The surface of dry or wet asphalt roads reflect partially linearly polarised light, the degree of linear polarisation of which depends on the darkness and roughness of asphalt: the darker and/or the smoother the asphalt, the higher the p of light reflected from it. If the asphalt is sunlit and the direction of view is parallel to the solar-antisolar meridian, then the direction of polarisation of asphalt-reflected light is horizontal. In this case the asphalt surface can attract water-seeking aquatic insects, because they detect water by means of the horizontal polarisation of light reflected from the water surface. This phenomenon is called positive polarotaxis. This book proposes the use of these remedies on asphalt roads running near emergence sites of endangered aquatic insects, especially in the vicinity of wetlands, rivers and lakes.

Regardless of the word "balance" being used either globally or locally in any given context, it is undoubtedly the keyword in the increasing number of environmental problems. The underlined sketch is a proper introduction to the question: Why are the environmental problems being focused on now? One particular answer can be found in a hierarchy of the main scientific problems for the 21st century as seen by the community mostly consisting of physicists and biologists. According to them, in the 21st century the world of scientific community will be occupied by the problems linked to superconductivity, quantum teleology, modelling living structures and environmental problems that are primarily expressed through the problem of climate changes. A unique characteristic of these problems is their close connection with the questions of different aspects of the existence of individual human being, i.e., the questions of technological capability, origin of the consciousness and survival on the Earth. Based on own experience and knowledge of scientists, accumulated from their recent environmentally oriented projects, this book covers, for the first time, the complex field of fundamental scientific methodologies, modelling and measurements in environmental and linking sciences. The first part of the book comprises the following points: modelling transverse turbulent mixing in a shallow flow, new approaches in modelling of natural complex systems, modelling of forest-atmosphere interaction, modelling of the advection term in the equations of motion, dynamics of coupled interactions of natural complex systems, calculation of albedo over heterogeneous environmental interfaces and regional climate modelling. In the second part are considered vertical mixing schemes for chemical transport models, locating the source of air pollution using inverse modelling techniques, aggregating the albedo in mountain regions, deposition of heavy metals by moss biomonitoring technique, spectral UV radiation measurement and modelling, measurements of atmospheric ammonia over grassland and measurements evaporation over short vegetation. The third part is devoted to climate change impacts and adaptation options of vulnerable agriculture in different aspects, prediction of plant diseases appearance as well as spatial climatic analogy and adaptive knowledge transfer.

The grizzly bear, once the archetype for all that is wild, is quickly becoming a symbol of nature's fierce but flagging resilience in the face of human greed and ignorance - and the difficulty a wealth-addicted society has in changing its ways. North America's grizzlies have been under siege ever since Europeans arrived. They'd survived the arrival of spear-wielding humans 13,000 years ago, outlived the short-faced bear, the dire wolf and the sabre-tooth cat - not to mention mastodons, mammoths and giant ground sloths the size of elephants - but grizzly bears in much of Turtle Island succumbed to 375 years of unrelenting commercialisation and industrialisation, disappearing from the Great Plains and much of the mountain West. Despite their relatively successful recovery in Yellowstone National Park, the bears' decline continues largely unchecked. And the front line in this centuries-old battle for survival has shifted to western Alberta and southern BC, where outdated mythologies, rapacious industry and disingenuous governments continue to push the Great Bear into the mountains and toward a future that may not have room for them at all.

In the last two decades, as a result of the limitations of protected areas in providing habitat for many wildlife species, efforts have shifted to studying wildlife conservation in human-dominated landscapes. The present study was carried out in the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor, Costa Rica. The corridor encompasses 55 rural communities with more than 10,000 people. Deforestation and development are the main threats to biodiversity in the region. The main objective of this study was to estimate the contribution of ten habitat types: forested areas, agroforestry systems, and other human-dominated land uses on the conservation of bird species in the corridor.

National Parks (NPs) are mainly designed to protect the remaining "wilderness" of a given country and have primarily focused on the conservation of extraordinary areas or emblematic species. National parks have many roles among which "preserving nature" has become a matter of considerable social, political, economical and scientific concern. One of the major problems concerning National Parks is how to preserve their landscapes and biodiversity. While the diversity of plants and animals can be experimentally assessed, their protection involves the maintenance of their ecosystems and periodic monitoring. Any change in an environment can certainly have some effect on the plants and animals living there and so, the consequences of changes at a variety of scales is hard to predict although variations often lead to a reduction or homogenisation of animal and plant diversity. In the long run, the positive role played by National Parks for nature conservation and tourism will be maintained if we ensure that social, economic and environmental goals are closely aligned. This new important book gathers the latest research in this field.

In recent decades, there has been increased interest in applying science to the management of ecosystems. However, designing research programs that directly support conservation is never straightforward especially for research intended to support protected area conservation. A good understanding of the intensity of threats, their ramifications, and the impacts of conservation is central to conservation. This book and its complement for forests, is intended to increase understanding of what constitutes conservation research in protected areas and how it is applied.

In recent decades, there has been an increased need to understand ecosystems in order to be able to manage them for conservation and sustainable use. Yet examples of how research directly supports conservation are rare. This book examines the impact of disturbance, specifically habitat fragmentation and forest harvesting in national parks. This book also presents the results of observations of bulk deposition and its physico-chemical properties in national parks in Poland and tries to identify tendencies of change in its composition. In addition, research on Uganda's forest and savanna parks are reviewed, stimulating thinking about what kind of research is of value in guiding conservation actions. Over the past several decades, a highly polarised debate has emerged in the conservation literature about whether national parks in lesser developed countries should follow the "Yellowstone model" of strict protection or whether new types of national park should be developed. The authors of this book assess the U.S. national park experience and ways in which to balance people's needs and desires with nature protection in national parks. Other chapters in this book examine the abundance and diversity of vertebrate fauna in national parks in India, the roles of rhodolith beds and their impact in the marine national parks of the Gulf of California management, the impacts of multiple or extreme storms on national seashores, and the impact of invasive plant species on biodiversity and ecological integrity of national parks.

Between fiscal years 2002 and 2007, the refuge system experienced funding and staffing level fluctuations, the introduction of several new policy initiatives, and the increased influence of external factors such as extreme weather that threaten wildlife habitat and visitor infrastructure. Although core funding -- measured as obligations for refuge operations, maintenance, and fire management -- increased each year, inflation-adjusted core funding peaked in fiscal year 2003 at about $391 million -- 6.8 percent above fiscal year 2002 funding. Inflation-adjusted core funding ended the period 2.3 percent below peak levels, but 4.3 percent above fiscal year 2002 levels by fiscal year 2007. Core refuge staffing levels peaked in fiscal year 2004 at 3,610 full-time equivalents -- 10.0 percent above the fiscal year 2002 level -- and then declined more slowly than funding levels. By fiscal year 2007, staffing levels fell to 4.0 percent below peak levels, but 5.5 percent above fiscal year 2002 levels. Through fiscal year 2007, the number of permanent employees utilised by the refuge system declined to 7.5 percent below peak levels. During this period, refuge system officials initiated new policies that: (1) reduced staff positions and reallocated funds and staff among refuges to better align staff levels with funding; (2) required refuge staff to focus on a legislative mandate to complete refuge conservation plans by 2012; (3) shifted to constructing a larger number of smaller visitor structures, such as informational kiosks, and fewer large visitor centres to spread visitor service funds across more refuges; (4) increased the number of full-time law enforcement officers and their associated training and experience requirements; and (5) resulted in additional administrative work. During this period, external factors that complicate refuge staffs' ability to protect and restore habitat quality also increased, including severe storms and development around refuges.

In the cold waters of the unforgiving North Atlantic Ocean, some of the heartiest humans of medieval days ventured out in search of whales. Through the centuries, people on both sides of the Atlantic became increasingly dependent on whale oil and other cetacean products. To meet this growing demand, whaling became ever more sophisticated and intense, leading to the collapse of what was once a seemingly inexhaustible supply of large cetaceans. Central to the whale's subsequent struggle for existence has been one species--the North Atlantic right whale. Conservationist David W. Laist now provides the first complete history of the North Atlantic right whale, from its earliest encounters with humans to its close brush with extinction, to its currently precarious yet hopeful status as a conservation icon. Favored by whalers because of their high yields of oil and superior baleen, these giants became known as "the right whale to hunt," and their numbers dwindled to a mere 100 individuals worldwide. Their dire status encouraged the adoption of a ban on hunting and a treaty that formed the International Whaling Commission. Recovery of the species, however, has proven elusive. Ship strikes and entanglement in commercial fishing gear have hampered herculean efforts to restore the population. Today, only about 500 right whales live along the US and Canadian Atlantic coasts--an improvement from the early twentieth century, but still a far cry from the thousands that once graced Atlantic waters. Laist's masterpiece features an incredible collection of photographs and artwork that give life to the fascinating history that unfolds in its pages. The result is a single volume that offers a comprehensive understanding of North Atlantic right whales, the role they played in the many cultures that hunted them, and our modern attempts to help them recover.

The book covers the spread of conservation agriculture (CA) to regions including Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, Europe and emerging CA destinations in Asia and Africa. Topics covered include the various components of CA, and how their individual and combined implementation influence productivity, soil health and environmental quality under diverse edaphic and climatic conditions. The book will be useful to teachers, researchers, extensionists, farmers, and students interested in environmental quality.

The US National Wildlife Refuge System was created by Executive Order On March 14, 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt established the country's first wildlife refuge on Florida's central Atlantic coast C the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). From its modest beginning on Pelican Island the Refuge System has expanded into a network of over 550 distinct units that encompasses over 95 million acres. Alaska contains approximately 76.8 million acres of refuge lands, or about 80% of the land in the total system. To accomplish its mission the Refuge System finalised a strategic plan in early 2007 that contains twelve strategic outcome goals (SOGs). These goals cover the areas of habitat and wildlife conservation, wildlife dependent recreation, law 1 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997; Public Law 105 57 enforcement, fire management, welcoming and orienting visitors, wilderness management, conservation planning, infrastructure and equipment maintenance, strategic growth and organisational excellence. The Refuge System is part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which is managed by the Department of Interior.

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems, Deserts, rain forests, plains, and other areas -- including the most developed urban sites -- all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife around the world is impacted by human activities. This book examines the destruction, conservation and biodiversity of wildlife.

Following passage of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971, limits for the number of horses on each herd unit (referred to as Herd Management Areas or HMA's) were set. These limits or population goals are referred to as Appropriate Management Levels or AMLs. From 1980 and through the present, more active management reduced wild horse numbers closer to AMLs. Wild horse numbers were reduced to about 40,000 by 1999 and to about 37,186 wild horses in 2003, prior to the foaling season. Some 203 HMAs are managed by the BLM across the Western U.S. The responsibility of monitoring range conditions; allocating range resources between horses, livestock, and wildlife; monitoring horse and burro numbers and managing their population levels represents a large federal management responsibility. The number of animals in most herds are counted or estimated every three to four years, in order to plan for any gathers, and adoptions. Herd management activities, such as gathers and removals, take place for most herd areas every four years.

Understanding the factors affecting migratory bird and bat populations during all three phases of their life cycle -- breeding, non breeding, and migration -- is critical to species conservation planning. This includes the need for information about these species' responses to natural challenges, as well as information about the effects of human activities and structures. Habitats and other resources critical to migrants during passage and stopover are being destroyed, degraded, and threatened by human activities. Birds and bats are also uniquely susceptible to human use of the airspace. Wind turbines, communication and power transmission towers, and other tall structures, known to cause bird and bat mortality, are being erected or proposed in increasing numbers across the country. In addition, the potential for bird/aircraft collisions poses human safety threats. Management and regulatory agencies, conservation organisations, and industry currently lack the information they need to meet their missions and statutory responsibilities. The biological data available from various radar technologies offer a unique opportunity to learn more about the spatiotemporal distribution patterns, flight characteristics, and habitat use of "aero-fauna".

The Canadian Environment in Political Context uses a non-technical approach to introduce environmental politics to undergraduate readers. The second edition features expanded chapters on wildlife, water, pollution, land, and energy. Beginning with a brief synopsis of environmental quality across Canada, the text moves on to examine political institutions and policymaking, the history of environmentalism in Canada, and other crucial issues including Indigenous peoples and the environment, as well as Canada's North. Enhanced with case studies, key words, and a comprehensive glossary, Olive's book addresses the major environmental concerns and challenges that Canada faces in the twenty-first century.

The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also because of a power and indomitable spirit so strong, the jaguar has shaped indigenous cultures and the beliefs of early civilizations on two continents. In An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar, big-cat expert Alan Rabinowitz shares his own personal journey to conserve a species that, despite its past resilience, is now on a slide toward extinction if something is not done to preserve the pathways it prowls through an ever-changing, ever-shifting landscape dominated by humans. Rabinowitz reveals how he learned from newly available genetic data that the jaguar was a single species connected genetically throughout its entire range from Mexico to Argentina, making it unique among all other large carnivores in the world. In a mix of personal discovery and scientific inquiry, he sweeps his readers deep into the realm of the jaguar, offering fascinating accounts from the field. Enhanced with maps, tables, and colour plates, An Indomitable Beast brings important new research to life for scientists, anthropologists, and animal lovers alike. This book is not only about jaguars, but also about tenacity and survival. From the jaguar we can learn better strategies for saving other species and also how to save ourselves when faced with immediate and long-term catastrophic changes to our environment.

Beavers are represented by two extant species, the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) and the North American beaver (Castor canadensis); each has played a significant role in human history and dominated wetland ecology in the northern hemisphere. Their behaviour and ecology both fascinate and perhaps even infuriate, but seemingly never fail to amaze. Both species have followed similar histories from relentless persecution to the verge of extinction (largely through hunting), followed by their subsequent recovery and active restoration which is viewed by many as a major conservation success story. Beavers have now been reintroduced throughout Europe and North America, demonstrating that their role as a keystone engineer is now widely recognised with proven abilities to increase the complexity and biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems. What animals other than humans can simultaneously act as engineers, forest workers, carpenters, masons, creators of habitats, and nature managers? Over the last 20 years, there has been a huge increase in the number of scientific papers published on these remarkable creatures, and an authoritative synthesis is now timely. This accessible text goes beyond their natural history to describe the impacts on humans, conflict mitigation, animal husbandry, management, and conservation. Beavers: Ecology, Behaviour, Conservation, and Management is an accessible reference for a broad audience of professional academics (especially carnivore and mammalian biologists), researchers and graduate students, governmental and non-governmental wildlife bodies, and amateur natural historians intrigued by these wild animals and the extraordinary processes of nature they exemplify.

Britain is home to fifteen species of breeding birds of prey, from the hedgerow-hopping Sparrowhawk to the breathtaking White-tailed Eagle. In this handsomely illustrated book, acclaimed British filmmaker and naturalist David Cobham offers unique and deeply personal insights into Britain's birds of prey and how they are faring today. He delves into the history of these marvelous birds and talks in depth with the scientists and conservationists who are striving to safeguard them. In doing so, he profiles the writers, poets, and filmmakers who have done so much to change the public's perception of birds of prey. Thanks to popular television programs, the Victorian myth that any bird with a hooked beak is evil has been dispelled. However, although there are success stories--five birds of prey that were extinct have become reestablished with viable populations--persecution is still rife: so much so that one bird of prey, the Hen Harrier, became extinct in England as a breeding bird in 2013.

Featuring drawings by famed wildlife artist Bruce Pearson, this book reveals why we must cherish and celebrate our birds of prey, and why we neglect them at our peril. In "A Sparrowhawk's Lament," you will learn how the perfection of the double-barreled shotgun sounded a death knell for British birds of prey in the nineteenth century, how the conscription of gamekeepers during two world wars gave them a temporary reprieve, how their fortunes changed yet again with the introduction of agricultural pesticides in the 1950s, why birds of prey are vital to Britain's ecosystems and cultural heritage - and much more.

Rescuing wild animals in distress requires a unique set of skills, very different from those used in handling domestic animals. The equipment, degree of handling, the type of caging and level of care a wild animal receives can mean the difference between life and death. "Wildlife Search and Rescue" is a comprehensive guide on 'best practices' and suggested standards for response to sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. This valuable resource covers the fundamentals of wildlife rescue, from 'phone to field', including safe and successful capture strategies, handling and restraint techniques and initial aid. "Wildlife Search and Rescue" is a must have for anyone interested in knowing what to do when they are face to face with a wild animal in need, or for anyone involved in animal rescue. While the book focuses on wildlife native to North America, much of the information and many of the techniques are applicable to other species, including domestic dogs and cats.

Visit www.wiley.com/go/dmytryk/wildlifeemergency to access the figures from the book.

The Pacific Northwest is a global ecological "hotspot" because of its relatively healthy native ecosystems, a high degree of biodiversity, and the number and scope of restoration initiatives that have been undertaken there. "Restoring the Pacific Northwest" gathers and presents the best examples of state-of-the-art restoration techniques and projects. It is an encyclopaedic overview that will be an invaluable reference, not just for restorationists and students working in the Pacific Northwest, but for practitioners across North America and around the world.

The second edition of this widely cited textbook continues to provide a concise but comprehensive introduction to cave and subterranean biology, describing this fascinating habitat and its biodiversity. It covers a range of biological processes including ecosystem function, evolution and adaptation, community ecology, biogeography, and conservation. The authors draw on a global range of examples and case studies from both caves and non-cave subterranean habitats. One of the barriers to the study of subterranean biology has been the extraordinarily large number of specialized terms used by researchers; the authors explain these terms clearly and minimize the number that they use. This new edition retains the same 10 chapter structure of the original, but the content has been thoroughly revised and updated throughout to reflect the huge increase in publications concerning subterranean biology over the last decade.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) consists of 19 million acres in north-east Alaska. It is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Department of the Interior (DOI). It is a 1.5 million acre coastal plain on the North Slope of the Brooks Range that is currently viewed as one of the most likely undeveloped US onshore oil and gas prospects. According to the US Geological Survey, there is even a small chance that taken together, the fields on this federal land could hold as much economically recoverable oil as the giant field at Prudhoe Bay, found in 1967 on the coastal plain west of ANWR. That state-owned portion of the coastal plain is now estimated to have held 11-13 billion barrels of oil. The Refuge, and especially the coastal plain, is home to a wide variety of plants and animals. The presence of caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, migratory birds, and many other species in a nearly undisturbed state has led some to call the area America's 'Serengeti'. The Refuge and two neighbouring parks in Canada have been proposed for an international park, and several species found in the area (including polar bears, caribou, migratory birds, and whales) are protected by international treaties or agreements. The analysis in this book covers, first, the economic and geological factors that have triggered new interest in development, followed by the philosophical, biological, and environmental quality factors that have triggered opposition to it. The book begins with a review of the nature and issues of the ANWR.

The decision to implement environmental protection options is a political one. These, and other political and social decisions affect the balance of the ecosystem and how the point of equilibrium desired is to be reached. This book develops a stochastic, temporal model of how political processes influence and are influenced by ecosystem processes and looks at how to find the most politically feasible plan for managing an at-risk ecosystem. Finding such a plan is accomplished by first fitting a mechanistic political and ecological model to a data set composed of observations on both political actions that impact an ecosystem and variables that describe the ecosystem. The parameters of this fitted model are perturbed just enough to cause human behaviour to change so that desired ecosystem states occur. This perturbed model gives the ecosystem management plan needed to reach desired ecosystem states. To construct such a set of interacting models, topics from political science, ecology, probability, and statistics are developed and explored. Key features: * Explores politically feasible ways to manage at-risk ecosystems. * Gives agent-based models of how social groups affect ecosystems through time. * Demonstrates how to fit models of population dynamics to mixtures of wildlife data. * Presents statistical methods for fitting models of group behaviour to political action data. * Supported by an accompanying website featuring datasets and JAVA code. This book will be useful to managers and analysts working in organizations charged with finding practical ways to sustain biodiversity or the physical environment. Furthermore this book also provides a political roadmap to help lawmakers and administrators improve institutional environmental management decision making.

For all persons seriously concerned about the destruction of natural environments in the contemporary world, this book presents a comprehensive rationale for preserving wild species and ecosystems. Bryan G. Norton appeals most centrally to "transformative value," the power of human contacts with wild species to transform and uplift the human spirit. Until now species preservationists have found a theoretical basis for their policies in the "demand" value of wild species for fulfilling certain narrowly defined human needs or in controversial and badly understood proposals about the "intrinsic" values of species. This work examines such rationales and diverges from them by pointing to new sources of value for wild species: they have worth because they can transform human values.

Because of the central role of biological diversity in environmental concerns, the book also provides a fresh perspective on environmental ethics more generally. Why Preserve Natural Variety? is sponsored by the Center for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland, as was "The Preservation of Species: The Value of Biological Diversity," which was edited by Professor Norton.

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Congress enacted the Wilderness Act in 1964. It established a National Wilderness Preservation System of federal lands "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain". The act designated 54 wilderness areas containing 9.1 million acres of federal land within the national forests. It also reserved to Congress the authority to add areas to the system, although it also directed agencies to review the wilderness potential of certain lands. This book summarises the various statutory provisions and provisions on prohibited and permitted uses within wilderness areas.