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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > Deltas, estuaries, coastal regions
The first comprehensive book on the River Padma, considered the
last leg of the Ganges, with a rich collection of new photographs
and maps. The Great Padma Book defines the life and history of the
Bengal Delta, the largest delta in the world. The book contains
original essays by well-known writers, researchers, and academics
from diverse fields, including geography, history, literature,
architecture, and food history. The preface is written by the
renowned author Amitav Ghosh (The Hungry Tide). Besides unpublished
photographs documenting the magnificence and diversity of the great
river, and wonderful set of maps and diagrams, the book has a rich
content in depicting the life and times related to this turbulent
river. The wonderful design and layout of the book will make this a
collectable item.
The Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) is one of 12 inventories
funded by the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring
Program. The GRI, administered by the Geologic Resources Division
of the Natural Resource Program Center, is designed to provide and
enhance baseline information available to park managers. The
author's goal of detailing the GRI is to increase understanding of
the geologic processes at work in parks and to provide sound
geologic information for use in park decision making. Sound park
stewardship requires an understanding of the natural resources and
their role in the ecosystem.
The Long Island Studies (LIS) Program of the Connecticut Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) has noticed the habitat changes
indicative of sea-level rise in many coastal wetlands. In 2005, DEP
provided funds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a
trends analysis of selected salt marshes along the southwestern
coast of the state to document habitat changes.
This is a tribute to the sea, or the Ocean, or all the water around
us. The sea, the world ocean, or simply the ocean, is the connected
body of salty water that covers over 70 percent of the Earth's
surface. It moderates the Earth's climate and has important roles
in the water cycle, carbon cycle, and nitrogen cycle. Although the
sea has been travelled and explored since ancient times, the
scientific study of the sea dates broadly from the voyages of
Captain James Cook who explored the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and
1779. In geography, "sea" is used in the names of smaller, partly
landlocked sections of the ocean, for example the Irish Sea, while
"ocean" is used in the names of the five largest sections, such as
the Pacific Ocean. The most abundant ions in sea water are chloride
and sodium. The water also contains magnesium, sulfate, calcium,
potassium, and many other components, some in minute
concentrations. Salinity varies widely, being lower near the
surface and the mouths of large rivers and higher in the depths of
the ocean; however the relative proportions of dissolved salts vary
little across the oceans. Carbon dioxide from the air is currently
being absorbed by the sea in increasing amounts, lowering seawater
pH in a process known as ocean acidification, which is likely to
damage marine ecosystems in the near future. Winds blowing over the
surface of the sea produce waves, which break when they reach
shallow water. Winds also create surface currents through friction,
setting up slow but stable circulations of water throughout the
oceans. The directions of the circulation are governed by factors
including the shapes of the continents and the rotation of the
earth. Deep-sea currents, known as the global conveyor belt, carry
cold water from near the poles to every ocean. Tides are caused by
the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational effects of the
orbiting Moon and, to a lesser extent, the Sun. Tides may have a
very high range in bays or estuaries. A wide variety of life,
including viruses, bacteria, protists, algae, plants, fungi and
animals, lives in the sea, which offers a wide range of marine
habitats and ecosystems, ranging from sunlit surface waters to the
enormous depths and pressures of the cold, dark abyssal zone. The
sea also varies in latitude from the cold waters beneath the Arctic
ice to the colourful diversity of coral reefs in the tropics. Many
of the major groups of organisms evolved in the sea and life may
have started there. The sea provides people with substantial
supplies of food, mainly fish, but also shellfish, mammals and
seaweed, whether harvested in the wild or farmed underwater. The
sea also serves other purposes, including trade, travel, mineral
extraction, power generation, warfare, and leisure activities such
as swimming, surfing, sailing and scuba diving. The sea has played
an important part in culture throughout history, with major
appearances in literature at least since Homer's Odyssey, in marine
art, in cinema, in theater, and in classical music. Symbolically,
the sea appears as monsters such as Scylla in mythology and
represents the unconscious mind in dream interpretation. The sea is
the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters,
including the five named "oceans," the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian,
Southern and Arctic Oceans. The word "sea" is used in the names of
specific, smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the
Red Sea. There is no sharp distinction between seas and oceans,
though seas are smaller, and are partly (as marginal seas) or
wholly (as inland seas) bordered by land, on a smaller scale than
say the Atlantic Ocean. However, the Sargasso Sea has no coastline
and lies within a circular current, the North Atlantic Gyre. Seas
are generally larger than lakes and contain salt water, but the Sea
of Galilee is a freshwater lake. The United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea states that all of the ocean is "sea."
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