Janisse Ray was a babe in arms when a boat of her father's construction cracked open and went down in the mighty Altamaha River. Tucked in a life preserver, she washed onto a sandbar as the craft sank from view. That first baptism began a lifelong relationship with a stunning and powerful river that almost nobody knows.

The Altamaha rises dark and mysterious in southeast Georgia. It is deep and wide bordered by swamps. Its corridor contains an extraordinary biodi-versity, including many rare and endangered species, which led the Nature Conservancy to designate it as one of the world's last great places.

The Altamaha is Ray's river, and from childhood she dreamed of paddling its entire length to where it empties into the sea. "Drifting into Darien" begins with an account of finally making that journey, turning to medita-tions on the many ways we accept a world that contains both good and evil. With praise, biting satire, and hope, Ray contemplates transformation and attempts with every page to settle peacefully into the now.

Though commemorating a history that includes logging, Ray celebrates "a culture that sprang from the flatwoods, which required a judicious use of nature." She looks in vain for an ivorybill woodpecker but is equally eager to see any of the imperiled species found in the river basin: spiny mussel, American oystercatcher, Radford's mint, Alabama milkvine. The book explores both the need and the possibilities for conservation of the river and the surrounding forests and wetlands. As in her groundbreaking "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood," Ray writes an account of her beloved river that is both social history and natural history, understanding the two as inseparable, particularly in the rural corner of Georgia that she knows best. Ray goes looking for wisdom and finds a river.

The Wadden Sea area of the North Sea is one which undergoes rapid morphological changes. Under natural conditions, the barrier islands would adjust themselves to a rising sea level. However, because the islands are densely populated and have an important role as holiday resorts, morphological changes are undesirable. Coastal engineering counter-measures have been undertaken to prevent beach erosion, shifting of tidal inlets, breaching of dune ridges and landward-directed washover. The natural processes and the results of human interference including the negative consequences of many of the measures are discussed in detail. The author presents the current state of research, together with the results of his own investigations. In addition, a comprehensive description of the geomorphological development and recent problems of the barrier islands from Texel to Fano is given for the first time. The book includes 40 colour photographs and 393 figures, almost all previously unpublished. Satellite and radar imagery as well as many aerial photographs are also included. The book is intended for geomorphologists, sedimentologists, environmentalists and all those with a scientific interest in tidal flats and barrier islands.

Contents: Alluvial history: Geology, groundwater hydrology, vegetation, soils & palaeoecology. Maps, figs., photos.

This is the Proceedings of the Ofan Inqua Symposium on Genesis and Lithology of Quaternary Deposits, Zurich, held on the 10-20 September 1978.

This book provides case studies and general views of the main processes involved in the ecosystem shifts occurring in the high mountains and analyses the implications for nature conservation. Case studies from the Pyrenees are preponderant, with a comprehensive set of mountain ranges surrounded by highly populated lowland areas also being considered. The introductory and closing chapters will summarise the main challenges that nature conservation may face in mountain areas under the environmental shifting conditions. Further chapters put forward approaches from environmental geography, functional ecology, biogeography, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Organisms from microbes to large carnivores, and ecosystems from lakes to forest will be considered. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to researchers in mountain ecosystems, students and nature professionals. This book is open access under a CC BY license.

This volume in the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Second Edition, brings together chapters examining water, energy, minerals and the environment in a holistic approach to land use planning and utilization. The work examines some of the problems, techniques, and solutions for managing resources so that a balance can be maintained between development and the environment. As world population increases, greater demand is placed on finite resources that earth can provide. Geographic areas once judged inadequate or inappropriate for construction, water and wastewater management, or transportation routes, among other activities, are being considered for, and being used, for development. Topics covered in this volume include impacts of natural disasters such as earthquakes and sinkholes, water and its use, overuse, and role in energy generation, and carbon sequestration. The topics covered here all play a role in development and the potential to sustain a growing world population. Interactions among system components mean that no single aspect can be addressed without including another. Environmental Geology places these different factors into perspective so that scientists, politicians, economists, planners, and stakeholders can work together to develop solutions that provide an acceptable balance between development and the environmental services on which we all depend.

If it's important for you to incorporate the scientific method into your teaching, this lab manual is the perfect fit. In every exercise there are scientific method boxes that provide students with insight into the relevance of the scientific method to the topic at hand. . The manual also includes "In Greater Depth" problems, a more challenging probe into certain issues. They are more quantitative in nature and require more in-depth, critical thinking, which is unique to this type of manual. .