienentwicklung wie auch die Beurteilung ihrer qualitAtssichernden Kriterien erArtert. Das Ziel ist eine umfassende Analyse von Chancen und Limitationen integrativer Forschungs- und Modellierungsarbeit, die im Rahmen der Global Change-Forschung geleistet wird. Durch Einbringung von Erfahrungen aus der Forschungspraxis, ihrer theoretischen Fundierung und methodischen Reflexion soll dieses Ziel erreicht werden. Die resultierenden Erkenntnisse sollen der Standortbestimmung und dem Fortschritt integrativer Forschung zum globalen Wandel dienen - auf strategischer Ebene auch der Gewinnung von Perspektiven fA1/4r die weitere Entwicklung und Schwerpunktsetzung in Deutschland.

Reef fish spawning aggregations, ranging from small groups to many tens of thousands of individuals, are spectacular but poorly known natural phenomena whereby fish assemble at specific times and locations to spawn. For some species these large groups may be the only form of reproduction, the high fish numbers briefly giving a false impression of stability and abundance-an 'illusion of plenty'. They are often a focus for intensive seasonal fishing because of their predictability and because many important commercial fishes form them. Highly vulnerable to overexploitation, many aggregations and their associated fisheries, have disappeared or are in decline. Few are effectively managed or incorporated into protected areas. Aggregations are not well understood by fishery scientists, managers and conservationists and their significance little appreciated by fishers or the wider public. To ensure their persistence to replenish important fisheries in coral ecosystems, maintain their ecosystem function and continue to delight divers, a significant change in perspective is needed to foster protection and management. This book provides comprehensive and practical coverage of the biology, study and management of reef fish aggregations, exploring their how, when, where, and why. It explores ways to better protect, study, manage and conserve them, while identifying key data gaps and questions. The text is extensively illustrated with many unique, never before published, photographs and graphics. Case studies on over 20 interesting and important fishes are included, outlining their biology and fisheries and highlighting major concerns and challenges.

Landscape ecology and conservation biology are rapidly developing disciplines, and a current synthesis of principles and applications in these two fields is needed under one cover. Many managers are not applying principles of landscape ecology in efforts to conserve plants and animals and yet the loss of biological diversity could be reduced if larger-scale processes and patterns were consistently considered in management and conservation decisions. This book brings together contributions from leaders in landscape ecology and addresses the issue of how what we know about landscape ecology can help us understand, manage and maintain biodiversity. The book is divided into six parts: the first part introduces the book and discusses what landscape ecology is and why it is important to conservation biology. The second deals with patches, the third part discusses corridors and biota movement, the fourth part discusses landscape change and how these affect biodiversity. The fifth part covers landscape planning. The final part presents a synthesis and draws conclusions about the utility of the landscape approach to conservation.
Ecologists, conservation biologists and landscape managers will find this book to be an essential resource for study and reference.

A search for the endangered beluga whales of Cook Inlet, Alaska, becomes a personal journey and an expose of the forces arrayed against this fascinating-and troubled-species. Living in waters adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, the beluga whales of Cook Inlet are an isolated and genetically distinct population. Thought to number more than 1000 in the early 1990s, a sharp population decline has brought them near extinction.Original in approach and incisive in its questions, Beluga Days explores how conservation laws, management policies, and human behaviors have affected the shrinking beluga population. From hunters, regulators, environmentalists, researchers, and businesspeople to whale enthusiasts, Lord encounters an ongoing debate wrestling with the immediate need to protect the whales, as well as a respect for the centuries-old tradition of Native subsistence hunting. Beyond its compelling characters and particulars, Lord's story offers readers a deeper understanding of the often uncomfortable, often rewarding, juxtaposition of humans and the natural world.

This revealing and compelling title analyzes the illegal trade in endangered species from a criminological viewpoint and presents specific crime reduction techniques that could help save thousands of species from extinction. The illegal trade in endangered species is a worldwide problem that involves not only animals but also plants, and it contributes to troubling factors such as organized crime as well as the further decline of the earth's natural climate. This book explores the extensive endangered species illegal market, spotlighting the worldwide nature and extent of the problem, and presents revealing case studies of terrestrial, marine, plant, and avian species. Sold into Extinction: The Global Trade in Endangered Species focuses attention on the plight of endangered wild flora and fauna as well as the specific illegal acts committed against them that have long and largely been ignored by criminology. The author provides a fresh look at the topic by presenting it within a crime reduction framework, an approach rarely taken by those with traditional criminological or conservation backgrounds, demonstrating how an innovative strategy to reduce illegal market activities can simultaneously further the conservation of these endangered species. International treaties, national and domestic laws, and international policing efforts pertaining to crimes involving endangered species are also examined. Illustrations, maps, and charts elucidate crime theory, import/export data on seizures of endangered species and products, and range states Photographs depict the grim reality of the global trade in endangered species An extensive bibliography contains over 30 pages of source materials

A single-resource volume of information on the most current and effective techniques of wildlife modeling, Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes is appropriate for students and researchers alike. The unique blend of conceptual, methodological, and application chapters discusses research, applications and concepts of modeling and presents new ideas and strategies for wildlife habitat models used in conservation planning. The book makes important contributions to wildlife conservation of animals in several ways: (1) it highlights historical and contemporary advancements in the development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning; (2) it provides practical advice for the ecologist conducting such studies; and (3) it supplies directions for future research including new strategies for successful studies.
Intended to provide a recipe for successful development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning, the book could be used in studying wildlife habitat models, conservation planning, and management techniques. Additionally it may be a supplemental text in courses dealing with quantitative assessment of wildlife populations. Additionally, the length of the book would be ideal for graduate student seminar course.
Using wildlife habitat models in conservation planning is of considerable interest to wildlife biologists. With ever tightening budgets for wildlife research and planning activities, there is a growing need to use computer methods. Use of simulation models represents the single best alternative. However, it is imperative that these techniques be described in a single source. Moreover, biologists should be made aware of alternative modeling techniques. It is also important that practical guidance be provided to biologists along with a demonstration of utility of these procedures. Currently there is little guidance in the wildlife or natural resource planning literature on how best to incorporate wildlife planning activities, particularly community-based approaches. Now is the perfect time for a synthestic publication that clearly outlines the concepts and available methods, and illustrates them.
KEY FEATURES:
* Only single resource book of information not only on various wildlife modeling techniques, but also with practical guidance on the demonstrated utility of each based on real-world conditions.
* Provides concepts, methods and applications for wildlife ecologists and others within a GIS context.
* Written by a team of subject-area experts

Fisheries resources are an important component of natural resources. It is an important source of high-quality animal protein and food for humans, which provides employment, economic benefits and social welfare for people engaged in fishing activities. It also has played an important role in food safety, economic development, and foreign trade. Fisheries resources economics is an important branch of both applied economics and resource economics. Its research object is fishery resources and its economic problems. The economics of fishery resources is to focus on the relationship between the demand for human economic activities and the supply of fishery resources, as well as between fishery resources and its development. This book expounds the reasons for the economic problems of fishery resources and the theoretical principles for solving them, so as to reveal the objective rules of the allocation of fishery resources in different regions and at different times, to coordinate the relationship between the utilization of fishery resources and economic development, and to realize the sustainable development of fishery economy. This book will also provide learning materials for undergraduates, graduate students and practitioners engaged in fishery resources development and scientific management.

What is behind the greening of European politics, and what is the future of the green movement? This book examines environmental interest groups at the vanguard of the green movement in Western Europe-from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to national bird societies and conservation groups-in order to answer these questions. Russell J. Dalton chronicles the evolution of environmental interest groups from their first mobilization wave in the late 1800s to the present. Drawing on interviews with leaders of nearly seventy major environmental groups in ten countries, he challenges the conventional view of the environmental movement. Dalton argues that environmental leaders are not the political radicals portrayed by their opponents but are advocates of reform. He also finds that green groups are active and varied participants in the policy process. As the green movement has developed, environmental interest groups have helped to define its goals and identity. The environmental movement, says Dalton, has become an advocate for a new green agenda that is reforming the policy priorities of advanced industrial democracies. Dalton uses his investigation into the green movement to shed light on social movements and social theory. By comparing conservation and ecology groups, he finds that an organization's values strongly influence its political behavior. He concludes that social movements are driven by their ideological views and political identity and that these shape their choice of political goals, their potential for action, and their pattern of behavior.

This survey of one the longest insect conservation campaigns in Australia deals with recovery of one of the most iconic endemic butterflies, the Richmond birdwing, threatened by clearance and fragmentation of subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia and the spread of an alien larval food-plant. Its conservation has involved many aspects of community involvement, developed over more than 20 years, and focused on habitat restoration and weed eradication, in conjunction with conservation of remaining forest fragments. The work has involved the entire historical range of the butterfly, addressed threats and emphasised landscape connectivity, and has enhanced recovery through extensive plantings of native food plants. Interest has been maintained through extensive publicity, community education and media activity, and the programme has provided many lessons for advancing insect conservation practice in the region. "

The book provides basic knowledge in mycorrhizal ecology, knitted with novel conceptual frameworks and contemporary perspectives, especially in the context of global change. In a fast changing world wherein anthropogenic climate change, biological invasions, deforestation, desertification, and frequent droughts have become routine hard realities, the contents of this book urge readers to rethink basic notions of setting and accomplishing objectives in mycorrhizal research to make sense vis-a-vis contemporary challenges. In this book, a global perspective of mycorrhizal diversity and distribution is provided, followed by some insights into the impact of various global change elements such as climate change, plant invasion, and extreme environmental conditions on mycorrhizas and the role of these mutualists in turn to help their host plants to withstand such novel selection pressures. Special attention here is given to the interesting, but largely neglected, topics such as the role of mycorrhizas in ecological restoration of degraded environments and mycorrhizal status of aquatic plants. The basic idea is to unify various topical areas in mycorrhizal science in an integrated framework. This book can be used by the undergraduate and graduate level students studying mycorrhizal symbioses in the context of current ecological applications. The materials in this book will benefit biological scientists actively involved in research on mycorrhizal ecology and global environmental change. Besides, the contents of the book could be of special interest to restoration ecologists and biodiversity managers. "

Most aquatic ecosystems have variable water levels. These water-level fluctuations (WLF) have multiple effects on the organisms above and below the waterline. Natural WLF patterns in lakes guarantee both productivity and biodiversity, while untimely floods and droughts may have negative effects. Human impacts on WLF have led to a stabilization of the water levels of many lakes by hydraulic regulation, untimely drawdown due to water use, or floods due to water release from hydropower plants in the catchments.

This book provides a first review in this field. It presents selected papers on the ecological effects of WLF in lakes, resulting from a workshop at the University of Konstanz in winter 2005. Issues addressed here include the extent of WLF, and analyses of their effects on different groups of biota from microorganisms to vertebrates. Applied issues include recommendations for the hydrological management of regulated lakes to reduce negative impacts, and a conceptual framework is delivered by an extension of the floodpulse concept for lakes. Current impacts on water use, including increasing demands on drinking and irrigation water, hydropower etc., and climate change effects on WLF make this book an essential resource for aquatic ecologists, engineers, and decision-makers dealing with the management of lake ecosystems and their catchments.

1 Introduction: Scope and Need for an Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and Populated Areas.- Section I The Human Factor: Perception and Processes.- 2 The History and Present Entanglements of Some General Ecological Perspectives.- 3 An Exceptionally Powerful Biotic Factor.- 4 Environmental Change: The Human Factor.- 5 The Iceberg and the Titanic: Human Economic Behavior in Ecological Models.- 6 Ecosystems and Human Actions.- 7 The Human Component of Ecosystems.- Section II Approaches to the Study of Humans as Components of Ecosystems.- 8 Discovery of the Subtle.- 9 Land-use History and Forest Transformations in Central New England.- 10 Variability in Lake Ecosystems: Complex Responses by the Apical Predator.- 11 Humans as a Component of the Lake Titicaca Ecosystem: A Model System for the Study of Environmental Deterioration.- 12 Nitrogen Loading of Rivers as a Human-Driven Process.- 13 Humans: Capstone Strong Actors in the Past and Present Coastal Ecological Play.- 14 Modification of Nitrogen Cycling at the Regional Scale: The Subtle Effects of Atmospheric Deposition.- 15 The Application of the Ecological Gradient Paradigm to the Study of Urban Effects.- 16 The Process of Plant Colonization in Small Settlements and Large Cities.- 17 Ecological Implications of Landscape Fragmentation.- Section III Implications for Ecosystem Management and Construction.- 18 Integration of Social and Ecological Factors: Dynamic Area Models of Subtle Human Influences on Ecosystems.- 19 Human Influences on Ecosystems: Dealing With Biodiversity.- 20 "Natural" or "Healthy" Ecosystems: Are U.S. National Parks Providing Them?.- 21 Restoration as a Technique for Identifying and Characterizing Human Influences on Ecosystems.- 22 Biosphere 2 and the Study of Human/Ecosystem Dynamics.- Section IV Overview.- 23 Part I: A Social Scientist's Perspective.- II: A Human Ecologist's Perspective.- III: A Marine Ecologist's Perspective-Humans as Capstone-Species.- IV: A Theoretical Ecologist's Perspective: Toward a Unified Paradigm for Subtle Human Effects and an Ecology of Populated Areas.- 24 Humans as Components of Ecosystems: A Synthesis.

This book focuses on the use of molecular tools to study small populations of rare and endangered mammals, and presents case studies that apply an evolutionary framework to address innovative questions in the emerging field of mammalian conservation genomics using a highly diverse set of novel molecular tools. Novel and more precise molecular technologies now allow experts in the field of mammology to interpret data in a more contextual and empirical fashion and to better describe the evolutionary and ecological processes that are responsible for the patterns they observe. The book also demonstrates how recent advances in genetic/genomic technologies have been applied to assess the impact of environmental/anthropogenic changes on the health of small populations of mammals. It examines a range of issues in the field of mammalian conservation genomics, such as the role that the genetic diversity of the immune system plays in disease protection and local adaptation; the use of noninvasive techniques and genomic banks as a resource for monitoring and restoring populations; the structuring of population by physical barriers; and genetic diversity. Further, by integrating research from a variety of areas - including population genetics, molecular ecology, systematics, and evolutionary and conservation biology - it enables readers to gain a deeper understanding of the conservation biology of mammals that are at increasing risk of extinction at local, regional and global scales. As such, it offers a unique resource for a broad readership interested in the conservation biology of mammals and conservation management strategies to better preserve biodiversity.

This book examines ways of assessing the rational management of nonrenewable resources. Integrating numerous methods, it systematically exposes the strengths of exergy analysis in resources management. Divided into two parts, the first section provides the theoretical background to assessment methods, while the second section provides practical application examples. The topics covered in detail include the theory of exergy cost and thermo-ecological cost, cumulative calculus and life cycle evaluation. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers looking to investigate a range of advanced thermodynamic assessments of the influence of production processes on the depletion of nonrenewable resources.

The oceans cover over 70% of our planet. They are host to a biodiversity of tremendous wealth. Its preservation is now a global priority featuring in several international conventions and a confirmed objective of European policies and national strategies. Understanding the dynamics and the uses of the marine biodiversity is a genuine scientific challenge. Fourteen international experts have got together and identified five priority research themes to address the problem, based on analysing the state of knowledge.

David Ehrenfeld is a highly esteemed writer on ecology and conservation biology. The founding editor of The Journal of Conservation Biology and author of The Arrogance of Humanism and Beginning Again, his new book is an elegant study of the cost to human dignity and potential, of the shrinking wilderness and the ongoing degredation of the environment. He ruminates on the impacts of short-sighted governmental and economic policies, and of new technologies on human values and communities, tracing the human impacts upon the urban, agricultural and wilderness environments. Ehrenfeld has a unique, unmistakable voice as a major spokesperson for the conservation ethic and the human values implicit in environmentalism and conservation biology. This book should appeal strongly to readers of Ehrenfeld's earlier books and essays, and reach and satisfy a broad constituency on the green end of the political spectrum.

This book covers studies on the systematics of plant taxa and will include general vegetational aspects and ecological characteristics of plant life at altitudes above 1000 m. from different parts of the world. This volume also addresses how upcoming climate change scenarios will impact high altitude plant life. It presents case studies from the most important mountainous areas like the Himalayas, Caucasus and South America covering the countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kirghizia, Georgia, Russia,Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Americas. The book will serve as an invaluable resource source undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers.

Playing a critical role in both influencing climate change and mitigating its impacts, the world's diverse wetlands have become one of the world's most threatened ecosystems as unsustainable land-use practices coupled with irrational use of water have already resulted in large-scale wetlands loss and degradation. To develop sound management and conservation schemes to assure wetlands sustainability in the long term requires long-term understanding of wetlands ecology. Yet until now, long-term interdisciplinary research into these systems has been limited to only a few systems from tropical or temperate climates (such as the Florida Everglades, and Czech biosphere reserve). This new book adds to the existing wetlands literature, providing a unique reference in basic and applied Mediterranean wetland ecology, based on results from long-term interdisciplinary research at the RAMSAR and UNESCO Biosphere site, of Las Tablas de Daimiel, Spain. Dating back to the early 1990s the research highlights changes in the biotic and abiotic environment in response to cumulative anthropogenic stressors, and provide guidance on applying this understand to sound management and conservation. With particular relevance to researchers dealing with semi-arid wetlands in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, as well as to resource managers, the book discusses the complexity of the interacting abiotic and biotic environment across different spatial and temporal scales and across various levels of biological hierarchy is highlighted, and reveals how management based on poor knowledge causes more damage than repair. The book will be of interest to researchers interested in freshwater ecology, hydrobotany, hydrology, geology, biogeochemistry, landscape ecology and environmental management.

The book explores how Darwins legendary and mythologized visit to the Galapagos affected the socioecosystems of the Islands, as well as the cultural and intellectual traditions of Ecuador and Latin America. It highlights in what way the connection between Darwin and the Galapagos has had real, enduring and paradoxical effects in the Archipelago. This Twenty Century construct of the Galapagos as the cradle of Darwin's theory and insights triggered not only the definition of the Galapagos as a living natural laboratory but also the production of a series of conservation practices and the reshaping of the Galapagos as a tourism destination with an increasingly important flow of tourists that potentially threaten its fragile ecosystems. The book argues that the idea of a Darwinian living laboratory has been limited by the success of the very same constructs that promote its conservation. It suggests critical interpretations of this paradox by questioning many of the dichotomies that have been created to understand nature and its conservation. We also explore some possible ways in which Darwin's ideas can be used to better understand the social and natural threats facing the Islands and to develop sustainable and successful management practices.