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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > Forests, rainforests
This book will explore our forests as the most readily available
and renewable source of carbon as well as the building block of
chemicals, plastics, and pharmaceuticals as the next 100 years
gradually push consumers toward alternate sources of chemicals.
Meeting these needs from trees requires that new chemistry be
developed so that plant materials is converted to commodity
chemicals. This focused discussion on ongoing global efforts at
creativity using forest and biomass based renewable materials will
include six different mechanisms for bringing about change on this
very innovative topic.
Climate change, resulted from the rise in global temperature,
drives many stressors which make it difficult to predict the
outcome in a general way. However, impact of climate change is so
far more visible in agriculture than other sectors. Rise in
temperature causes oxidation of soil organic carbon and affect
biogeochemical processes and mechanisms, which make soil health and
productive potential of soils weaker. It also affects weather at
local regional and global scale, and hydrological cycle as well,
which result in drought, flood, cyclones etc. Simultaneously it
impinges directly upon reproductive biology of crops by reducing
pollen viability and making spikelets sterile, which result in crop
yield reduction. In India, impact of climate change on agriculture
is predicted to occur more in northern parts, where wheat
production may suffer losses of 4-5 million tons for each degree
rise in temperature. Rice, pearl millet, soybean are other crops in
that line. Globally, it has been predicted to have a huge burden in
future as the world needs to feed nine billion population by the
turn of the 21st century. Several techniques like conservation
agriculture, integrated farming, crop diversification and carbon
sequestration through agroforestry advocated helping climate change
mitigation and adaptation have been discussed in detail in this
book. Therefore, this book serves as a repository of information on
climate change, mitigation and adaptation in relation to
agroforestry, which can be useful to planner, researchers and
undergraduate and post graduate students pursuing studies in the
field of agricultural and allied sciences.
Five stunningly large forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, extending
from the Pacific Ocean across all of Russia and far-northern
Europe; the North American boreal, ranging from Alaska's Bering
seacoast to Canada's Atlantic shore; the Amazon, covering almost
the entirety of South America's bulge; the Congo, occupying parts
of six nations in Africa's wet equatorial middle; and the island
forest of New Guinea, twice the size of California. These
megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands
of cultures, and a stable climate, as economist John W. Reid and
celebrated biologist Thomas E. Lovejoy argue convincingly in Ever
Green. Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the
atmosphere-the boreal alone holds 1.8 trillion metric tons of
carbon in its deep soils and peat layers, 190 years' worth of
global emissions at 2019 levels-and saving them is the most
immediate and affordable large-scale solution to our planet's most
formidable ongoing crisis. Reid and Lovejoy offer practical
solutions to address the biggest challenges these forests face,
from vastly expanding protected areas, to supporting Indigenous
forest stewards, to planning smarter road networks. In gorgeous
prose that evokes the majesty of these ancient forests along with
the people and animals who inhabit them, Reid and Lovejoy take us
on an exhilarating global journey.
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Park County
(Hardcover)
Lynn Johnson Houze, Jeremy M Johnston
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R768
Discovery Miles 7 680
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Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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Established in 1905, The Forest Service is steeped in history,
conflict, strong personalities (including Theodore Roosevelt and
Gifford Pinchot), and the challenges of managing 193 million acres
of national forests and grasslands. This unique federal agency is
one that combines forest management with wildlife, fish,
recreation, mining, grazing, and hundreds of other uses. It
operates in the midst of controversy and change. The original
intent was to protect the public forests, protect the water
supplies, and, when appropriate, provide timber. Much has changed
over the last 100 years including many new laws, but the fact that
these lands are still fought over today shows the foresight of
politicians, foresters, scientists, and communities. This work
brings to light the many and varied activities of the agency that
many people know little about in a world that is constantly
changing. Written by a former Forest Service national historian,
topics discussed in the work include wilderness and the Wilderness
Act of 1964, recreation battles and interagency rivalry with the
National Park Service, timber management including clearcutting,
ecosystem management, roadless area and controversies over RARE and
RARE II studies, fish and wildlife management including endangered
species before and after the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and
mining and the General Mining Act of 1872. It also discusses the
future challenges: forest fires, water protection and restoration,
recreation, involving the public, and fish and wildlife.
The Phytochemical Society of North America held its forty-fourth
annual meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada from July 24-28, 2004.
This year's meeting was hosted by the University of Ottawa and the
Canadian Forest Service, Great Lakes Forestry Centre and was held
jointly with the International Society of Chemical Ecology. All of
the chapters in this volume are based on papers presented in the
symposium entitled "Chemical Ecology and Phytochemistry of Forest
Ecosystems." The Symposium Committee, Mamdouh Abou-Zaid, John T.
Arnason, Vincenzo deLuca, Constance Nozzolillo, and Bernard
Philogene, assembled an international group of phytochemists and
chemical ecologists working primarily in northern forest
ecosystems. It was a unique interdisciplinary forum of scientists
working on the cutting edge in their respective fields. While most
of these scientists defy the traditional labels we are accustomed
to, they brought to the symposium expertise in phytochemistry,
insect biochemistry, molecular biology, genomics and proteomics,
botany, entomology, microbiology, mathematics, and ecological
modeling.
* A collection of papers presented at the 44th Annual meeting of
the Phytochemical Society of North America
* Representation from a unique interdisciplinary forum of
scientists
* Includes discussions on new genomics research in forest health
A one-of-a-kind introduction to the major issues and controversies
dominating the heated debate over U.S. forest policy today. Forest
Conservation Policy: A Reference Handbook chronicles the dramatic
history, current status, and global influence of U.S. forest
policy. Beginning with the foundations of early forest law during
the colonial period through the rise of the Conservation Movement
in the wake of 19th century massive forest exploitation, this
reference also discusses the environmental challenges that have
rewritten recent U.S. forest policy and explores future policy
directions. What are the effects of forest destruction on
biological diversity? Has the sustainable forest management
movement been effective? Given the fact that individual landowners
control the greatest share of U.S. forestland, how are forests on
private lands regulated? Students and concerned citizens alike will
discover answers to these and other critical questions regarding
what is left of the nation's dwindling forests. Subject-indexed
description of the major issues dominating the current debates over
the future of forest policy Exhaustive references to government and
nongovernment forestry organizations at both the national and
regional levels
Even before the myth of Prometheus, fire played a crucial
ecological role around the world. Numerous plant communities depend
on fire to generate species diversity in both time and space.
Without fire such ecosystems would become sterile monocultures.
Recent efforts to prohibit fire in fire dependent communities have
contributed to more intense and more damaging fires. For these
reasons, foresters, ecologists, land managers, geographers, and
environmental scientists are interested in the behavior and
ecological effects of fires. This book will be the first to focus
on the chemistry and physics of fire as it relates to the ways in
which fire behaves and the impacts it has on ecosystem function.
Leading international contributors have been recruited by the
editors to prepare a didactic text/reference that will appeal to
both advanced students and practicing professionals.
The Red Hills region of south Georgia and north Florida contains
one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in North America,
with longleaf pine trees that are up to four hundred years old and
an understory of unparalleled plant life. At first glance, the
longleaf woodlands at plantations like Greenwood, outside
Thomasville, Georgia, seem undisturbed by market economics and
human activity, but Albert G. Way contends that this environment
was socially produced and that its story adds nuance to the broader
narrative of American conservation.
The Red Hills woodlands were thought of primarily as a healthful
refuge for northern industrialists in the early twentieth century.
When notable wildlife biologist Herbert Stoddard arrived in 1924,
he began to recognize the area's ecological value. Stoddard was
with the federal government, but he drew on local knowledge to
craft his land management practices, to the point where a
distinctly southern, agrarian form of ecological conservation
emerged. This set of practices was in many respects progressive,
particularly in its approach to fire management and species
diversity, and much of it remains in effect today.
Using Stoddard as a window into this unique conservation
landscape, "Conserving Southern Longleaf" positions the Red Hills
as a valuable center for research into and understanding of
wildlife biology, fire ecology, and the environmental appreciation
of a region once dubbed simply the "pine barrens."
This book systematically discusses the vegetation dynamics in
northern China since the LGM, with a focus on three dominant tree
species (Pinus, Quercus and Betula). By integrating methods of
palaeoecology, phylogeography and species distribution model, it
reconstructs the glacial refugia in northern China, demonstrating
that the species were located further north than previously assumed
during the LGM. The postglacial dynamics of forest distribution
included not only long-distance north-south migration but also
local spread from LGM micro-refugia in northern China. On the
regional scale, the book shows the altitudinal migration pattern of
the three dominant tree genera and the role of topographical
factors in the migration of the forest-steppe border. On the
catchment scale, it analyzes Huangqihai Lake, located in the
forest-steppe ecotone in northern China, to indentify the local
forest dynamics response to the Holocene climatic change. It shows
that local forests have various modes of response to the climate
drying, including shrubland expansion, savannification and
replacement of steppe. In brief, these studies at different
space-time scales illustrate the effects of climate, topography and
other factors on forest migration.
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