Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Forestry & silviculture: practice & techniques
Because of its peculiar biology, its negative impacts on forestry, and its urticating larvae affecting human and animal health, pine processionary moth has largely been studied in many European countries during the last century. However, knowledge remained scattered and no synthesis has ever been published. Since the IPCC retained the moth as one of the two insect indicators of climate change because of its expansion with warming up, filling this gap became increasingly important. Led by INRA, this book associates 101 authors from 22 countries of Europe, Minor Asia and North Africa, combining all the concerned research fields (entomology, ecology, genetics, mathematical modelling, medical and veterinary science, pest management) in a multidisciplinary approach to understand and model the processes underlying past, present and future moth expansion and to propose adapted management methods. Besides, the major biological patterns of the related processionary species are also detailed.
Social Forestry and its most well-known variant, Community Forestry, have been practiced almost as long as people have used forests. During this time, forests have provided people with countless goods and services, including wood, medicine, food, clean water and recreation. In making use of forest resources, people throughout history have frequently organized themselves and established both formal and informal rules. However, just as the discipline of Forestry had previously limited and concentrated the function of forests to the timber it provides, the popular understanding of Social Forestry has restricted it to a Forestry sub-topic that deals with welfare, without any connection to income-generation, and is practiced only in developing countries. This volume introduces the concepts of Social Forestry to the student, gives examples of its practice around the world and attempts to anticipate developments in its future. It aims to widen the concept of Social Forestry from a sub-practice within Forestry to a practice that will make Forestry relevant in countries where wood production alone is no longer the main reason for keeping land forested, thereby rediscovering and redefining this important topic.
The 21st century has seen the beginnings of a great restoration effort towards the worlda (TM)s forests, accompanied by the emergence of an increasing literature on reforestation, regeneration and regrowth of forest cover. Yet to date, there is no volume which synthesises current knowledge on the extent, trends, patterns and drivers of reforestation. This edited volume draws together research from leading researchers to explore reforestation and forest regrowth across the world, from multiple dimensions a " including ecosystem services, protected areas, social institutions, economic transitions, remediation of environmental problems, conservation and land abandonment a " and at different scales. Detailing the methods and analyses used from across a wide range of disciplines, and incorporating research from North, South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Europe, this groundbreaking book provides a global overview of current trends, explores their underlying causes and proposes future forest trajectories. The first of its kind, the book will provide an invaluable reference for researchers and students involved in interdisciplinary research and working on issues relevant to the biophysical, geographic, socioeconomic and institutional processes associated with reforestation.
A PORTABLE, POCKET EDITION OF THE DEFINITIVE WOOD-CUTTER'S BIBLE - PERFECT FOR FATHER'S DAY "The book has spread like wildfire" Daily Mail "A how-to book with poetry at its heart" T.L.S. "A step-by-step guide to preparing your wood store" Independent Whether you're a seasoned woodcutter, or your passion is yet to be kindled, NORWEGIAN WOOD is a highly informative and entertaining guide for year-round wood management, and the perfect gift. Chopping and stacking wood is a pastime where the world makes sense once more. Because our relationship to fire is so ancient, so universal, it seems that in learning about wood, you can also learn about life. And who better to impart this wisdom than an expert from Scandinavia, where the extreme climate has obliged generations to hone and share their skills with tools, wood and heat production. Lars Mytting has distilled the wisdom of enthusiasts, from experienced lifelong growers, stackers and burners to researchers and professionals of combustion and tree culture. Part guide to the best practice in every aspect of working with this renewable energy source, part meditation on the human instinct for survival, this definitive handbook on the art of chopping, stacking and drying wood in the Scandinavian way has resonated across the world, with more than a million copies sold worldwide. More than 200,000 copies sold in English editions. The book that defined a genre.
This book explores the concepts, premises, advancements, and challenges in quantifying natural forest landscape patterns through mapping techniques. After several decades of development and use, these tools can now be examined for their foundations, intentions, scope, advancements, and limitations. When applied to natural forest landscapes, mapping techniques must address concepts such as stochasticity, heterogeneity, scale dependence, non-Euclidean geometry, continuity, non-linearity, and parsimony, as well as be explicit about the intended degree of abstraction and assumptions. These studies focus on quantifying natural (i.e., non-human engineered) forest landscape patterns, because those patterns are not planned, are relatively complex, and pose the greatest challenges in cartography, and landscape representation for further interpretation and analysis.
Determinism, holism and complexity: three epistemological attitudes that have easily identifiable historical origins and developments. Galileo believed that it was necessary to "prune the impediments" to extract the mathematical essence of physical phenomena, to identify the math ematical structures representing the underlying laws. This Galilean method was the key element in the development of Physics, with its extraordinary successes. Nevertheless the method was later criticized because it led to a view of nature as essentially "simple and orderly," and thus by choosing not to investigate several charac teristics considered as an "impediment," several essential aspects of the phenomenon under investigation might be left out. The Galilean point of view also contains an acknowledgement of the central role played by the causal nexus among phenomena. The mechanistic-deterministic de scription of reality - for instance, a la Laplace - although acknowledging that it is not possible to predict phenomena exactly owing to unavoid able measurement error, is based on the recognition of the their causal nature, even in an ontological sense. Consequently, deterministic predic tion became the methodological fulcrum of mathematical physics. But although mechanistic determinism has had and, in many cases, still has, considerable success in Physics, in other branches of science this situa tion is much less favourable."
Decision making in land management involves preferential selection among competing alternatives. Often, such choices are difficult owing to the complexity of the decision context. Because the analytic hierarchy process (AHP, developed by Thomas Saaty in the 1970s) has been successfully applied to many complex planning, resource allocation, and priority setting problems in business, energy, health, marketing, natural resources, and transportation, more applications of the AHP in natural resources and environmental sciences are appearing regularly. This realization has prompted the authors to collect some of the important works in this area and present them as a single volume for managers and scholars. Because land management contains a somewhat unique set of features not found in other AHP application areas, such as site-specific decisions, group participation and collaboration, and incomplete scientific knowledge, this text fills a void in the literature on management science and decision analysis for forest resources.
China has been undertaking unprecedented ecological restoration efforts to deal with its problems of soil erosion, flooding, dust storms, and habitat loss. While there have been studies of these efforts, questions remain concerning whether they have been effectively implemented, what their induced socioeconomic and ecological impacts are, and how their performance can be improved. Tackling these important questions in an integrated manner, An Integrated Assessment of China 's Ecological Restoration Programs is extraordinary for its broad coverage and methodological rigor. It provides a substantial improvement over the conventional approach of simply reporting projects undertaken and accepting uncritically the government assessment, and thus fills an important knowledge gap of the restoration efforts being implemented upon a variety of ecosystems in China.
While the natural resources of the earth continue to diminish, "Green Landscapes" arebeingcalleduponto produceanincreasingrangeofgoodsandservices.A Green Landscape is a rural expanse of scenery that may comprise a variety of visible f- tures. This book focuses on forested landscapes, although much of the theory and most of the practical applications are valid for any area of land. In many regions of the world, people depend on forests for their livelihood and well-being. Forests provide multiple services, - bene ts generated for society by the existence of c- tain forest ecosystems and their attributes. The value of these bene ts is often only recognised when they are lost after removal of the trees, resulting in ooding, loss of income and declining species diversity. Forests provide multiple services. However, the amount and quality, and the p- ticular mix of these services depend on the condition of the resource. Landscape design is a proven way to ensure that certain desired bene ts will be available in space and time. It provides the foundation and an essential starting point for s- tainable management. This volume, which forms part of Springer's book series Managing Forest Ecosystems, presentsstate-of-the-artresearchresults, visionsandtheories, aswell as speci c methodsfor designing Green Landscapes, as a basis for sustainable ecos- tem management. The book contains a wealth of information which may be useful to companymanagement, the legal and policy environmentand forestry administ- tors. The volume is subdivided into four sections.
The International Energy Agency Bioenergy Agreement was initiated as the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1978. It was expanded in 1986 to form the Bioenergy Agreement. Since that time the Agreement has thrived with some fifteen countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and the CEC) currently being signatories. The objective of the Agreement is to establish increased programme and project cooperation between the participants in the field of bioenergy. The environmental consequences of intensive forest harvesting have been the subject of intense interest for the Agreement from its initiation. This interest was formulated as a Cooperative Project under the Forestry Energy Agreement in 1984. It developed further under each of the subsequent three-year Tasks of the Bioenergy Agreement (Task III, Activity 3 "Nutritional consequences of intensive forest harvesting on site productivity," Task VI, Activity 6 "Environmental impacts of harvesting" and more recently Task IX, Activity 4 "Environmental impacts of intensive harvesting." The work has been supported by five main countries from within the Bioenergy Agreement: Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, and USA. The continued work has resulted in a significant network of scientists work ing together towards a common objective - that of generating a better under standing of the processes involved in nutrient cycling and the development of management regimes which will maintain or enhance long term site productivity."
Plants use resources, i.e. carbon, nutrients, water and energy, either for growth or to defend themselves from biotic and abiotic stresses. This volume provides a timely understanding of resource allocation and its regulation in plants, linking the molecular with biochemical and physiological-level processes. Ecological scenarios covered include competitors, pathogens, herbivores, mycorrhizae, soil microorganisms, carbon dioxide/ozone regimes, nitrogen and light availabilities. The validity of the Growth-Differentiation Balance Hypothesis is examined and novel theoretical concepts and approaches to modelling plant resource allocation are discussed. The results presented can be applied in plant breeding and engineering, as well as in resource-efficient stand management in agriculture and forestry. "
Few individuals can be unmoved by the impact of molecular biology. Advances in the discipline over four decades have progressed at a rate unrivalled in other scientific areas. In its formative years, molecular biology examined the chemical and physical structures of biological molecules, subsequently elucidated the nature and function of DNA and evolved into molecular genetics. From this exponential growth of scientific knowledge, tremendous opportunities were created for the application of molecular approaches to solve problems in applied biology. This book describes the new productive association between novel state of-the-art molecular biology and crop protection, a discipline with a sound heritage in traditional applied biology and chemistry. Never before has crop protection faced such diverse challenges. It is charged with improving global food supplies and with the pressure of population increases of one billion in the next decade. But to consider protection of crops simply in terms of weed, pest and disease control would be a gross oversimplification of the mission. Rather, crop protectionists must develop measures which will maintain crop yield and quality without harm to the environment. Chemical, cultural and biological approaches to crop protection must also fulfil evolving legislative demands and address the issues which confer public acceptability."
"The PhD thesis written by Mr. Ackermann is an outstanding and in-depth scientific study that closes a research gap and paves the way to new developments. Despite the extremely complex issues, his work is very understandable and excellently elaborated." Prof. Dr. Christiane Schmullius "The PhD thesis written by Mr. Ackermann is an excellent and very comprehensive work performed at the highest scientific level. It examines in detail the potential of SAR data with regards to the derivation of forest stem volume in the temperate latitudes. The work belongs to a technically complex field. Nevertheless, Mr. Ackermann has succeeded in presenting the content in a clear and understandable way." Dr. Christian Thiel "The proposed document is overall of very good quality. Mr. Ackermann has done an exhaustive analysis of the in-situ data available on the Thuringian forest and was able to derive Growing Stocking Volume using L- and X-band spaceborne SAR data. The document is very well structured with a good split of information between the core of the text presented in the 6 chapters and the 4 annexes, which contain detailed results. Mr. Ackermann's English grammar is excellent and his syntax is crystal clear, making his document pleasant to read. The way arguments are presented is logical and Mr. Ackermann gives a lot of attention to ensuring that sound explanations properly support these arguments." Dr. Maurice Borgeaud
Tropical dry forests are the most exploited and endangered ecosystems in the world. A combination of climatic and human factors often reduce these forests to patches of dry scrubs or savannas. Because these ecosystems experience a more arduous and less anticipated environment, they are more prone to environmental stress as plant communities are developed. Therefore, urgent research is necessary to understand both the detrimental issues and problem-solving approaches to conserving these important forests. The Handbook of Research on the Conservation and Restoration of Tropical Dry Forests is a pivotal reference source that combines theory and practice on the current trends and issues in this important ecological subject and discusses future challenges towards conservation strategies of these tropical dry forests. While highlighting topics such as forest management, natural regeneration, and silviculture, this publication examines the anthropogenic impacts on tropical dry forests and the necessity to rebuild their ecosystems. This book is ideally designed for state forest agency professionals, resource managers, non-governmental organization agents, ecologists, botanists, environmentalists, students, and researchers seeking current research on the threats to these forests.
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."
This book explores microbial symbiosis, with a particular focus on soil microorganisms, highlighting their application in enhancing plant growth and yield. It addresses various types of bacterial and fungal microbes associated with symbiotic phenomena, including rhizobium symbiosis, arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis, ectomycorrhizal symbiosis, algal/lichen symbiosis, and Archeal symbiosis. Presenting strategies for employing a diverse range of bacterial and fungal symbioses in nutrient fortification, adaptation of plants in contaminated soils, and mitigating pathogenesis, it investigates ways of integrating diverse approaches to increase crop production under the current conventional agroecosystem. Providing insights into microbial symbioses and the challenges of adopting a plant-microbe synergistic approach towards plant health, this book is a valuable resource for researchers, graduate students and anyone in industry working on bio-fertilizers and their agricultural applications.
In recent decades, repeated use of herbicides in the same field has imposed selection for resistance in species that were formerly susceptible. On the other hand, considerable research in the private and public sectors has been directed towards introducing herbicide tolerance into susceptible crop species. The evolution of herbicide resistance, understanding its mechanisms, characterisation of resistant weed biotypes, development of herbicide-tolerant crops and management of resistant weeds are described throughout the 36 chapters of this book. It has been written by leading researchers based on the contributions made at the International Symposium on Weed and Crop Resistance to Herbicides held at Cordoba, Spain. This book will be a good reference source for research scientists and advanced students.
Pine forests face a global threat of pine wilt disease, which is being spread by vector beetles carrying pathogenic nematodes from dead trees to healthy ones. Among the host pines there are varying degrees of susceptibility, and nematode strains also contain a variety of virulences, both of which factors help to determine whether infected host trees will die or survive. As well, biotic and abiotic environmental factors influence the fate of infected trees. This book describes the history of the disease, pathogenic nematodes, vector beetles, the etiology and ecology of the disease, microorganisms involved, and control methods that utilize host resistance and biological control agents. Concrete, comprehensive, and the most up-to-date knowledge about this worldwide forest epidemic is presented for readers, enabling them to understand the nature and epidemic threat of pine wilt disease.
This book offers information and insights into the potential of market and policy instruments in improving the state of the world's forests. It advocates the use of the concept of optimal mix of markets and policies as an approach to view the appropriate and operational roles of market and government in dealing with forestry issues. It does not offer a list of policy recommendations to be used as a general tool to combat the threats facing the world's forests. Obviously, the optimal mix of markets and policies must depend on the varying national and local conditions and, more specifically, on the level of development. The contents of this volume are organized in five Parts. Part I, Editorial Perspectives, briefly reviews the outline of the book and analyses the balanced use of markets and policies to support world forests towards sustainable forest management. Part II reviews changes and trends in society and environment outside the forest sector. After all, the evolution of forestry and forest industries is more dependent on these external changes than on changes internal to the sector. Two important aspects that may strongly affect the future of the forest sector are covered: the potential of wood biomass in replacing oil and the global freshwater outlook. Part III focuses on the importance of forests and is primarily aimed at those outside the forest sector. Current innovations in information technology and the fast removal of government regulations have enabled forest industry corporations to invest on a larger scale in optimal locations worldwide. The rapid expansion of forest plantations in the South is a response not only to globalization but also to the expanding conservationpressures in the North. Part IV is the global forum that introduces a few topical forest sector issues affecting the world as a whole. However, these tend to be very complex and can rarely be adequately covered from a single perspective. Therefore, discussants were invited to bring up additional points of view. Forests have great potential in the control of climate change. This is analyzed through both the increased use of wood for energy and the possible forestry investments by Northern nations in the South to cope with the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. The interlinkages of forests and water are also highlighted. Part V is entitled Regional Forum. Its purpose is to analyze globally relevant continental issues. Interregional studies are followed by articles focusing on Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Russian Federation. The role of the G8 economic powers in the development of the world's forests is studied from the days of imperialism to the current Action Programme on Forests, and the implementation of the programme is followed up. A number of comparative analyses of countries are presented. The impacts of globalization on the forest sector in the Russian Far East and reforms in support of sustainable forest management in Russia are the two final themes of the book.
Forest Microbiology: Tree Diseases and Pests, Volume Three in the Forest Microbiology series, provides an overview of major disease agents of trees, including viruses, phytoplasma, bacteria, fungi, nematodes and major insect pests. With a strong emphasis on genetics, biochemistry, physiology, evolutionary biology and population dynamics of the organisms involved, this book provides a comprehensive understanding on the health of forests. Sections cover important pest threats such as bark beetles, emerald ash borer, coffee borers, leaf cutting ants, cocoa mirids, and more. This volume highlights a range of emerging diseases of forest trees in temperate and tropic regions as well as information on habitats. Forest trees play crucial roles not only for mitigating effects of the climate change but also for their considerable economic and ecological value. Forest trees are equally vital as an alternative bioenergy source and play important roles in pollution abatement and the maintenance of biodiversity. Timber and its associated products from forest trees contribute substantially to the revenue generation of many countries of the world.
A critical companion of zoosemiotics is the first attempt to systematise the study of animal communication and signification through its most important and/or problematic terms and concepts, and its most representative scholars. It is a companion, in that it attempts to cover the entire range of key terms in the field, and it's critical, in that it aims not only to describe, but also to discuss, problematise and, in some cases, resolve, these terms.
Cereal uses range from human food and beverages to animal feeds and industrial products. It is human food and beverages which are the predominant uses covered in this book, since the nutritional quality of cereals for animal feed is described in other publications on animal nutrition, and industrial products are a relatively minor use of cereals. Cereals are the main components of human diets and are crucial to human survival. Three species, wheat, rice and maize, account for the bulk of human food. Barley is the major raw material for beer production and ranks fourth in world production. Other species such as sorghum are regionally important. This book covers all the major cereal species: wheat, rice, maize, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, rye and triticale. Specific chapters have been devoted to a description of the major end-uses of each of the species and to definition of the qualities required for each of their end uses. The functional and nutritional quality of cereals determines their suitability for specific purposes and may limit the quality of the end product, influencing greatly the commercial value of grain. An under standing of the factors that determine grain quality is thus important in the maintenance of efficient and sustainable agricultural and food production. The biochemical constituents of the grain that determine quality have been described in chapters on proteins, carbohydrates and other components. An understanding of the relationships between grain composition and quality is important in selecting grain for specific uses."
From time immemorial, firewood has been a very important source of energy for mankind. Later in history, wood for energy decreased its importance because of other more convenient and cheaper sources, mainly fossil fuels. Today, focus is again on use of forests as a producer of energy with main drivers being climate change, shortage and increasing prices of fossil fuel sources, and safety in energy supplies. However, intensive use of forest biomass is qu- tioned since fundamental ecological processes may be influenced negatively thus making up a trade-off with the benefits of using an otherwise sustainable source of energy. In this book, selected aspects of intensive use of forest b- mass for energy is treated with main focus on ecological aspects like maintenance of soil fertility, recycling of the combustion ash, inf- ence on biodiversity and pests, and economical aspects both at forest owners level and for society. Another focus point is the implemen- tion of this knowledge into decision support, recommendations and guidelines. The geographical scope is mainly the Nordic and Baltic region. The EU-financed project "Wood for Energy, - a contribution to the development of sustainable forest Management" (WOOD-EN- 1 MAN) , make up the frame for the book. Seven partners participated in the project: Forest & Landscape Denmark, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Lithuanian Forest Research Institute, Latvian State Forestry Research Institute, and Estonian University of Life Sciences with Forest & Landscape Denmark as coordinator.
Tropical rain forests are increasingly expected to serve for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation amid global climate change and increasing human demands for land. Natural production forests that are legally designated to produce timber occur widely in the Southeast Asian tropics. Synergizing timber production, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in such tropical production forests is one of the most realistic means to resolve these contemporary global problems. Next-generation sustainable forest management is being practiced in the natural tropical rain forest of a model site in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, while earlier sustainable management practices have generally failed, leading to extensive deforestation and forest degradation elsewhere in the tropics. Ecologists have examined co-benefits of sustainable forestry in the model forest in terms of forest regeneration, carbon sequestration and biodiversity in comparison to a forest managed by destructive conventional methods. Taxonomic groups studied have included trees, decomposers, soil microbes, insects and mammals. A wide array of field methods and technology has been used including count plots, sensor cameras, and satellite remote-sensing. This book is a compilation of the results of those thorough ecological investigations and elucidates ecological processes of tropical rain forests after logging. The book furnishes useful information for foresters and conservation NGOs, and it also provides baseline information for biologists and ecologists. A further aim is to examine the environmental effects of a forest certification scheme as the model forest has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Taken as a whole, this book proves that the desired synergy is possible.
The development of pesticide resistance in arthropod pests, plant pathogens and weeds can be viewed and studied from two contrasting perspectives. At a fundamental level, resistance provides an almost ideal example of adaptation to withstand severe environmental stress. Population geneticists, biochemists and, most recently, molecular biologists have cast considerable light on the nature of this adaptation in diverse taxonomic groups, and on factors determining its selection and spread within and between populations. Unlike most evolutionary phenomena, however, resistance is also of immediate practical and economic significance. Not only has the number of resistant species continued to increase inexorably, but there has been an alarming increase in the severity and extent of some resistance problems. Cases of organisms resisting virtually all available pesticides are by no means uncommon, and pose a formidable challenge in view of present difficulties in discovering and developing novel chemicals. Although most occurrences of resistance were initially monofactorial, resistance now frequently involves a suite of coexisting mechanisms that protect organisms against the same or different pesticide groups, and may even predispose them to resist new, as yet unused chemicals. |
You may like...
Silva - or, A Discourse of Forest-trees…
John 1620-1706 1n Evelyn, A. (Alexander) 1729-1809 Hunter
Hardcover
R1,027
Discovery Miles 10 270
Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of…
Pennsylvania. Dept. Of Forestry
Hardcover
R761
Discovery Miles 7 610
Papers and Reports Upon Forestry, Forest…
Alexander 1823-1901 Kirkwood
Hardcover
R861
Discovery Miles 8 610
Sago Palm - Multiple Contributions to…
Hiroshi Ehara, Dennis V. Johnson, …
Hardcover
R1,561
Discovery Miles 15 610
|