![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > General
This book presents a comprehensive typology and a comprehensible description of spatiotemporal models used in population dynamics. The main types included are: reaction-diffusion systems, patch models, matapopulation approaches, host parasitoid models, cellular automata (interacting particle systems), tessellations and distance models. The models are introduced through examples and with informative verbal explanations to help understanding. Some of the cellular automation examples are models not yet published elsewhere. Possible extensions of certain model types are suggested.
This proceedings volume examines leadership from the perspectives of business, economics, social sciences, cross-cultural management, and education as a means to establish a future of sustainable development. Featuring contributions from the 2017 Prague Institute for Qualification Enhancement (PRIZK) and International Research Centre (IRC) "Scientific Cooperation" International Conference held in the Czech Republic, this volume focuses particularly on business models and higher education schemes from BRICS nations and examines topics such as social and educational practices, academic policies and business development. Leadership is becoming a key element for the future sustainable development of business and education in the quickly globalizing world. In this regard, a special emphasis should be made on the formation of high-quality human resources-the leading experts in their field who will create innovations and introduce breakthrough technologies. The development of a creative economy and knowledge economy requires highly-educated human capital, thus education becomes a key element of this process. Education must keep pace with time, be competitive, and stay in touch with the process of technology. The enclosed papers identify the key steps for sustainable growth and development in business and education. Featuring contributions on theory and practice, this book is appropriate for academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners in the areas of business, leadership management, entrepreneurship, innovation and education.
Regions with Mediterranean-type climates include parts of
California, South America, Australia, and of course, Europe. The
effect of global climate change on these heavily populated areas
will have major social and political ramifications.
From its inception, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been charged with a conflicting mission. One set of statutes demands that the department must develop America's lands, that it get our trees, water, oil, and minerals out into the marketplace. Yet an opposing set of laws orders us to conserve these same resources, to preserve them for the long term and to consider the noncommodity values of our public landscape. That dichotomy, between rapid exploitation and long-term protection, demands what I see as the most significant policy departure of my tenure in office: the use of science-interdisciplinary science-as the primary basis for land management decisions. For more than a century, that has not been the case. Instead, we have managed this dichotomy by compartmentalizing the American landscape. Congress and my predecessors handled resource conflicts by drawing enclosures: "We'll create a national park here," they said, "and we'll put a wildlife refuge over there." Simple enough, as far as protection goes. And outside those protected areas, the message was equally simplistic: "Y'all come and get it. Have at it." The nature and the pace of the resource extraction was not at issue; if you could find it, it was yours.
Climate change is not only one of the greatest threats to modern civilization; it is also a great challenge to economic development in the 21st century. Global warming can lead to periods of both drought and intense rain, causing crops to fail and ruining the livelihoods of many in underdeveloped countries. The Handbook of Research on Climate Change Impact on Health and Environmental Sustainability is an authoritative reference source that offers a comprehensive and timely analysis of various aspects of global warming and its consequences. Featuring such topics as assessment of and adaption to climate change, water and its socio-economic impact, the environmental effects of climate change on human health, and the mitigation of climate change on both a local and global level, this expansive handbook is an essential reference source for students, researchers, academicians, engineers, government executives, and other practitioners looking to make a difference in the treatment of our environment. This publication features timely research on subjects including, but not limited to, climate change and its effect on both urbanization and the trade competitiveness of different regions, water-related diseases flourishing due to climate change, health risks and rethinking health service provision, losses from natural disasters, farmers' views on the environment, drought management policies, groundwater resource management, trends in long-term rainfall, fishery management and productivity, preserving biodiversity, and sustainable forest use.
Because marine governance in most countries is sectoral, maritime policies are frequently fragmented, reactive, and even contradictory, meaning that marine resources are underutilized and poorly protected. To avoid these problems, the concept of integrated national maritime policy (INMP) has been developed. This book examines this concept, analysing its current application in four countries Australia, Canada, UK and USA whilst discussing at length how it might be applied to Saudi Arabia. Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in Saudi Arabia including interviews with officials in government departments with maritime responsibilities, and a survey administered to 230 stakeholders the book offers a unique insight into INMP in the Kingdom. The book provides a practical template for developing the political will and civil constituency in Saudi Arabia necessary for the introduction of INMP. In setting out in detail its benefits, this book could help build the momentum in Saudi Arabia required to implement the concept as well as attract other countries to do the same. A significant contribution to the growing literature on ocean governance, this book will be of great importance to policy makers and scholars of Middle Eastern studies, marine governance and comparative politics.
The first book to chronicle how innovation in laboratory designs for botanical research energized the emergence of physiological plant ecology as a vibrant subdiscipline  Laboratory innovation since the mid-twentieth century has powered advances in the study of plant adaptation, evolution, and ecosystem function. The phytotron, an integrated complex of controlled-environment greenhouse and laboratory spaces, invented by Frits W. Went in the 1950s, set off a worldwide laboratory movement and transformed the plant sciences. Sharon Kingsland explores this revolution through a comparative study of work in the United States, France, Australia, Israel, the USSR, and Hungary.  These advances in botanical research energized physiological plant ecology. Case studies explore the development of phytotron spinoffs such as mobile laboratories, rhizotrons, and ecotrons. Scientific problems include the significance of plant emissions of volatile organic compounds, symbiosis between plants and soil fungi, and the discovery of new pathways for photosynthesis as an adaptation to hot, dry climates. The advancement of knowledge through synthesis is a running theme: linking disciplines, combining laboratory and field research, and moving across ecological scales from leaf to ecosystem. The book also charts the history of modern scientific responses to the emerging crisis of food insecurity in the era of global warming.
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology attempts to provide concise, critical reviews of timely advances, philosophy, and significant areas of accomplished or needed endeavor in the total field of xenobiotics in any segment of the environment, as well as toxicological implications.
This book describes the outstanding features of the ecology and bio geography of the Indian region, comprising former British India, Nepal, Bhutan, Ceylon and Burma. It summarizes the results of nearly four decades' studies and field explorations and discussions with students on the distribution of plants and animals, practically throughout this vast area and on the underlying factors. A number of specialists in geology, meteorology, botany, zoology, ecology and anthropology have also actively collaborated with me and have contributed valuable chapters in their respective fields. India has an exceptionally rich and highly diversified flora and fauna, exhibiting complex composition, character and affinities. Although the fauna of the Indian region as a whole is less completely known than its flora, we are nevertheless fairly well acquainted with at least the salient features of its faunal characters to enable us to present a meaningful discussion on some of the outstanding peculiarities of the biogeography of India. A general synthesis of the available, though much scattered, information should prove useful to future students of biogeography throughout the world."
The United States Forest Service, perhaps more than any other federal agency, has made great strides during the past two decades revolution izing its public involvement efforts and reshaping its profile through the hiring of professionals in many disciplinary areas long absent in the agency. In fact, to a large extent, the agency has been doing precisely what everyone has been clamoring for it to do: involving the public more in its decisions; hiring more wildlife biologists, recreation specialists, sociologists, planners, and individuals with "people skills"; and, fur thermore, taking a more comprehensive and long-term view in planning the future of the national forests. The result has been significant-in some ways, monumental-changes in the agency and its land manage ment practices. There are provisions for public input in almost all as pects of national forest management today. The profeSSional disciplines represented throughout the agency's ranks are markedly more diverse than they have ever been. Moreover, no stone is left untumed in the agency's current forest-planning effort, undoubtedly the most compre hensive, interdisciplinary planning effort ever undertaken by a resource agency in the United States. Regardless of the dramatic change that has occurred in the U. S. Forest Service since the early 1970s, the agency is still plagued by con flicts arising from dissatisfaction th how it is doing business."
The first edition of the widely praised Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, published in 2005, led to numerous new marine protected area proposals and a number of notable conservation successes around the world. In this completely revised and expanded second edition, new developments in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific are described, as well as future directions for High Seas protection. New sections show how to design and manage Marine Protected Areas (MPA's) in an ever noisier ocean subject to climate change, increased shipping and hydrocarbon exploration. The process of protected area creation for cetaceans has been accelerated and more than 200 exciting new places are detailed in this edition. This book provides a route map for MPA managers, as well as countries, to meet the ambitious targets for highly protected MPA networks by 2012 and 2020. Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is a key conservation tool and a springboard for worldwide change in human attitudes toward the world ocean where all life originated and where the majority of life on Earth still lives.
During the last 10 years, there has been a revolution' in ecosystem modelling. The generality and predictive power of our models have increased in a way that was inconceivable 10 years ago. This book describes a new generation of practically useful models that predict as well as one can measure - if one measures well. And yet, they are driven by readily available driving variables and have a general structure that applies to most types of pollutants in aquatic systems. The major reason for this development is, in fact, the Chernobyl accident. Large quantities of radiocesium were released in April/May 1986 as a pulse. To follow the pulse of radiocesium through ecosystem pathways has meant that important fluxes and mechanisms, i.e., ecosystem structures, have been revealed. It is important to stress that many of these new structures and equations are valid not just for radiocesium, but for most types of contaminants, e.g. for metals, nutrients and organics. This means that the models, methods (of building and testing models) and equations described in this book for lakes and coastal areas should be of great interest also to other ecosystem modellers. This book will be of considerable interest to: students in radioecology, geosciences and biology; environmental engineers; consultants; administrators and scientists interested in the spread, biouptake and ecosystem effects of chemical pollutants in aquatic ecosystems.
Ecological Significance of Riparian Ecosystems: Challenges and Management Strategies examines the current issues related to river ecosystems, their environmental importance, pollution issues and potential management strategies. The book is divided into 4 key themes: Basics of river ecosystem, Natural phenomenon of river ecosystem, Human-induced problems of river ecosystem, and Management measures for the river ecosystem. Through these four themes, the contributors present both practical and theoretical aspects of river ecosystem in changing climate. An emphasis has been made on the recent research of climate change and its impact on the river ecosystem. River ecosystems have tremendous potential to store CO2, however, with changing climatic and anthropogenic activities, these habitats are under threat, and river ecosystems are losing the very vital service of storing carbon. Unlike well documented terrestrial biodiversity, the biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems is still unrecognized to some extent.
Biological homogenization is the dominant process shaping the future global biosphere. As global transportation becomes faster and more frequent, it is inevitable that biotic intermixing will increase. Unique local biotas will become extinct only to be replaced by already widespread biotas that can tolerate human activities. This process is affecting all aspects of our world: language, economies, and ecosystems alike. The ultimate outcome is the loss of uniqueness and the growth of uniformity. In this way, fast food restaurants exist in Moscow and Java Sparrows breed on Hawaii. Biological homogenization qualifies as a global environmental catastrophe. The Earth has never witnessed such a broad and complete reorganization of species distributions.
The African lakes are an extremely important ecosystem and the subject of much study relating to species introductions and loss of biodiversity. This book provides a thorough review of the whole subject and will be of great interest to fish biologists, fisheries workers, ecologists, environmental scientists and conservationists.
Mercier looks at the environmental movement from an in-depth international perspective and seeks to analyze the spectrum of positions taken. He shows how the movement is an enduring one, and he demonstrates how it is intimately related to the development of media and to fundamental social and institutional trends of our time. Although environmentalists and sociologists have an often bewildering variety of positions and theories, some being incompatible with others, they share commom values. Mercier offers the image of the protoplasm, the viscous matter that surrounds the living cell, as a metaphor to explore these values. Although environmentalists and ecologists all over the globe share certain basic goals-less consumption, less waste, less energy use-there is a bewildering variety of ideas, concepts, and theories, some incompatible with others, that is associated with the movement. Indeed, one might more accurately think of a series of movements rather than one movement. Mercier divides the movement into downstream ecologists-sometimes called environmentalists-who are essentially concerned about the quality of the air, the water, and the soil, and the upstream ecologists, who essentially believe that the deterioration of the quality of the air, water, and soil is a symptom of some larger (upstream) phenomenon. The upstream ecologists, in turn, are divided into subgroups, among them the Social Ecologists, who are the inheritors of the traditional positions of the left, and the Deep Ecologists, who attribute the state of the environment to a modern, excessively specialized and segmented outlook that eventually leads to a loss of sensitivity and a disregard for nature and our environment. Using the image of the protoplasm, the viscous matter that contains the living cell, Mercier concludes by relating these and other patterns to a postmodern aesthetic which, itself, is strongly influenced by our changing communication environment. A major analysis that will be of importance to policymakers, scholars, and researchers involved with environmental issues and contemporary social patterns that go beyond the environment per se.
The use of environmentally safe products is an emerging and popular trend throughout various industries. Product manufacturing and sales has changed in order to incorporate green initiatives that will appeal to this fast-growing market. Driving Green Consumerism Through Strategic Sustainability Marketing is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the latest trends of consumerism and its effect and implications on the environment. Featuring coverage on topics and perspectives such as nutricosmetic products, green marketing, and animal products, this publication is ideal for those interested in aspects of green consumerism.
Proceedings of the ISPRA Course held at Ispra, Italy, October 22-26, 1979
This edited series has three principal goals. The first is to provide information in a relatively concise way for researchers needing an over view of specific disciplines. The second is to provide an update on specific schools of thought, bringing together ideas from colleagues whose works often appear in a variety of journals. And the third is to stimulate and suggest directions for new research. Volume 6 continues the tradition established by the previous editor and editorial board in providing new information, updating our understanding of specific dis ciplines, and stimulating new research. In the first chapter, Randall Breitwisch examines mortality patterns and sex ratios in monogamous birds. He argues that there are many more components to measuring parental investment than are often re alized; our knowledge is weak in several areas. Understanding the evo lution of mating systems depends on better distinguishing the different intensities of natural selection that operate on males and females. Greg ory Butcher and Sievert Rohwer develop a framework for assessing the role of colorfulness in birds. They propose several hypotheses to test and advocate evaluating more than one hypothesis at a time. Future work on the evolution of distinctive coloration and of sexual and age dimorphism must take these ideas into account."
Eco-labelling is an increasingly popular way of meeting consumer's demands for environmental information about the products they purchase. The first book on this important subject collects contributions from the academic, policy-making and commercial spheres to look at the conceptual and practical issues, and to discuss how eco-labelling can be made effective and equitable, and must avoid distorting international trade to the detriment of developing countries.
A multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach is employed to identify principal ecosystems and natural resources in the U.S. Great Plains that are at risk and that should receive priority for protection. The authors are drawn from a variety of disciplines and approaches, their ideas being presented as a pooling or harvest, rather than as a consensus. The 25 chapters provide background and in-depth discussion of multiple issues/problems related to Great Plains stewardship for future generations. The status and trends of major resources of the Great Plains within an historical, ecological and management framework are categorized according to common goals across the disciplines and can be used to make recommendations for public policy, research and development, and institutions. The challenge for residents of the Great Plains is to merge multiple ecosystem concepts to improve the environment and to improve economic vitality.
This volume explores intergenerational practices and their impact on social sustainability, with an emphasis on developing programmatic efforts to address profound social challenges such as underperforming educational and work-related systems, failing support systems for dependent or vulnerable populations, and community renewal and regeneration efforts. To this end, the core argument is to present issues related to age, aging, and generations, not only as problems, but as catalysts to facilitate improved quality of life for all generations. For societies to be sustainable, all generations must coexist at any given time and across time (non-contemporary generations). Hence, the ultimate vision presented here is one of intergenerational sustainability as both a conceptual tool and as a call for action. Intergenerational pathways are introduced as strategies for improving health and well-being across the lifespan, strengthening families, improving under-performing educational and work-related systems, and helping to build more cohesive, caring communities. Reviewing some of the historical factors and developments influencing intergenerational studies, as well as presenting regional case studies and comparative research, this book presents successful models that may be applied to everyday multigenerational practices in institutions such as education, family life, housing, healthcare, employment, and community development. The result is an accessible resource for students, academics, policymakers, community leaders, and citizens concerned with creating opportunities amidst challenging demographic and social changes.
Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) have witnessed great upheaval and change over the last decade and a half - from the global economic recession of 2008, the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes in Haiti, to hurricanes that devastated islands like Jamaica, Barbuda, Dominica and The Bahamas, volcanic eruptions, and health crises. These events are reminders of how vulnerable Caribbean SIDS are to external and internal shocks; today Caribbean SIDS are grappling with how to restart their economies and embrace a "new normal" in the wake of disasters and the sharp losses in tourism. Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism examines the resilience of Caribbean SIDS and their tourism industries from the perspectives of culture, economy, environment, politics, psychology, social justice, and socio-historical context. Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism's broad-based topics engage scholars, students, and the public in discourse regarding Caribbean SIDS' resilient Island economies that, facing calamity, implement new initiatives to forge environmentally sound policies for sustainable tourism and hospitality development.
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology publishes authoritative reviews on the occurrence, effects, and fate of pesticide residues and other environmental contaminants. It will keep you informed of the latest significant issues by providing in-depth information in the areas of analytical chemistry, agricultural microbiology, biochemistry, human and veterinary medicine, toxicology, and food technology. |
You may like...
Encyclopedia of Inland Waters
Thomas Mehner, Klement Tockner
Hardcover
R43,277
Discovery Miles 432 770
The Politics of Energy Crises
Eric R.A.N. Smith, Juliet E. Carlisle, …
Hardcover
R3,563
Discovery Miles 35 630
Networks of Invasion: Empirical Evidence…
David Bohan, Alex Dumbrell, …
Hardcover
R4,995
Discovery Miles 49 950
Insect-Plant Biology
Louis M. Schoonhoven, Joop J. A. van Loon, …
Hardcover
R5,238
Discovery Miles 52 380
Next Generation Biomonitoring: Part 2…
David Bohan, Alex Dumbrell, …
Hardcover
R4,690
Discovery Miles 46 900
Worldviews and Ecology - Religion…
Mary E. Tucker, John A. Grim
Paperback
|