The book reviews and reports the recent progress and knowledge on the specific impact of current and projected urban overheating as well as of the urban mitigation technologies on mortality and morbidity and urban vulnerability. It presents recent data and developments on the topic reported by some of the more distinguished researchers in this area. In parallel, it discusses new findings related to the characteristics and the magnitude of urban overheating and reports and analyzes the recent knowledge on the synergies between urban heat island and heatwaves. This book helps to advance our understanding on the interaction between Urban Heat Island (UHI) and overheating as well as their impact on energy demand and public health globally. Exploring the interaction between UHI and energy consumption requires the understanding on the dynamics of UHI intensity and air pollution index in different land use and how such interactions may vary in different cities in the world. Moreover, this book focuses on different cities in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Asia, Spain, UK, and USA.

This book is about the role played by microbes in their community mode in sustaining ecosystems. The descriptions given in its chapters indicate clearly that microbial communities are more effective in delivering multifaceted benefits to the soil-plant system than those offered by microbial monocultures in planktonic modes. The role these communities play in a multitude of microbe-microbe and plant-microbe interactions have not yet been fully exploited to gain benefits in this field as well as to achieve sustainability in agriculture practices. Amply discussed are the beneficial characteristics and metabolic capacities of specific microbial groups and the use of microbial traits for the benefit of plant growth. The book suggests the need to develop new microbial technologies to utilize plant-associated microbes for increased crop productivity and agroecosystem balance in order to ensure sustainability. This also provides an effective guidance to scientists, academics, researchers, students and policy makers of the sphere to achieve the above outcomes.

This book discusses the use of e-learning in the progresses towards Sustainable Development (SD) or Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Almost three decades after the concept of sustainable development appeared, 2014 is the year where historical goals should be reached, since it is the last year of the United Nations Decade on ESD. Within this decade, research, projects and educational initiatives were developed and deliverables were achieved. Using e-learning is becoming widely accepted in formal and non-formal education proving to have the potential to be effective in expanding Education for Sustainability (EfS). Lifelong learning, adults' education and the huge increase in the use of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) lead to e-learning's significant role within the learning and education processes.

The threat of climate displacement looms large over a growing number of countries. Based on the more than six years of work by Displacement Solutions in ten climate-affected countries, academic work on displacement and climate adaptation, and the country-level efforts of civil society groups in several frontline countries, this report explores the key contention that land will be at the core of any major strategy aimed at preventing and resolving climate displacement. This innovative and timely volume coordinated and edited by the Founder of Displacement Solutions, Scott Leckie, examines a range of legal, policy and practical issues relating to the role of land in actively addressing the displacement consequences of climate change. It reveals the inevitable truth that climate displacement is already underway and being tackled in countries such as Bangladesh, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United States, and proposes a series of possible land solution tools that can be employed to protect the rights of people and communities everywhere should they be forced to flee the places they call home.

While global warming and its consequences on humanity are being fiercely debated at the global scale, deliberate and pragmatic reflections on the subject in Sub-Sahara Africa remain muted, though this phenomenon is negatively impacting the livelihoods of her people. The unprecedented degradation of her natural resources, i.e., water, biodiversity, and soils are seen to be intricately linked to her increasing inability to meet the basic needs of her people. This book examines how global climate change impacts on Sub-Sahara Africa, the measures and strategies that would be used in facing it and actions presently implemented in combating it. A pragmatic community/state engagement synergy on climate change mitigation initiatives that rewards best practices is critical to its success. Though investments in research, technical know-how, dedicated commitment and dissemination mechanisms would be inevitable to draw the continent from the precipice, the role of regulatory enforcement mechanisms and a legal framework addressing land use rights permissible within given landscapes is seen to be central to the success of this endeavor.

"From an Antagonistic to a Synergistic Predator Prey Perspective: Bifurcations in Marine Ecosystems" is a groundbreaking reference that challenges the widespread perception that predators generally have a negative impact on the abundance of their prey, and it proposes a novel paradigm Predator-prey Synergism in which both predator and prey enhance abundance by their co-existence. Using this model, the text explains a number of issues that appear paradoxical in the case of a negative predator-prey relationship, including observed ecosystem bifurcations (regime shifts), ecosystem resilience, red tides in apparently nutrient depleted water, and the dominance of grazed phytoplankton over non-grazed species under high grazing pressure. This novel paradigm can also be used to predict the potential impact of global warming on marine ecosystems, identify how marine ecosystem may respond to gradual environmental changes, and develop possible measures to mitigate the negative impact of increasing temperature in marine ecosystems. This book approaches the long-standing question of what generates recruitment variability in marine fishes and invertebrates in an engaging and unique way that students and researchers in marine ecosystems will understand.
Introduces a new paradigm, Predator-prey Synergism, as a building block on which to construct new ecological theories. It suggests that Predator-prey Synergism is important in some terrestrial ecosystems and is in agreement with the punctuated equilibria theory of evolution (i.e., stepwise evolution).Suggests a general solution to the recruitment puzzle in marine organismsProposes a holistic hypothesis for marine spring blooming ecosystems by considering variability enhancing and variability dampening processesAsserts that fisheries will induce variability in marine ecosystems and alter the energy flow patterns in predictable ways"

In August 2017, the Chemical Signals in Vertebrates (CSiV) group held its 14th triennial meeting at Cardiff University in Wales. This well established international conference brings together leaders and students in the field of olfactory communication and chemical signaling of vertebrates to present new advances in their research as well as synopses of disparate areas under new angles. This volume is a collection of the proceedings of this meeting authored by leading experts in this field that covers a wide variety of topics in chemical ecology.

This book describes the latest research advances, innovations, and applications in the field of water management and environmental engineering as presented by leading researchers, engineers, life scientists and practitioners from around the world at the Frontiers International Conference on Wastewater Treatment (FICWTM), held in Palermo, Italy in May 2017. The topics covered are highly diverse and include the physical processes of mixing and dispersion, biological developments and mathematical modeling, such as computational fluid dynamics in wastewater, MBBR and hybrid systems, membrane bioreactors, anaerobic digestion, reduction of greenhouse gases from wastewater treatment plants, and energy optimization. The contributions amply demonstrate that the application of cost-effective technologies for waste treatment and control is urgently needed so as to implement appropriate regulatory measures that ensure pollution prevention and remediation, safeguard public health, and preserve the environment. The contributions were selected by means of a rigorous peer-review process and highlight many exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different water specialists.

This Festschrift in honour of Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. P. Michael Schmitz covers theoretical as well as empirical works on challenges prevailing in the food and agricultural sector. Discussions of conflicts between social and ecological requests of citizens and market outcomes are provided. The contributors discuss options of policy interventions as well as their limitations. Empirical facts that can contribute to a more evidence based policy formation are also presented. The book itself consists of two parts: "agri-food markets and policies" and "agriculture, trade and development". Topics covered are moral, markets and policies, farm animal welfare, fat taxes, agricultural derivatives markets, future food value chains, free trade agreements, food security, food waste and climate change.

This book presents an introduction, overview and extension of ecosystem management and environmental restoration principles and applications. It develops a new framework and approach to improving the environment through extensive case studies and analysis of environmental rehabilitation initiatives in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, Florida Everglades, Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, and the Green Heart region of western Netherlands. The book's comparative and integrative approach, with its grounding in ecology, engineering and management, will appeal to those working wherever population, resources and environment are in conflict.

This unique collaboration of Russian and Norwegian scientists examines the most recent data on the White Sea bathymetry, examines the ecosystem profile, and provides extensive historical marine and riverine data records. The book presents extensive data and numerical modelling simulations of the White Sea to provide a quantitative assessment of vulnerability of the Sea 's marine ecosystems, of future anthropogenic and climate change forcing.

Research from a humanist perspective has much to offer in interrogating the social and cultural ramifications of invasion ecologies. The impossibility of securing national boundaries against accidental transfer and the unpredictable climatic changes of our time have introduced new dimensions and hazards to this old issue. Written by a team of international scholars, this book allows us to rethink the impact on national, regional or local ecologies of the deliberate or accidental introduction of foreign species, plant and animal. Modern environmental approaches that treat nature with naive realism or mobilize it as a moral absolute, unaware or unwilling to accept that it is informed by specific cultural and temporal values, are doomed to fail. Instead, this book shows that we need to understand the complex interactions of ecologies and societies in the past, present and future over the Anthropocene, in order to address problems of the global environmental crisis. It demonstrates how humanistic methods and disciplines can be used to bring fresh clarity and perspective on this long vexed aspect of environmental thought and practice.

Students and researchers in environmental studies, invasion ecology, conservation biology, environmental ethics, environmental history and environmental policy will welcome this major contribution to environmental humanities."

"Evolution by Tumor Neofunctionalization" explores the possibility of the positive role of tumors in evolution of multicellular organisms. This unique perspective goes beyond recent publications on how evolution may influence tumors, to consider the possible role of tumors in evolution.

Widespread in nature tumors represent a much broader category than malignant tumors only. The majority of tumors in humans and other animals may never undergo malignant transformation. Tumors may differentiate with the loss of malignancy, and malignant tumors may spontaneously regress. Cellular oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes play roles in normal development. Many features of tumors could be used in evolution, and there are examples of tumors that have played a role in evolution.

This book will stimulate thinking on this topic by specialists in the fields of evolutionary biology, oncology, molecular biology, molecular evolution, embryology, evo-devo, tumor immunology, pathology and clinical oncology.
Covers the role that tumors might play in evolution.Provides multidisciplinary approach that will appeal to a wide circle of professionals in the fields of evolutionary biology, oncology, molecular biology, and more

This synopsis covers evidence for the effects of conservation interventions for native farmland wildlife. It is restricted to evidence captured on the website www.conservationevidence.com. It includes papers published in the journal Conservation Evidence, evidence summarized on our database and systematic reviews collated by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence. It is the thrid volume in the series Synopses of Conservation Evidence. Evidence was collected from all European countries west of Russia, but not those south of France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Romania. A list of interventions to conserve wildlife on farmland was developed collaboratively by a team of thirteen experts. A number of interventions that are not currently agri-environment options were added during this process, such as 'Provide nest boxes for bees (solitary or bumblebees)' and 'Implement food labelling schemes relating to biodiversity-friendly farming'. Interventions relating to the creation or management of habitats not considered commercial farmland (such as lowland heath, salt marsh and farm woodland) were removed. The list of interventions was organized into categories based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifications of direct threats and conservation actions. Interventions that fall under the threat category 'Agriculture' are grouped by farming system, with separate sections for interventions that apply to arable or livestock farms, or across all farming types.

The author reclaims the patristic Christological use of perichoresis by showing how in bringing together different entities, such as God and Nature in unity as the one person of Christ, we can acknowledge the perichoresis between divine human and nature. Christological perichoresis supports the idea that the whole creation is included in God's recreated cosmos, in response to the redeeming power of Christ who entered the web of life as a creature. Trinitarian relationships bear a Christological message for intentional openness towards the "other". Thus ecofeminism can be considered from a Christian view, realizing Christ's "cosmic" role in the salvation of the entire cosmos.

This book explores three interrelated roots of scholarly work that have a supportive and elaborative affinity to authentic and engaging classroom inquiry: ecological consciousness, Buddhist epistemologies, philosophies and practices, and interpretive inquiry or "hermeneutics". Although these three roots originate outside of and extend far beyond most educational literature, understanding them can be of immense practical importance to the conduct of rich, rigorous, practicable, sustainable, and adventurous classroom work for students and teachers alike. The authors collectively bring to these reflections decades of classroom experience in grades K-12 and the experience of supervising hundreds of student teachers in such settings as well as working regularly with schools and classroom teachers in their day-to-day work. The authors demonstrate, through several classroom examples, how ecology, Buddhism, and hermeneutics provide ways to re-invigorate the often-moribund discourse of education and bring a sense of beauty and rigorous joy to classroom life for teachers and students alike.

This book spells out the theoretical structure, methodology and philosophy of the science of autecology. The autecological approach focuses on the interactions of individual organisms (and their species-specific adaptations) with the spatio-temporal dynamics of their environment as a basis for interpreting patterns of diversity and abundance in natural systems. This organism-based approach to ecological interpretation provides a strong alternative to more traditional approaches and relates mechanistically to the underlying disciplines of anatomy, physiology, and behavior. The book includes illustrations, specific examples, graphs, maps, and other diagrams.

*2022 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Ecology & Environment *2022 Nautilus Book Award Special Honors as Best of Anthology *#1 on Bioneers List of 15 World-Changing Books to Gift this Holiday Season! For readers of Braiding Sweetgrass and The Overstory From The Center for Humans and Nature, a collection in five volumes: essays, interviews, poetry, and stories of solidarity that highlight the interdependence that exists between humans and nonhuman beings We live in an astounding world of relations. We share these ties that bind with our fellow humans-and we share these relations with nonhuman beings as well. From the bacterium swimming in your belly to the trees exhaling the breath you breathe, this community of life is our kin-and, for many cultures around the world, being human is based upon this extended sense of kinship. Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a lively series that explores our deep interconnections with the living world. More than 70 contributors-including Robin Wall Kimmerer, Richard Powers, David Abram, J. Drew Lanham, and Sharon Blackie-invite readers into cosmologies, narratives, and everyday interactions that embrace a more-than-human world as worthy of our response and responsibility. These diverse voices render a wide range of possibilities for becoming better kin. Contents: Planet: What are the sources of our deepest evolutionary and planetary connections, and of our profound longing for kinship? Place: To what extent does crafting a deeper connection with the Earth's bioregions reinvigorate a sense of kinship with the place-based beings, systems, and communities that mutually shape one another? Partners: How do relations between and among different species foster a sense of responsibility and belonging in us? Persons: Which experiences expand our understanding of being human in relation to other-than-human beings? Practice: What are the practical, everyday, and lifelong ways we become kin? From the recognition of nonhumans as persons to the care of our kinfolk through language and action, Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a guide and companion into the ways we can deepen our care and respect for the family of plants, rivers, mountains, animals, and others who live with us in this exuberant, life-generating, planetary tangle of relations. Proceeds from sales of Kinship benefit the nonprofit, non-partisan Center for Humans and Nature, which partners with some of the brightest minds to explore human responsibilities to each other and the more-than-human world. The Center brings together philosophers, ecologists, artists, political scientists, anthropologists, poets and economists, among others, to think creatively about a resilient future for the whole community of life.

This authoritative but highly accessible book presents the reader with a powerful framework for understanding the critical role of the energy return on investment (EROI) in the survival and well-being of individuals, ecosystems, businesses, economies and nations. Growth and development are fundamental and ubiquitous processes at all scales, from individuals to food crops to national economies. While we are all familiar with the concepts of economic growth and living standards as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), we often take for granted the energy use that underpins GDP and our expectations for year-on-year growth. In this book, you will learn how these measures of "progress" are completely dependent on the balance that can be achieved between energy costs (inputs) and gains. Nothing is made or moved without an energy surplus, and it is the EROI of available energy sources more than any other single factor that determines the shape of civilization. Nearly all politics and economics assume that policy and market forces are the levers upon which future outcomes will hinge. However, this book presents many examples of historical and current events that can be explained much more clearly from an energetic perspective. In addition, a future scenario is developed that gives a central place to EROI in assessing the potential of governmental and private initiatives to substitute so-called renewable energy sources for diminishing stocks of fossil fuels. When cheap fossil fuels are no longer available in the abundance needed to mask economic problems and power business as usual, it will be EROI more than the plethora of "green" technologies that creates the boundary conditions for a sustainable future.

This book explores three interrelated roots of scholarly work that have a supportive and elaborative affinity to authentic and engaging classroom inquiry: ecological consciousness, Buddhist epistemologies, philosophies and practices, and interpretive inquiry or "hermeneutics". Although these three roots originate outside of and extend far beyond most educational literature, understanding them can be of immense practical importance to the conduct of rich, rigorous, practicable, sustainable, and adventurous classroom work for students and teachers alike. The authors collectively bring to these reflections decades of classroom experience in grades K-12 and the experience of supervising hundreds of student teachers in such settings as well as working regularly with schools and classroom teachers in their day-to-day work. The authors demonstrate, through several classroom examples, how ecology, Buddhism, and hermeneutics provide ways to re-invigorate the often-moribund discourse of education and bring a sense of beauty and rigorous joy to classroom life for teachers and students alike.

With contributions from an impressive group of Argentinean and German oceanographers, this book examines classical ecological issues relating to marine ecosystems in the context of climate change. It paints a picture of marine ecology at the crossroads of global warming. The book examines the fundamentals of marine ecology: ecosystem stability, water quality, and biodiversity in the context of the changes taking place globally. It then reviews the major marine ecosystems in the same context, from the primary producers to the big marine mammals. The chapters cover primary consumers level, benthic communities, seaweeds assemblages and wetlands ecology, fisheries, and seabirds.

This fully revised and expanded edition of "Sea Urchins" provides a wide-ranging understanding of the biology and ecology of this key component of the world's oceans. Coverage includes reproduction, metabolism, endocrinology, larval ecology, growth, digestion, carotenoids, disease and nutrition. Other chapters consider the ecology of individual species that are of major importance ecologically and economically, including species from Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, North America, South America and Africa. In addition, six new contributions in areas such as immunology, digestive systems and community ecology inform readers on key recent developments and insights from the literature.

Sea urchins are ecologically important and often greatly affect marine communities. Because they have an excellent fossil record, they are also of interest to paleontologists. Research on sea urchins has increased in recent years, stimulated first by recognition of their ecological importance and subsequently their economic importance. Scientists around the world are actively investigating their potential for aquaculture and fisheries, and their value as model systems for investigations in developmental biology continues to increase.
Continues the series "Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science" with a newly revised volume

Collects and synthesizes the state of knowledge of sea urchin biology and ecologyExpanded from previous edition to include non-edible species, providing the needed basis for broader evolutionary understanding of sea urchins

The book presents a collection of large-scale network-modeling studies on coastal systems in Latin America. It includes a novel description of the functioning of coastal complex ecosystems and also predicts how natural and human-made disturbances percolate through the networks. Coastal areas belong to the most populated ecosystems around the globe, and are massively influenced by human impacts such as shipping, mining, fisheries, tourism, pollution and human settlements. Even though many of these activities have facilitated socio-economic development, they have also caused a significant deterioration in natural populations, communities and ecosystems worldwide. Covering coastal marine ecosystems of Latin America such as the NE and SE Pacific, NW Atlantic and Caribbean areas, it discusses the construction of quantitative (Ecopath-Ecosim-Ecospace and Centrality of Node Sets) and semi-quantitative (Loop Analysis) multispecies trophic-network models to describe and assess the impacts of natural and human interventions like pelagic and benthic fishing as well as natural events such as El Nino, and La Nina. The book also features steady state (and/or near moving equilibrium) and dynamical models to support the management of exploited organisms, and applies and quantifies macroscopic indices, based on Ascendency (Ulanowicz) and Local Stability (Levins Loop Analysis). Further, it discusses the determination of the Keystone Species Complex Index, which is a holistic extension of the classical concept of Keystone Species (Paine), offering novel strategies for conservation monitoring and management.

Butterflyfishes (family Chaetodontidae) are a highly conspicuous component of fish fauna on coral reefs throughout the world. In light of their strong dependence on coral, they are often regarded as the epitome of coral reef fishes. This volume examines the ecology and conservation of coral reef butterflyfishes. It provides important insights on their evolution and key events and adaptations that have led to their proliferation within coral reef ecosystems. Key to the longevity of butterflyfishes is the evolution of coral-feeding-a central focus of the ecological chapters in this volume. The book also highlights key threats and challenges related to the conservation of butterflyfishes and ends with an overview of current and future research directions.