This book is a collection of chapters concerning the use of biomass for the sustainable production of energy and chemicals-an important goal that will help decrease the production of greenhouse gases to help mitigate global warming, provide energy security in the face of dwindling petroleum reserves, improve balance of payment problems and spur local economic development. Clearly there are ways to save energy that need to be encouraged more. These include more use of energy sources such as, among others, manure in anaerobic digesters, waste wood in forests as fuel or feedstock for cellulosic ethanol, and conservation reserve program (CRP) land crops that are presently unused in the US. The use of biofuels is not new; Rudolf Diesel used peanut oil as fuel in the ?rst engines he developed (Chap. 8), and ethanol was used in the early 1900s in the US as automobile fuel [Songstad et al. (2009) Historical perspective of biofuels: learning from the past to rediscover the future. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 45:189-192). Brazil now produces enough sugar cane ethanol to make up about 50% of its transportation fuel needs (Chap. 4). The next big thing will be cellulosic ethanol. At present, there is also the use of Miscanthus x giganteous as fuel for power plants in the UK (Chap. 2), bagasse (sugar cane waste) to power sugar cane mills (Chap. 4), and waste wood and sawdust to power sawmills (Chap. 7).

Broadleaved evergreen forests where holm oak (Quercus ilex 1.) is almost the only canopy tree are a distinctive ecosystem of the Mediterranean Basin. Biogeographically, these forests lie between cool-temperate deciduous forests to the north and drier shrublands to the south. In a more general view, they are ecologically intermediate between these deciduous forests and humid warm-temperate evergreen forests, such as the laurisilva of the Macarone- sian islands or the broadleaved evergreen forests of eastern Asia. Holm oak forests are characterized by small-stature trees (usually 5 to 12 m tall), which are slow growing, cast a deep shade, and have small, evergreen, sclerophyl- lous leaves. Summer drought is the major environmental constraint. Mediterranean broadleaved evergreen forests have been underrepre- sented in the open literature. For example, The Woodlands Data Set of the International Biological Program (IBP) contained data from just one holm oak forest plot, Le Rouquet in southern France (Reichle 1981). Also, some models of European forests consider just two major forest types, broad- leaved deciduous and evergreen conifers, forgeting the extensive forests and woodlands of holm oak and cork oak (Quercus suber 1.), which are the ma- jor evergreen oak tree species in the Mediterranean Basin. The extensive lit- erature on Mediterranean-type ecosystems has also largely neglected these forests, being centred mostly on Mediterranean-type shrublands.

New research reveals that plants actively acquire nutrients; the acquisition process is not a passive one in which plants simply wait for dissolved nutrients to come closer to their roots. In fact plants play a far more active role than once was understood to be possible in nutrient acquisition and in adaptation to problem soils. This book presents an excellent overview and summary of new concepts of plant nutrient acquisition mechanisms, and sets forth their practical implications in crop production. The scope is wide ranging, from biochemical, molecular, and genetic analysis of nutrient acquisition to global nutritional problems. Especially noteworthy are the sections on the cell apoplast, phosphorus-solubilizing organisms, and direct uptake of macro-organic molecules. With contributions by leading scientists worldwide, the book provides an invaluable resource for researchers in plant and environmental sciences and in agronomy and other branches of agriculture.

The International Society of Root Research sponsored the Symposium "Root Demographics and Their Efficiencies in Sustainable Agriculture, GrassLands and Forest Ecosystems," July 14-18, 1996, at the Madren Conference Center, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA. The conference was a continuation of a series of international symposiums on root research held every three to four years. Symposiums have also been held twice in Vienna, Austria, and once in Uppsala, Sweden, and Almaty, Kazahkstan prior to the meeting at Clemson University. The sponsoring society has made a particular effort in these symposia to include root scientists from the former Soviet Union because of the importance of exchanging information on a worldwide basis. This symposium continued and promoted that effort by providing travel grants to several scientists from that region; however, funds for that purpose were limited. Therefore, in compiling these proceedings, a number of papers from scientists from the former Soviet Union and former Warsaw Pack countries have been included even though the scientists were not actually present for the SymPOSIum.

The rapidly growing human population has increased the dependence on fossil fuel-based agrochemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, to produce the required agricultural and forestry products. This has exerted great pressure on non-renewable fossil fuel resources, which cannot last indefinitely. Not only do agrochemicals pollute the environment, but pests also become resistant to pesticides. Thus, present agricultural practices exploit natural resources, and damage fauna and flora and agroecosystems. One safe alternative to overcome these problems is the use of allelopathy to sustain development in agriculture and forestry and maintain a clean environment for future generations. This book is the Proceedings of the III International Congress on Allelopathy in Ecological Agriculture and Forestry, held on August 18-21, 1998, at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India, and provides an updated status of current allelopathy research in various leading countries, with the overall aim of developing new technologies for ecological agriculture and forestry in the 21st century. To date, no book on ecological agriculture has discussed these aspects, hence it is the first time that such information is available. The chapter contributors are leading specialists in their fields, and all chapters have been peer-reviewed by international referees. This book will be indispensable for agricultural scientists (agronomists, entomologists, nematologists, plant pathologists, horticulturists, plant breeders, agroforesters, foresters, soil scientists), bioscientists (biochemists, organic chemists, plant ecologists, microbiologists and limnologists), environmentalists, graduate students and farmers, as well as for organizations engaged in sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture.

A Beginner's Guide to Microarrays addresses two audiences - the core facility manager who produces, hybridizes, and scans arrays, and the basic research scientist who will be performing the analysis and interpreting the results. User friendly coverage and detailed protocols are provided for the technical steps and procedures involved in many facets of microarray technology, including: -Cleaning and coating glass slides, -Designing oligonucleotide probes, -Constructing arrays for the detection and quantification of different bacterial species, -Preparing spotting solutions, -Troubleshooting spotting problems, -Setting up and running a core facility, -Normalizing background signal and controlling for systematic variance, -Designing experiments for maximum effect, -Analyzing data with statistical procedures, -Clustering data with machine-learning protocols.

Since 1993 a major research programme, "Stochastic Decision Analysis in Forest Management" has been running at Department of Economics and Natural Resources, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), Copenhagen, in collaboration with Institute of Mathematical Statistics, University of Copenhagen (KU). The research is funded by the two Universities; The Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council; The Danish Research Academy; The National Forest and Nature Agency; and Danish Informatics Network in the Agricultural Sciepces (DINA). A first international workshop in the research programme was held 5 - 8 August, 1996 at Eldrupgaard, Denmark, within the frameworkofacollaborationagreementbetween University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and the Danish Universities, and funded by The Danish Research Academy and the L0venholm Foundation. Having participated in the workshop, Professor Peter Berck (UCB) suggested that the papers be published along with selected papers in the same scientific field, i.e. mainly cointegration analysis of time series in forestry. The editors express their sincere appreciations to the many persons who have contributed to the realisation of the present book: participants in the research programme and the workshop, in particular Professors S0ren Johansen (KU) and Peter Berck (UCB); authors outside the programme/workshop; reviewers of the papers not previously published, in particuler Associate Professors Niels Haldrup (Aarhus University) and Henrik Hansen (KVL); and finally Mrs Mette Riis and Lizzie Rohde who did the tedious work of giving the papers a uniform style. Copenhagen, October 1998.

Microbiology may be described as one of the younger sciences with its history, as a precise subject, only dating as far back as Pasteur in the mid 1800s and his revelation both of the role of microorganisms in nature and their importance to human welfare. Medical scientists rapidly took up the challenge, with their area of microbiology flourishing and expanding almost in complete isolation from the rest of biology. We now know, of course, that microorganisms have always played an important, if not essential role, in the biosphere with fermented foods and beverages, plant and animal diseases and nutrient cycling foremost in their sphere of activities. Within the last twenty years, microbiology has received two enormous boosts with the developments in microbial genetics and genetic engineering probably being the most influential, and the greater awareness of pollution and environmental sustainability following a close second. In 1990, your editor had the privilege and pleasure of being elected as President of The Association of Applied Biologists in the United King dom and, as the topic for his three-day Presidential Conference, chose 'The exploitation of microorganisms in applied biology'. This meeting stimu lated great interest in a wide range of subject areas, from weed control to nematology, from plant breeding to plant pathology, from mushrooms to mycorrhiza. The proceedings of this meeting were published in Aspects of Applied Biology, No. 24, 1990."

The 23rd annual meeting of the International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue took place from August 23-27, 1995, at the Station Square Sheraton along the shores of the Monongahela River where it meets with the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to form the "Point" of the city of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was a convenient location for the meeting be ing between both the East and West coasts of the United States and between the Asian and European continents. It is easily accessible by air via its large international airport. In ad dition, Pittsburgh has just recently undergone a transition from the steel mills and indus tries of old to an age of computers and biotechnology as evidenced by the new Biotechnology Center of the University of Pittsburgh where a lunch and tour were pro vided for interested participants. On the tour, the participants got to see the mix of projects ranging from molecular biology to clinical projects studying membrane oxygenators, ven tricular assist devices, oxygen carriers, and more, representing the forefront of research on oxygen delivery systems to tissue.

For the last two decades the loss of, in particular, tropical rainforest has alarmed the public in the developed parts of the world. The debate has been characterised by a lack of understand ing of the causes and effects of the process, leading to the prevailing reaction being unquali fied condemnation. Such attitude has even been observed among scientists, claiming suprem acy to biodiversity conservation. Many scientific analyses are available, but the basis for so ber debates and appropriate actions is still highly insufficient. Two recent international initia tives! will hopefully lead to improved knowledge of deforestation and forest degradation as they recognise the need for studies to critically investigate those issues. This book will pro vide useful input to the initiatives. In my opinion, the scientific analyses have not sufficiently promoted the understanding that the fate of tropical forests is first and foremost a concern of the governments of the countries in which the forests are situated. Tropical forests may be important to the global environment and their rich biodiversity may be a human heritage. But their main importance is their poten tial contribution to improving livelihood in the countries in question.

This is an extended version of lectures that were held at the summer workshop Atmosphiirische Umweltforschung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Technik und Natur (At mospheric Environmental Research between Technology and Nature) at the Techni 16, 1996. We were very happy to have Paul J. Crutzen, cal University in Cottbus on July winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1995, presenting the key lecture on glo bally changing chemistry in the atmosphere. Over the last decades, atmospheric chem istry has been established step by step, not just as an applied discipline of chemistry, but also as a key discipline for our understanding of air pollution, biogeochemical cycling, and climactic processes as well. In fact, the new definition of meteorology as the science of physics and chemistry of the atmosphere expresses this development very well. The chemistry of the atmosphere is strongly influenced by anthropogenic emissions, even on a global scale. As a result of emissions and chemical reactions, the chemical composition of the atmosphere influences the ecosystems directly via depo sition of trace substances, and indirectly by changing the physical climate. Therefore, in this book we combined state-of-the-art lectures describing the physical and chemi cal status of the atmosphere and selected issues representing the interface between atmosphere, technology and nature. Oxidising capacity, heterogeneous processes and acidity still remain as key issues in atmospheric chemistry, even in regions where efficient air control measures have been adopted resulting in reduction of primary atmospheric pollutants."

The majority of this book was written in 1983-84 while the senior author was a Visiting Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We believe that the approach to the problem of acid deposition effects on soils and waters developed during this collaboration contains ele ments that are significantly different from most prior work in this area. Some of the material and the software used in the development of these concepts stem from earlier individual efforts of the authors. However, what we believe to be the more significant concepts concerning the processes by which alkalinity may be developed in acid soil solutions, and by which acid deposition may contrib ute to the loss of this alkalinity, were the result of this collaboration. The ultimate usefulness of these concepts in understanding and dealing with various aspects of the problems associated with acid deposition cannot be adequately gauged at the present time. They must first withstand tests of con sistency with available observation, and of direct experimentation. It is our hope that dissemination through this book will facilitate this process within the scientific community. The authors wish to thank the administration of the Environmental Science Division at ORNL, and the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University for their support in arranging this collaboration. We also wish to express our appreciation for the financial support provided by EPA. Personal thanks are due to Dr."

The conference "Combating Desertification with Plants" was held in Beer Sheva, Israel, from November 2-5, 1999, and was attended by 70 participants from 30 countries and/or international organisations. Desertification - the degradation of soils in drylands - is a phenomenon occurring in scores of countries around the globe. The number of people (in semiarid regions) affected by the steady decline in the productivity of their lands is in the hundred millions. The measures required to halt and reverse the process of desertification fall into many categories - policy, institutional, sociological-anthropological, and technical. Although technical "solutions" are not currently in vogue, the conference organizers felt that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in the direction of "participatory approaches." Hence IPALAC - The International Program for Arid Land Crops - whose function is to serve as a catalyst for optimizing the contribution of plant germplasm to sustainable development in desertification-prone regions - felt the time was opportune for providing a platform for projects where the "plant-driven" approach to development finds expression. Some 45 papers were delivered at the conference, falling into the categories of this volume: Overview, Potential Germplasm for Arid Lands, Introduction, Domestication and Dissemination of Arid Land Plants, Land Rehabilitation, and Mechanisms of Plant Transfer. The conference was funded by UNESCO (Division of Ecological Sciences), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and MASHAV, Israel's Center for International Development Cooperation.

Like the previous nine volumes published between 1988 and 1996, "Medicinal" "and" "Aromatic" "Plants X" is unique in its approach. It comprises 22 chapters dealing with the distribution, importance, conventional propagation, micropropagation, tissue culture studies, and the in vitro production of important medicinal and pharmaceutical compounds in various species of "Actinidia," "Alkanna," "Arnebia," "Campanula," "Catharanthus," "Centella," "Chenopodium," "Cornus," "Cynara," "Ephedra," "Euglena," "Haplophyllum," "Morus," "Oenothera," "Otacanthus," "Oxalis," "Polypodium," "Rosmarinus," "Sesamum," "Solanum," "Taxus," and "Tephrosia." This book is tailored to the needs of advanced students, teachers, and research scientists in the field of pharmacy, plant tissue culture, phytochemistry, biochemical engineering and plant biotechnology.

With the emergence of urban and community forestry as the fastest growing part of our pro fession in the last 15 years, the need for a book such as this inevitably developed. The So ciety of American Foresters' urban forestry working group counts 32 or more universities now offering courses in this subject, and the number is growing. For the last several years I have coordinated a continuing education urban forestry course at Rutgers for nonmatriculated students. Registrants have included arborists, shade tree commissioners, landscape architects, city foresters, environmental commissioners, park superintendents, and others whose jobs involve care and management of trees. The course was started by Bob Tate in 1980, around a core of managerial subjects such as in ventories, budgets, and public relations. After Bob left in 1984 to join Asplundh and later to start his own prosperous business in California, the course languished after it exhausted the local market for those subjects.

Plant molecular biology has produced an ever-increasing flood of data about genes and genomes. Evolutionary biology and systematics provides the context for synthesizing this information. This book brings together contributions from evolutionary biologists, systematists, developmental geneticists, biochemists, and others working on diverse aspects of plant biology whose work touches to varying degrees on plant molecular evolution. The book is organized in three parts, the first of which introduces broad topics in evolutionary biology and summarizes advances in plant molecular phylogenetics, with emphasis on model plant systems. The second segment presents a series of case studies of gene family evolution, while the third gives overviews of the evolution of important plant processes such as disease resistance, nodulation, hybridization, transposable elements and genome evolution, and polyploidy.

When I received an invitation to attend the International Symposium on Lethal Yellowing being organised by the Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan (CICy), I was excited and a little nostalgic. During the 1970s, a series of similar symposia had been held under the auspices of the loosely-constituted "International Council on Lethal Yellowing" (ICL Y). These were the years when the MLO cause for L Y was first proposed, a vector was found, the disease was racing across mainland Florida, USA and it was suspected of having jumped to Cozumel. Analogous diseases were also reported to be spreading in Africa and elsewhere. The ICL Y meetings, held approximately every two years, proved to be an immensely valuable forum for all involved in the research and control of L Y. They attracted a very wide cross-section of scientists and practitioners working on L Y, on related diseases, and on palms in general. Many participants of those ICL Y meetings also attended this CICY Symposium. Unfortunately, during the 1980s, as countries learned to live with L Y, most of the national and international funding for L Y research dried up, and so did ICL Y. The present symposium is the only international meeting to have been devoted to L Y since the last meeting of rCLY in 1979. Its convening in Merida is timely.

Worldwide, acreage under grassland is estimated to be twice that of cropland. Two closely related genera, Festuca L. (fescues) and Lolium L. (ryegrasses) are of significant value in temperate grasslands. These genera (tribe Poeae, subfamily Pooideae) contain well-adapted, very productive grasses widely distributed in temperate and cool climates in Europe, North and South America, North, East and South Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, where they are used for agricultural and recreational purposes (Jauhar 1993). They are important for grazing, stabilizing soil for agriculture, and enhancing the environment through multiple uses, such as forage, conservation and turf (Barnes 1990). Therefore, in the family Poaceae, the Festuca-Lolium group of grasses is among the most extensively studied by agronomists, plant breeders, animal scientists, taxonomists and cytogeneticists. The potential of biotechno- logical approaches has been recognized for the development of improved fescue and rye grass cultivars (Barnes 1990; Kau11990; Jauhar 1993). 1. 1 Agronomic Importance of the Festuca-Lolium Complex The Festuca-Lolium complex involves some well-adapted, highly productive persistent species which are widely used for soil stabilization, for agricultural purposes and as amenity grasses. For temperate grasslands, tall fescue, meadow fescue, Italian ryegrass and perennial ryegrass are particularly impor- tant species which show complementary desirable traits, such as palatability and fast initial growth of the ryegrasses, and winter hardiness, persistency combined with continued high production after the second harvest year of the fescues.

Biological invasion of native plant communities is a high-priority problem in the field of environmental management. Resource managers, biologists, and all those involved in plant communities must consider ecological interactions when assessing both the effects of plant invasion and the long-term effects of management. Sections of the book cover human perceptions of invading plants, assessment of ecological interactions, direct management, and regulation and advocacy. It also includes an appendix with descriptive data for many of the worst weeds.

The Monograph deals with the conception, planning, implementation, results and conclusions of the International Witches' Broom Project (IWBP), which was set up in 1985 with the aim of producing an economic management system for witches' broom disease of cocoa. The contributions of the various sponsors, and the roles played by the participating organizations and scientists are described in the introductory chapter. Chapter 2 provides a review of what was, and what was not known from published literature about the cocoa witches' broom pathosystem in 1989. The scope of the project and the approaches used are covered in Chapter 3, while Chapters 4 to 13 report on the field studies themselves in detail. The recent appearance of witches' broom in the important cocoa area of Bahia in Brazil is described in Chapter 14, before disease management recommendations are summarised and future prospects considered in the closing chapters. The many man-years of field research in the IWBP in a total of six countries generated much useful information which was analyzed both in the individual countries and collectively. Even with a document of this size, certain information and analyses with less direct relevance to disease management had to be omitted. It is expected that more detailed treatments of certain aspects will emerge in scientific papers, and further analyses will be undertaken."

The public's attitude toward air pollution in the United States evolved substantially during the 1960s. One of the results of the nation's emerging environmental ethic was the creation of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December of 1970. Prior to this time, research was focused on the impacts of air pollution on human health and welfare and was largely conducted by several federal research agencies, which included the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the U. S. Department of Agricul ture. After the creation of the EPA, much of this work was consolidated in one regulatory agency, which resulted in periodic evaluations of the various effects of atmospheric pollution on human health, materials, agriculture, and forest ecosystems. At the same time that environmental interest was growing in the United States, concern increased in the European scientific community and public over the ecological impacts of acidic deposition. As the magnitude of the damage to European lakes and streams and the widespread decline in Norway spruce and silver fir was reported, concern that similar problems were occurring in the United States increased substantially. This concern was heightened by press reports of high elevation spruce-fir forest declines in the Adirondack and Appalachian Mountains and the decline and death of sugar maples in the northeastern United States and Canada.

***e FACHGEBIET*** Agriculture, Agronomy, Forestry, Horticulture, Soil Science, Environmental Science (esp. Plant Ecology), Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural Economics, Natural Resource Economics, Sociology, and Anthropology ***INTERESSENTENGRUPPE*** Of interest to researchers, students, and professionals in the above fields.- Level: Technical Book, Monograph ***URHEBER*** S.R. Gliessman, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA (Ed.) ***TITEL*** Agroecology ***UNTERTITEL*** Researching the Ecological Basis for Sustainable Agriculture ***BIBLIOGRAPHISCHE-ANGABEN*** 1990. XIV, 380 pp. 87 figs. (Ecological Studies. Eds.: W.D. Billings, F. Golley, O.L. Lange, J.S. Olson, H. Remmert. Vol. 78) Hardcover DM 198,- ISBN 3-540-97028-2 ***CONTENTS*** Contents: Part I: Basic Ecological Concepts in Agroecosystems.- Part II: Agroecosystem Design and Management.- Index. ***LANGTEXT*** This book provides an introduction to research approaches in the emerging interdisciplinary field of agroecology. It demonstrates in a series of international case studies how to combine the more production-oriented focus of the agronomist with the more systems-oriented viewpoint of the ecologist. Different methodologies for quantifying and evaluating agroecosystem sustainability are presented and analyzed. Leading researchers in the field provide examples of the diversity and complexity of agroecological research, ranging from archeology to insect ecology, and examine design and management of agroecosystems that span from the humid tropics to temperate regions. This timely overview will be of great value to ecologists, agronomists, geographers, foresters, anthropologists, and others involved in developing a sustainable basis for land use, management, and conservation worldwide. ***RS-ENDE*** RS 11/89 PREX ***RS-NOTIZEN*** NY/Dr. Czeschlik

Since the first transgenic plants were produced back in the early 1980s, there have been substantial developments towards the genetic engineering of most crops of our world. Initial studies using isolated plant cells and removing their cell walls to form protoplasts, offered the possibility of transferring genetic material by Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer, chemical agents or electrical charges. However, in those cases were isolated protoplasts could be transformed, often, a shoot regeneration system was not available to induce the production of transgenic plants and any such regenerated plants were subject to mutation or chromosomal of cultured plant organs, such as leaf abnormalities. By the mid-1980s, the use disks, offered the convenience of combining gene transfer, plant regeneration and selection of transformants in a single system. This approach, enabled the production of stable, phenotypically-normal, transgenic potato and tomato plants in culture. By the late 1980s, the use of biolistics offered a means of inserting foreign genes into plant cells which where inaccessible to Agrobacterium infection. Even today, this technology is now standard practice for the production of some transgenic plants.

A discussion of the direct and indirect mechanisms by which fire and climate interact to influence carbon cycling in North American boreal forests. The first section summarizes the information needed to understand and manage fires' effects on the ecology of boreal forests and its influence on global climate change issues. Following chapters discuss in detail the role of fire in the ecology of boreal forests, present data sets on fire and the distribution of carbon, and treat the use of satellite imagery in monitoring these regions as well as approaches to modeling the relevant processes.