This book provides a unique perspective on the destruction - both natural and human-caused - of coral reef ecosystems. Reconstructing the ecological history of coral reefs, the authors evaluate whether recent dramatic changes are novel events or part of a long-term trend or cycle. The text combines principles of geophysics, paleontology, and marine sciences with real-time observation, examining the interacting causes of change: hurricane damage, predators, disease, rising sea-level, nutrient loading, global warming and ocean acidification. Predictions about the future of coral reefs inspire strategies for restoration and management of ecosystems. Useful for students and professionals in ecology and marine biology, including environmental managers.

The microbiology of drinking water remains an important worldwide concern despite modem progress in science and engineering. Countries that are more technologically advanced have experienced a significant reduction in water borne morbidity within the last 100 years: This reduction has been achieved through the application of effective technologies for the treatment, disinfec tion, and distribution of potable water. However, morbidity resulting from the ingestion of contaminated water persists globally, and the available ep idemiological evidence (Waterborne Diseases in the United States, G. F. Craun, ed. , 1986, CRC Press) demonstrates a dramatic increase in the number of waterborne outbreaks and individual cases within the United States since the mid-1960s. In addition, it should also be noted that the incidence of water borne outbreaks of unknown etiology and those caused by "new" pathogens, such as Campylobaeter sp. , is also increasing in the United States. Although it might be debated whether these increases are real or an artifact resulting from more efficient reporting, it is clear that waterborne morbidity cannot be ignored in the industrialized world. More significantly, it represents one of the most important causes of illness within developing countries. Approxi mately one-half the world's population experiences diseases that are the direct consequence of drinking polluted water. Such illnesses are the primary cause of infant mortality in many Third World countries.

Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia is a crucial site for detecting long-term global changes, owing to its high sensitivity to climatic oscillation and its extraordinarily long history. Because lacustrine sediments have an advantage in providing high-resolution information, the sediments in Lake Baikal contain excellent continuous records of past conditions including paleoclimates, evolution, and specification of organisms. Based on the study by the Baikal Drilling Project, this book provides information on global climatic and environmental changes for as much as 12 million years. The book also includes discussions of comparatively short-term changes such as glacial and interglacial transitions that directly link to the present and future environment. Long Continental Records from Lake Baikal summarizes the latest knowledge on the paleoenvironment and provides a foundation for further studies in global environmental changes.  

The Arctic Tundra and adjacent Boreal Forest or Taiga support the most cold-adapted flora and fauna on Earth. The evolutionary capacity of both plants and animals to adapt to these thermally limiting conditions has always attracted biological investigation and is a central theme of this book. How the polar biota will adapt to a warmer world is creating significant and renewed interest in this habitat. The Arctic has always been subject to climatic fluctuation and the polar biota has successfully adapted to these changes throughout its evolutionary history. Whether or not climatic warming will allow the Boreal Forest to advance onto the treeless Tundra is one of the most tantalizing questions that can be asked today in relation to terrestrial polar biology. Tundra-Taiga Biology provides a circum-polar perspective of adaptation to low temperatures and short growing seasons, together with a history of climatic variation as it has affected the evolution of terrestrial life in the Tundra and the adjacent forested Taiga. It will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many students, professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview of the biome. Its accessibility also makes it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in tundra, taiga, and arctic ecology.

Wild salmon, trout, char, grayling, and whitefish (collectively salmonids) have been a significant local food and cultural resource for Pacific Northwest peoples for millennia. The location, size, and distribution of urban areas along streams, rivers, estuaries, and coasts directly and indirectly alter and degrade wild salmonid populations and their habitats. Although urban and exurban areas typically cover a smaller fraction of the landscape than other land uses combined, they have profound consequences for local ecosystems, aquatic and terrestrial populations, and water quality and quantity.

This book gives an interdisciplinary overview on urban ecology. Basic understanding of urban nature development and its social reception are discussed for the European Metropolitan Area of Berlin. Furthermore, we investigate specific consequences for the environment, nature and the quality of life for city dwellers due to profound changes such as climate change and the demographic and economic developments associated with the phenomena of shrinking cities. Actual problems of urban ecology should be discussed not only in terms of natural dimensions such as atmosphere, biosphere, pedosphere and hydrosphere but also in terms of social and cultural dimensions such as urban planning, residence and recreation, traffic and mobility and economic values. Our research findings focus on streets, new urban landscapes, intermediate use of brown fields and the relationships between urban nature and the well-being of city dwellers. Finally, the book provides a contribution to the international discussion on urban ecology.

Exploring roles critical to environmental toxicology, Modeling and Simulation in Ecotoxicology with Applications in MATLAB (R) and Simulink (R) covers the steps in modeling and simulation from problem conception to validation and simulation analysis. Using the MATLAB and Simulink programming languages, the book presents examples of mathematical functions and simulations, with special emphasis on how to develop mathematical models and run computer simulations of ecotoxicological processes. Designed for students and professionals with little or no experience in modeling, the book includes: General principles of modeling and simulation and an introduction to MATLAB and Simulink Stochastic modeling where variability and uncertainty are acknowledged by making parameters random variables Toxicological processes from the level of the individual organism, with worked examples of process models in either MATLAB or Simulink Toxicological processes at the level of populations, communities, and ecosystems Parameter estimation using least squares regression methods The design of simulation experiments similar to the experimental design applied to laboratory or field experiments Methods of postsimulation analysis, including stability analysis and sensitivity analysis Different levels of model validation and how they are related to the modeling purpose The book also provides three individual case studies. The first involves a model developed to assess the relative risk of mortality following exposure to insecticides in different avian species. The second explores the role of diving behavior on the inhalation and distribution of oil spill naphthalene in bottlenose dolphins. The final case study looks at the dynamics of mercury in Daphnia that are exposed to simulated thermal plumes from a hypothetical power plant cooling system. Presented in a rigorous yet accessible style, the methodology is versatile enough to be readily applicable not only to environmental toxicology but a range of other biological fields.

DUST is unmistakably a major book in the making. This is a book with an extraordinary global story to tell, but - and - also with an ethical argument to advance. - Robert Macfarlane __________ Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Planet Earth was formed from a vast spinning nebula of cosmic dust, the detritus left over from the birth of the sun. Within the next hundred years, human life on swathes of the earth's surface will also end, in a haze of heat, drought and, again, dust. Dust is the legacy of twentieth-century progress and a profound threat to life in the twenty-first. And yet it's something we hardly ever consider - so small and so mundane as to be beyond the threshold of thought. All of history is recorded in the dust we create: the pollution we make, the fires we start, the chemicals we use, the volcanos that erupt. Now, for the first time DUST will examine this substance and reveal it's importance and the fascinating stories it has.

The U.S. Ocean Commission Report identified the need for regional ecosystem assessments to support coastal and ocean management. These assessments must provide greater understanding of physical and biological dynamics than assessments at global and national scales can provide but transcend state and local interests. This need and timeliness is apparent for Long Island Sound, where a multi-state regional restoration program is underway for America s most urbanized estuary. Synthesis of the Long Island Sound ecosystem is needed to integrate knowledge across disciplines and provide insight into understanding and managing pressing issues, such as non-point sources of pollution, coastal development, global climatic change, and invasive species. Currently, there is a need for a comprehensive volume that summarizes the ecological and environmental dynamics and status of Long Island Sound and its myriad ecosystems.

It has been 30 years since a comprehensive summary of Long Island Sound was prepared and 50 years since the pioneering work of Gordon Riley. Major advances in estuarine science are providing new insights into these systems, and yet, the condition of many estuaries is in decline in the face of continuing coastal development. There is an opportunity to lay a foundation for integrative coastal observing systems that truly provide the foundation for improved decision-making. This book will provide a key reference of our scientific understanding for work performed over the past three decades and guide future research and monitoring in a dynamic urbanized estuary. "

This volume presents approaches and methodologies for predicting the structure and diversity of key aquatic communities (namely, diatoms, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish), under natural conditions and under man-made disturbance. The intent is to offer an organized means for modeling, evaluating and restoring freshwater ecosystems. Includes a CD-Rom illustrating the use of the modern modelling techniques.

This book explores a collection of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics and their unique engineering potential - demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places. The surfaces covered range from botanical ones, like rice and lotus leaves, to insect surfaces, like butterfly and dragonfly wings. The variety of surfaces and numerous engineering potentials described show how biomimicry can be utilized to solve countless real-world problems.

Tree based production systems abound especially in the tropics. Despite the pervasiveness of such multipurpose trees-outside-forest resources, they have not attracted adequate attention in the development paradigms of many nation states. These multispecies production systems impact the ecosystem processes favourably. Yet, our understanding of the diversity attributes and carbon dynamics under agroforestry is not adequate. This book focuses on the role of multispecies production systems involving tree and crop species as a means for carbon sequestration and thereby reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Sixteen chapters organized into three broad sections titled: Measurement and Estimation, Agrobiodiversity and Tree Management, and Policy and Socioeconomic Aspects represent a cross section of the opportunities and challenges in current research and emerging issues in harnessing carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry systems. "

Global warming and human-driven impacts are changing the World's ecological zones. This book applies the principles described in Bailey's Ecosystem Geography: From Ecoregions to Sites, 2nd ed. (Springer 2009, 1st ed. 1996) to describe and characterize the major terrestrial and aquatic ecological zones of the Earth. Bailey's system for classifying these zones has been adopted by major organizations such as the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy and this book is a significant contribution to a long tradition of classifying and studying the world's ecological regions or ecoregions. It includes two color maps that show the major ecoregions of the continents and oceans. Also included are: - 106 illustrations with 55 in full color - A new chapter on mountains is included. - There are new sections that address concerns about how eco regions are changing under the relentless influence of humans and climate change - Another new feature is the discussion of using eco regional patterns to transfer research results and select sites for detecting climate change effects on ecosystem distribution - Use of ecoregional patterns to design monitoring networks and sustainable landscapes - Fire regimes in different regional ecosystems and their management implications.

Virus Variability and Impact on Epidemiology and Control of Diseases E. Kurstak and A. Hossain I. INTRODUCTION An important number of virus infections and their epidemic developments demonstrate that ineffec tiveness of prevention measures is often due to the mutation rate and variability of viruses (Kurstak et al., 1984, 1987). The new human immunodeficiency retroviruses and old influenza viruses are only one among several examples of virus variation that prevent, or make very difficult. the production of reliable vaccines. It could be stated that the most important factor limiting the effectiveness of vaccines against virus infections is apparently virus variation. Not much is, how ever, known about the factors influencing and responsible for the dramatically diverse patterns of virus variability. II. MUTATION RATE AND VARIABILITY OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL VIRUSES Mutation is undoubtedly the primary source of variation, and several reports in the literature suggest that extreme variability of some viruses may be a consequence of an unusually high mutation rate (Holland et al., 1982; Domingo et al., 1985; Smith and Inglis, 1987). The mutation rate of a virus is defined as the probability that during a single replication of the virus genome a particular nucleotide position is altered through substitution, deletion, insertion. or recombination. Different techniques have been utilized to measure virus mutation rates, and these have been noted in the extent of application to different viruses."

The Arctic is often portrayed as being isolated, but the reality is that the connectivity with the rest of the planet is huge, be it through weather patterns, global ocean circulation, and large-scale migration patterns to name but a few. There is a huge amount of public interest in the 'changing Arctic', especially in terms of the rapid changes taking place in ecosystems and exploitation of resources. There can be no doubt that the Arctic is at the forefront of the international environmental science agenda, both from a scientific aspect, and also from a policy/environmental management perspective. This book aims to stimulate a wide audience to think about the Arctic by highlighting the remarkable breadth of what it means to study its ecology. Arctic Ecology seeks to systematically introduce the diverse array of ecologies within the Arctic region. As the Arctic rapidly changes, understanding the fundamental ecology underpinning the Arctic is paramount to understanding the consequences of what such change will inevitably bring about. Arctic Ecology is designed to provide graduate students of environmental science, ecology and climate change with a source where Arctic ecology is addressed specifically, with issues due to climate change clearly discussed. It will also be of use to policy-makers, researchers and international agencies who are focusing on ecological issues and effects of global climate change in the Arctic. About the Editor David N. Thomas is Professor of Arctic Ecosystem Research in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki. Previously he spent 24 years in the School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Wales. He studies marine systems, with a particular emphasis on sea ice and land-coast interactions in the Arctic and Southern Oceans as well as the Baltic Sea. He also edited a related book: Sea Ice, 3rd Edition (2017), which is also published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Atmospheric abudance of trace gases since the pre-industrial time has forced the earth's climate to change, threatening food security. Exchange of biogenic trace gases between the atmosphere and the biosphere is directly or indirectly influenced by the plants. This volume contains the latest findings on the correlation between the climate change and biogenic gas emission, plant response to elevated levels of carbon dioxide, temperature, ozone and UV-B in combination and alone, regulatory mechanism of methane, nitrous oxide and ammonia emission and their mitigating options. Ecologists, atmospheric scientists, plant physiologists, research scholars, teachers and post-graduate students will benefit from this book.

During the last 10 years, there has been a revolution' in ecosystem modelling. The generality and predictive power of our models have increased in a way that was inconceivable 10 years ago. This book describes a new generation of practically useful models that predict as well as one can measure - if one measures well. And yet, they are driven by readily available driving variables and have a general structure that applies to most types of pollutants in aquatic systems. The major reason for this development is, in fact, the Chernobyl accident. Large quantities of radiocesium were released in April/May 1986 as a pulse. To follow the pulse of radiocesium through ecosystem pathways has meant that important fluxes and mechanisms, i.e., ecosystem structures, have been revealed. It is important to stress that many of these new structures and equations are valid not just for radiocesium, but for most types of contaminants, e.g. for metals, nutrients and organics. This means that the models, methods (of building and testing models) and equations described in this book for lakes and coastal areas should be of great interest also to other ecosystem modellers. This book will be of considerable interest to: students in radioecology, geosciences and biology; environmental engineers; consultants; administrators and scientists interested in the spread, biouptake and ecosystem effects of chemical pollutants in aquatic ecosystems.

It is a well-known fact that eutrophication of coastal waters causes significant changes in the species composition of the primary producers. Usually a shift from an ecosystem dominated by sea grasses or large brown algae to an ecosystem dominated by fast-growing green algae or phytoplankton is observed. While this shift has been documented in a number of research papers and books, the consequences of this shift are less well known. This book focuses on the consequences of such changes for nutrient cycling.

The aim is to investigate how different types of primary producers influence nutrient cycling in coastal marine waters, and how nutrient cycling changes qualitatively and quantitatively as a consequence of the changes in the primary producer community caused by eutrophication. The various chapters address specific ecological processes such as grazing, decomposition, burial and export of biomass from the ecosystem. The book is intended for researchers and professionals working in the field of coastal marine ecology and estuarine ecology and for advanced students in this field.

People have relied on medicinal products derived from natural sources for millennia, and animals have long been an important part of that repertoire; nearly all cultures, from ancient times to the present, have used animals as a source of medicine. Ingredients derived from wild animals are not only widely used in traditional remedies, but are also increasingly valued as raw materials in the preparation of modern medicines. Regrettably, the unsustainable use of plants and animals in traditional medicine is recognized as a threat to wildlife conservation, as a result of which discussions concerning the links between traditional medicine and biodiversity are becoming increasingly imperative, particularly in view of the fact that folk medicine is the primary source of health care for 80% of the world's population. This book discusses the role of animals in traditional folk medicine and its meaning for wildlife conservation. We hope to further stimulate further discussions about the use of biodiversity and its implications for wildlife conservation strategies.

This book argues that philosophy is as practical as plumbing and what we need right now is what philosophers can offer as philosophers to help us all, our species, and beyond, through this ecological emergency, this climate change, this anthropocene. This book is about the meaning and purpose of philosophy as a way of, a practice of, responding to the ecological emergency, which includes climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, habitat destruction, and all the associated impacts that fragment, and threaten to create collapse, among the systems that created and sustain us. There are the related economic and social impacts, the fragmentation of communities and political ideologies through attitude polarisation, and the increasing threats to systems by those who seek to promote further exploitation at the expense of attempts to regain some system of cooperation and an attitude of compassion which is at the heart of our survival strategies as a species. Philosophy has always sought to address questions related both to our place in the universe, and to how to live, given our understanding of our place. Those of us committed to a philosophical life have used a range of metaphors and narratives to enlighten, and to exhort to action, those who would seek to understand what to do, how, and why. Philosophy has played a key role in helping us as a species to respond to the ecological emergency. What, then, is the practice of philosophy, given that we're in an ecological emergency? This question is the thread, and it forms the framework for the dialogue that runs through the book.

Landscape Research has been established as an interdisciplinary field dealing with complex environmental processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. During the course of its history, various societal, technological and philosophical stimuli have shaped Landscape Research, e.g. the declaration of Landscape Ecology in the 1930s and contemporary global technological and societal developments.

Modern landscape research presently uses mathematics, statistics and advanced simulation techniques to combine empirical observations with known theories from ecology, physics, geography, social science and so on. Knowledge is thus updated and quantified via models that are used for estimation, hypothesis testing, prediction and assessment of scenarios. Advances in the computational sciences (e.g. fast computers and vast array of software), space science (e.g. remote sensing) and biological sciences (e.g. genetics) as well as new perspectives in the social sciences play important roles. Research findings are implemented in conservation management, urban planning and global change mitigation strategies.

This book identifies emerging fields and new challenges that are discussed within the framework of the a ~driving forcesa (TM) of Landscape Development. Rather than offering a comprehensive overview of all fields of Landscape Research, the book addresses a ~hot topicsa (TM) emphasizing major contemporary trends in these fields.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the major key concepts common to economics and evolutionary biology. Written by a group of philosophers of science, biologists and economists, it proposes analyses of the meaning of twenty-five concepts from the viewpoint respectively of economics and of evolutionary biology -each followed by a short synthesis emphasizing major discrepancies and commonalities. This analysis is surrounded by chapters exploring the nature of the analogy that connects evolution and economics, and chapters that summarize the major teachings of the analyses of the keywords. Most scholars in biology and in economics know that their science has something in common with the other one, for instance the notions of competition and resources. Textbooks regularly acknowledge that the two fields share some history - Darwin borrowing from Malthus the insistence on scarcity of resources, and then behavioral ecologists adapting and transforming game theory into evolutionary game theory in the 1980s, while Friedman famously alluded to a Darwinian process yielding the extant firms. However, the real extent of the similarities, the reasons why they are so close, and the limits and even the nature of the analogy connecting economics and biological evolution, remain inexplicit. This book proposes basis analyses that can sustain such explication. It is intended for researchers, grad students and master students in evolutionary and in economics, as well as in philosophy of science.

Arthropods are invertebrates that constitute over 90% of the animal kingdom, and their bio-ecology is closely linked with global functioning and survival. Arthropods play an important role in maintaining the health of ecosystems, provide livelihoods and nutrition to human communities, and are important indicators of environmental change. Yet the population trends of several arthropods species show them to be in decline. Arthropods constitute a dominant group with 1.2 million species influencing earth's biodiversity. Among arthropods, insects are predominant, with ca. 1 million species and having evolved some 350 million years ago. Arthropods are closely associated with living and non-living entities alike, making the ecosystem services they provide crucially important. In order to be effective, plans for the conservation of arthropods and ecosystems should include a mixture of strategies like protecting key habitats and genomic studies to formulate relevant policies for in situ and ex situ conservation. This two-volume book focuses on capturing the essentials of arthropod inventories, biology, and conservation.Further, it seeks to identify the mechanisms by which arthropod populations can be sustained in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and by means of which certain problematic species be managed without producing harmful environmental side-effects. This edited compilation includes chapters contributed by over 80 biologists on a wide range of topics embracing the diversity, distribution, utility and conservation of arthropods and select groups of insect taxa. More importantly, it describes in detail the mechanisms of sustaining arthropod ecosystems, services and populations. It addresses the contribution of modern biological tools such as molecular and genetic techniques regulating gene expression, as well as conventional, indigenous practices in arthropod conservation. The contributors reiterate the importance of documenting and understanding the biology of arthropods from a holistic perspective before addressing conservation issues at large. This book offers a valuable resource for all zoologists, entomologists, ecologists, conservation biologists, policy makers, teachers and students interested in the conservation of biological resources.

This book offers a series of interviews with Canadian ranchers that highlight the innovative and effective ways that they manage vast swaths of grassland for two complementary goals: commercial viability and sustainable habitats. The book’s author is an academic who grew up among ranchers in the grasslands of Canada, and the expertise and viewpoints she has distilled from these interviews complement the academic literature in accessible and surprising ways . As these productive landscapes face increasingly perilous threats such as development, economic pressures, and extreme weather events, it is the ranchers who live on and manage these native grasslands who are passionate about conserving them. This book is about them, their experiences and the realities of their lives, their view of the world, sharing their knowledge to assist younger ranchers, and their contributions to Canada’s species at risk conservation goals, food security and economy. The book offers practical advice for ranchers, but also reveals the depth of attachment and dedication these ranchers have for the grasslands. They are conservationists at heart, as they not only understand that their livelihood is dependent on the health of the ecosystem they manage, but they also have a deep connection to the land, nurtured oftentimes for many generations. Academics and ranchers have much to learn here, but the book – most of which is the words of the ranchers themselves - is written to give the general public an understanding of this vocation and its role in the conservation of our last remaining grasslands.