This abstract describes the Final Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Congress, recognizing the degradation of this unique ecosystem due to direct physical impacts and indirect impact, passed the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Protection Act of 1990 designating the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The myriad definitions of soil/ecosystem quality or health are often driven by ecosystem and management concerns, and they typically focus on the ability of the soil to provide functions relating to biological productivity and/or environmental quality (Doran and Parkin, 1994; Karlen and others, 1997). A variety of attempts have been made to create indices that quantify the complexities of soil quality and provide a means of evaluating the impact of various natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

A Kind of Magic is a three-volume novel of eco-magical realism. It's a book about transition: from childhood to adolescence; from isolation to community; from passivity to action. From fantasy to the real world. It is deliberately aimed at 4th - 6th graders, and can be read as a whole or as three short school library books. A Trick of the Light/Turtle Crossing/ThunderHawk: A Trilogy of short books for middle-grade readers; following a boy's awakening to the beauties and needs of the natural world around him, with the help of his friends, his family, his community and the mysterious spirit of the forest.

This document describes a protocol to monitor five terrestrial plant communities in seven national parks within the Pacific Island Network (PACN).

Clay Pond has a rich history that is shared by other residents of the pond. Ask anyone there about the friendly turtle, and the other wonderful friends, like Lacy the Dragonfly, who have made this place a home over the past several years. Each creature has their own unique tale to tell. Everyone in this place looks out for the well being of all the others. If it were possible to claim each other as family, they would do it in a heartbeat. It is, in a word, a safe haven for anyone living in or around the pond. Many of my stories in this whole collection are based on true incidents in my writer life. As the reader, I hope you fall in love with this nature world as I have drawn it. The purpose of compiling these tales is to entertain, stir, or bring to remembrance some of the readers' own experiences as they step out into their own nature world around them.

The purpose of the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory & Monitoring (I&M) Program is to develop and provide scientifically credible information on the current status and long-term trends of the composition, structure, and function of park ecosystems, and to determine how well current management practices are sustaining those ecosystems. As part of the NPS's effort to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge, a primary role of the I&M Program is to collect, organize, and make available natural resource data and to contribute to the NPS institutional knowledge by transforming data into information through analysis, synthesis, and modeling of specific key vital signs. The I&M Program defines vital signs as a subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that is selected to represent the overall health or condition of park resources, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values.

Since the late 1970s, the NPS Air Resources Division (ARD) has managed a comprehensive air quality program, emphasizing the collection of credible air quality information to support scientifically sound resource management decisions in parks. In general, air quality monitoring in parks, including monitoring of atmospheric deposition, ozone, and visibility, is done in conjunction with national networks. The authors describe the atmospheric deposition monitoring protocol.

Vegetation classification and mapping was conducted at Weir Farm National Historic Site during the fall of 2003 and the summers of 2004 and 2005, creating a current digital geospatial vegetation database for the park. There are nine natural vegetation types that occur in the park; four upland forest types, one upland non-vascular type, two forested wetland types, and two wetland shrub thicket types that reflected the soil moisture conditions of the site. In addition, four anthropogenic vegetation types occurred; one successional forest and three non-forested types (two in mowed upland fields, and one herbaceous wetland seep). Each of these is described in detail in this report.

This study measured wetland trends in the conterminous United States between 1998 and 2004. The estimates of estuarine emergent area were made prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the summer of 2005. The Cowardin et al. (1979) wetland definition was used to describe wetland types. By design, intertidal wetlands of the Pacific coast, reefs and submerged aquatic vegetation were excluded from this study.

Recent studies indicate that - due to climate change - the Earth is undergoing rapid changes in all cryospheric components, including polar sea ice shrinkage, mountain glacier recession, thawing permafrost, and diminishing snow cover. This book provides a comprehensive summary of all components of the Earth's cryosphere, reviewing their history, physical and chemical characteristics, geographical distributions, and projected future states. This new edition has been completely updated throughout, and provides state-of-the-art data from GlobSnow-2 CRYOSAT, ICESAT, and GRACE. It includes a comprehensive summary of cryospheric changes in land ice, permafrost, freshwater ice, sea ice, and ice sheets. It discusses the models developed to understand cryosphere processes and predict future changes, including those based on remote sensing, field campaigns, and long-term ground observations. Boasting an extensive bibliography, over 120 figures, and end-of-chapter review questions, it is an ideal resource for students and researchers of the cryosphere.