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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Ecological science, the Biosphere
Populations of cities have grown at unprecedented rate, consuming
ever more land, placing severe strain on the environment and also
on cash-strapped governments. Nature needs to be reintroduced to
our cities. This book is focused on urban nature conservation,
aspects that will resonate with advisors to local government,
people interested in bringing back nature to our cities and anyone
with a keen interest in nature. Our ecosystems are under threat and
green infrastructure needs to be better managed so that there will
be less fragmentation and habitat loss. All of us have to live more
towards a sustainable urban nature environment. This book guides
all of us how to address nature on our doorsteps. There are 214
photos, 6 tables and 25 illustrations on principles of urban nature
conservation. The book informs how to participate and synchronise
lifestyles to contribute to sustainable urban nature environments.
Urban wetlands, watercourses, riparian zones, buffer zones,
ecological corridors and functions are explained. The annexures in
the book described owl boxes, bird feeders, earthworm bins and how
to produce organic compost. What is important is that more and more
people move to cities and city developments encroach upon nature
areas. These encroachments can be managed to accommodate
ecologically sensitive urban nature areas. These areas can be
utilised in ways that it will benefit the environment people live
in.
This book presents research findings and conclusions that has been
developed as algorithms or intelligent new methods solving problems
in the fields of air pollution, climate and health, natural hazards
and risks, water resources, human activities and management and
informatics, remote sensing, high-performance computing and GIS for
environmental monitoring and management. Environmental protection
and disaster risk topics are challenging fields, that scientific
world is trying to address as much as it can. Earthquakes, floods,
fires, droughts, blizzards, dust storms, natural releases of toxic
gases and liquids, diseases and other environmental variations
affect hundreds of millions of people each year. Many disaster
events are triggered by human activities. Dealing with these
problems will require systems thinking and integrating
multidisciplinary science. Actions in these directions are taken
more and more in the recent years by political bodies, NGOs and
scientific groups trying to find sustainable solutions for the
future generations. Every point of view matter when it comes to our
global home - The Planet Earth.
The Bahia Blanca Estuary is one of the largest coastal systems in
Atlantic South America. This mesotidal estuary, situated in a sharp
transition between humid subtropical and semiarid climates, has a
unique combination of large interannual climatic variations. The
estuarine area encompasses roughly 2300 square kilometers and is
composed of wide expanses of intertidal flats, salt marshes, and
emerged islands, which create intricate landscape patterns. Natural
environments in the estuary sustain a high concentration of marine
and terrestrial species, including endemic, threatened, and
endangered fish and shorebirds. Puerto Cuatreros, in the inner zone
of the estuary, hosts a permanent marine research station, whose
records span more than 30 years of biophysical variables, and
represent one of the largest time series of ecological data in
South America. Beyond its ecological relevance, the Bahia Blanca
Estuary is under increasing anthropogenic pressure from large urban
settlements, industrial developments and harbors, raising the
question of how to balance conservation and development. The Bahia
Blanca Estuary: Ecology and Biodiversity offers a comprehensive
review of life in the ecosystems of the estuary. The book is
divided into five major sections, the first of which provides a
description of the regional setting and covers key aspects of
estuarine dynamics. The three following sections are dedicated to
different habitat types and, within each section, the chapters are
organized around major functional groups from pelagic and benthic
environments. The fifth and final section covers issues related to
management and conservation. Overall, the book provides essential
and up-to-date reference material on the biodiversity and ecosystem
processes of the Bahia Blanca Estuary, and will appeal to a broad
international audience.
This book presents the phylogeny, taxonomy and biogeography of
freshwater red algae. Its content is divided into five chapters.
The first chapter provides a brief history of freshwater red algal
research, habits and collecting methods, general biogeographic
trends and an overview of the taxonomic/phylogenetic placement of
freshwater taxa. The other four chapters are taxonomic treatments
of non-marine red algae based on taxonomic levels, i.e. classes
within the phylum Rhodophyta, orders within each class, families
within each order, and genera within each family. Descriptions,
phylogenetic data (including numerous trees), geographic range
(maps for most species) and dichotomous keys for identification are
presented. Comprehensive data are provided for more than 220
species.
The lands and waters of the Mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) have changed
significantly since before the 16th century when the Susquehannock
lived in the area. Much has changed since Captain John Smith
penetrated the estuaries and rivers during the early 17th century;
since the surveying of the Mason-Dixon Line to settle border
disputes among Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware during the
middle of the 18th century; and since J. Thomas Scharf described
the physiographic setting of Baltimore County in the late 19th
century. As early as 1881, Scharf provides us with an assessment of
the condition of the aquatic ecosystems of the region, albeit in
narrative form, and already changes are taking place - the
conversion of forests to fields, the founding of towns and cities,
and the depletion of natural resources. We have always conducted
our work with the premise that "man" is part of, and not apart
from, this ecosystem and landscape. This premise, and the
historical changes in our landscape, provide the foundation for our
overarching research question: how do human activities impact the
functioning of aquatic ecosystems and the ecosystem services that
they provide, and how can we optimize this relationship?
This book complies latest advancement in the field of environmental
biotechnology. It focuses on topics that comprises industrial,
environment and agricultural related issues to microbiological
studies and exhibits correlation between biological world and
dependence of humans on it. It is designed into three sections
covering the role of environmental biotechnology in industry,
environmental remediation, and agriculture. Ranging from
micro-scale studies to macro, it covers up a huge domain of
environmental biotechnology. Overall the book portrays the
importance of modern biotechnology technologies in solving the
problems in modern day life. The book is a ready reference for
practicing students, researchers of biotechnology, environmental
engineering, chemical engineering and other allied fields likewise.
This book looks at the case study of Hachioji as a major transit
hub with a world-class public transportation system in Japan. It
tracks how Tokyo slowly expands into its suburban, rural or
sub-rural districts. It also wants to profile the multiple
identities of a city that is simultaneously an ecological asset, a
heritage locale in addition to a logistics hub. The volume is
probably the first of its kind to analyze the western sector of the
largest city in the world.
Ecotones are dynamic over-lapping boundary areas where major
terrestrial biomes meet. As past studies have shown, and as the
chapters in this book will illustrate, their structure, size, and
scope have changed considerably over the millennia, expanding and
shrinking as climate and/or other driving conditions, also changed.
Today, however, many of them are changing at a rate not seen for a
long time, perhaps largely due to climate change and other
human-induced factors. Indeed ecotones are more sensitive to
climate change than the biomes on either side, and thus may serve
as critical early indicators of future climate change. As ecotones
change, they also redefine the limits of the biomes on either side
by altering their distributions of species because, in addition to
their own endemic species, any ecotone will also have species from
both adjoining biomes. Consequently, they may also be places of
high levels of species interaction, serving as active evolutionary
laboratories, which generate new species that then migrate back
into adjacent biomes. Ecotones Between Forest and Grassland
explores how these ecotones have changed in the past, how they are
changing today, and how they are likely to change in the future.
The book includes chapters from around the world with a special
focus on South American and Neotropical ecotones.
This book presents a timely review of the latest advances in
rhizosphere biology, which have been facilitated by the application
of omics tools. It includes chapters on the use of various omics
tools in rhizosphere biology, focusing on understanding plant and
soil microbe interactions. The role of proteomics and metagenomics
in research on symbiotic association is also discussed in detail.
The book also includes chapters on the use of omics tools for the
isolation of functional biomolecules from rhizospheric
microorganisms. The book's respective sections describe and provide
detailed information on important omics tools, such as genomics,
transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and meta-epigenomics. In
turn, the book promotes and describes the combined use of plant
biology, microbial ecology, and soil sciences to design new
research strategies and innovative methods in soil biology. Lastly,
it highlights the considerable potential of the rhizosphere in
terms of crop productivity, bioremediation, ecological engineering,
plant nutrition and health, as well as plant adaptation to stress
conditions. This book offers both a practical guide and reference
source for all scientists working in soil biology, plant pathology,
etc. It will also benefit students studying soil microbiology, and
researchers studying rhizosphere structure.
The rapid urbanization and industrialization of developing
countries across the globe have necessitated for substantial
resource utilization and development in the areas of Healthcare,
Environment, and Renewable energy. In this context ,this
resourceful book serves as a definitive source of information for
the recent developments in application of microbial enzymes in
various sectors. It covers applications in fermentation processes
and their products, extraction and utilisation of enzymes from
various sources and their application in health and biomass
conversion for production of value added products. Different
chapters discuss various areas of bioprospecting in enzyme
technology, and describe why these are the mainstays for industrial
production of value added products. The rich compilation of the
cutting-edge advances and applications of the modern industrial
based techniques hold feasible solutions for a range of current
issues in enzyme technology. This book will be of particular
interest for scientists, academicians, technical resource persons,
engineers and members of industry. Undergraduate and graduate
students pursuing courses in the area of industrial biotechnology
will find the information in the book valuable. General readers
having interest towards biofuels, enzyme technology, fermented food
and value added products, phytochemicals and phytopharmaceutical
products will also find the book appealing. Readers will discover
modern concepts of enzymatic bioprocess technology for production
of therapeutics and industrial value added products.
This volume constitutes the most recent and most comprehensive
consideration of the largest family of bony fishes, the Cichlidae.
This book offers an integrated perspective of cichlid fishes
ranging from conservation of threatened species to management of
cichlids as invasive species themselves. Long-standing models of
taxonomy and systematics are subjected to the most recent
applications and interpretations of molecular evidence and
multivariate analyses; and cichlid adaptive radiations at different
scales are elucidated. The incredible diversity of endemic cichlid
species in African lakes is revisited as possible examples of
sympatric speciation and as serious cases for management in complex
anthropogenic environments. Extreme hydrology and bathymetry as
driver of micro-allopatric speciation is explored in the African
riverine hotspot of diversity of the lower Congo River. Dramatic
new molecular evidence draws attention to the complex taxonomy and
systematics of Neotropical cichlids including the crater lakes of
Central America. Molecular genetics, genomics, imaging tools and
field study techniques assess the roles of natural, sexual and kin
selection in shaping cichlid traits and beyond. The complex
behavioral adaptations of cichlids are considered from a number of
sub-disciplines including sensory biology, neurobiology,
development, and evolutionary ecology. Most importantly, this
volume puts forth a wealth of new interpretations, explanatory
hypotheses and proposals for practical management and applications
that will shape the future for these remarkable fishes in nature as
well as their use as models for the study of biology.
This volume is a study of human entanglements with Nature as seen
through the mode of haunting. As an interruption of the present by
the past, haunting can express contemporary anxieties concerning
our involvement in the transformation of natural environments and
their ecosystems, and our complicity in their collapse. It can also
express a much-needed sense of continuity and relationality. The
complexity of the question-who and what gets to be called human
with respect to the nonhuman-is reflected in these collected
chapters, which, in their analysis of cinematic and literary
representations of sentient Nature within the traditional gothic
trope of haunting, bring together history, race, postcolonialism,
and feminism with ecocriticism and media studies. Given the growing
demand for narratives expressing our troubled relationship with
Nature, it is imperative to analyze this contested ground. "Chapter
6" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of
knowledge on plant-microbiome interactions and associations. It
covers all major mechanistic approaches used to investigate
microbes' impacts on plant growth promotion, disease control and
health. The industrial manufacture of nitrogen currently accounts
for roughly 2% of the world's total energy consumption. Microbial
products are expected to reduce the need for costly fertilizers, as
well as chemical pesticides and fungicides. While beneficial
microorganisms are increasingly being used in agriculture, abiotic
and biotic stresses such as heat, drought, cold, and salt can
quickly kill or render them useless in the field. However,
discovering new and better treatments is a lengthy process due to
the considerable microbial diversity found in soils. Researchers
have now proposed using biotechnological approaches to accelerate
the process of microbial technology development. The fact that
plant-associated microbes stimulate plant growth and development is
well known, as the examples of rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi show.
The mechanisms by which these microorganisms maintain plant growth
include the production of phytohormones, fixation of nitrogen, and
the mobilization of phosphorus and minerals. The plant microbiome
is also involved in pathogen suppression, and especially the root
microbiome acts as a protective shield against soil-borne
pathogens. A special feature of this book is its multidisciplinary
approach, spanning from plant microbiology/biocontrol, fungal and
bacterial endophytes, plant physiology, to biochemistry, proteomics
and genomics. It is ideally suited for researchers and student of
agri-biotechnology, soil biology and fungal biology.
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