Beavers are widely recognised as a keystone species which play a pivotal role in riparian ecology. Their tree felling and dam building behaviours coupled with a suite of other activities create a wealth of living opportunities that are exploited by a range of other species. Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that beaver-generated living environments that are much richer in terms of both biodiversity and biomass than wetland environments from which they are absent. Emerging contemporary studies indicate clearly that the landscapes they create can afford sustainable, cost-effective remedies for water retention, flood alleviation, silt and chemical capture. Beaver activities, especially in highly modified environments, may be challenging to certain land use activities and landowners. Many trialled and tested methods to mitigate against these impacts, including a wide range of non-lethal management techniques, are regularly implemented across Europe and North America. Many of these techniques will be new to people, especially in areas where beavers are newly re-establishing. This handbook serves to discuss both the benefits and challenges in living with this species, and collates the wide range of techniques that can be implemented to mitigate any negative impacts. The authors of this handbook are all beaver experts and together they have a broad range of scientific knowledge and practical experience regarding the ecology, captive husbandry, veterinary science, pathology, reintroduction and management of beavers in both continental Europe and Britain.

'London in the Wild is a timely opportunity to get out and explore all the wild spaces and natural places that exist alongside us. Both on your doorstep and on the other side of the river.' - Chris Packham A place of cars, concrete, lights, noise and pollution, London is a harsh, unyielding landscape created to meet the needs of people, not wildlife, but if you take the time to stop and look, you'll discover it is teeming with more than 15,000 species of flora, fungi and fauna, including marsh frogs, hedgehogs, short-eared owls and dragonflies. With London in the Wild as your guide, you can explore the city from your garden, local parks and community space, but also from its wetlands, woodlands and heaths. Along the way you'll discover the best places to see bluebells in springtime, the day-to-day life of a London Tube mouse and the activities of seals who make their home in the Thames.

When little Poppy visited the zoo, she met Tulsi, the last tiger in the world, and embarked on an unforgettable adventure. "Are you going to eat me?" asked Poppy, who had noticed a large sign saying, 'Beware of the tiger'. "Certainly not," replied the old tiger. "And, besides, I've lost my teeth," he smiled. "Can you help me find them?" Thus began a magical journey deep within the enchanted forests of India. Saba Douglas-Hamilton, Samburu National Reserve, Kenya: "Dr Chet Trivedy, has dedicated his life to improving the health of his patients. Having also turned his hand to tiger conservation, he now blends his background in medicine with his love for wildlife in this charming tale to bring some of India's less-known creatures, like the dhole and gaur, into the spotlight. Through the eyes of an elderly tiger that befriends a young girl, the reader departs on a quest to encounter some of the charismatic creatures that live in the jungles of India. Gently woven into the tales of each of these lovable characters are important lessons about the health challenges children face all over the world today, from which we can all learn." Profits from this book will go to the Tulsi Foundation www.tulsifoundation.co.uk a non-profit organisation that with the support of WCT, an Indian wildlife charity, has trained over 1,100 rangers in 14 tiger reserves across three states in Central India. Support of these staff is playing a key role in keeping Tulsi the tiger and jungle friends safe and well for generations to come.

This book summarizes current advances in our understanding of how infectious disease represents an ecological interaction between a pathogenic microorganism and the host species in which that microbe causes illness. The contributing authors explain that pathogenic microorganisms often also have broader ecological connections, which can include a natural environmental presence; possible transmission by vehicles such as air, water, and food; and interactions with other host species, including vectors for which the microbe either may or may not be pathogenic. This field of science has been dubbed disease ecology, and the chapters that examine it have been grouped into three sections. The first section introduces both the role of biological community interactions and the impact of biodiversity on infectious disease. In turn, the second section considers those diseases directly affecting humans, with a focus on waterborne and foodborne illnesses, while also examining the critical aspect of microbial biofilms. Lastly, the third section presents the ecology of infectious diseases from the perspective of their impact on mammalian livestock and wildlife as well as on humans. Given its breadth of coverage, the volume offers a valuable resource for microbial ecologists and biomedical scientists alike.

This book explores how the state can foster collective action by fisher's communities in fisheries management. It presents a different perspective from Elinor Ostrom's classic work on the eight institutional conditions that foster collective action in natural resource management and instead emphasizes the role of the state in fisheries co-management, engaging a state-centric notion of 'meta-governance'. It argues that first, the state is required to foster collective action by fishers; and secondly, that the current fisheries co-management arrangements are state-centric. The study develops these arguments through the analysis of three case studies in Japan, Vietnam and Norway. The author also makes a theoretical contribution to governance literature by developing Ostrom's 'society-centric' framework in a way which makes it more amenable to the analysis of state capacity and government intervention in a comparative context. This book will appeal to students and scholars of global governance, fisheries management, co-management, and crisis management, as well as practitioners of fisheries management.

Governance of Marine Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation explores governance of the world s oceans with a focus on the impacts of two inter-connected but historically separate streams of governance: one for fisheries, the other for biodiversity conservation. Chapters, most co-authored by leading experts from both streams, investigate the interaction of these governance streams from ecological, economic, social and legal perspectives, with emphasis on policies, institutions processes, and outcomes on scales from the global to the local community, and with coverage of a range of themes and regions of the world. The book opens with chapters setting the historical context for the two marine governance streams, and framing the book s exploration of whether, as the streams increasingly interact, there will be merger or collision, convergence or co-evolution. The concluding chapter synthesizes the insights from throughout the book, relative to the questions posed in the opening chapters. It also draws conclusions about future needs and directions in the governance of marine fisheries and biodiversity, vital to the future of the world s oceans. With cutting edge chapters written by many leading international experts in fisheries management and biodiversity conservation, and edited by three leading figures in this crucially important subject, Governance of Marine Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation is an essential purchase for fisheries scientists, economists, resource managers and policymakers, and all those working in fields of biodiversity conservation, marine ecology, and coastal livelihoods. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where environmental and/or marine studies, conservation, ocean policy and law, biological and life sciences, and fisheries management are studied and taught, should have copies of this most important book.

The aim of this book is to systematize and discuss population genetic studies of freshwater fish in a region that harbors the greatest diversity of species among all inland water ecosystems. This volume explores the genetic evaluation for a number of orders, families and species of Neotropical fishes, and provides an overview on genetic resources and diversity and their relationships with fish domestication, breeding, and food production.

This book encompasses the body of available scientific information on the notothenioid fish Pleuragramma antarctica commonly known as Antarctic silverfish. This plankton-feeder of the intermediate trophic level is the most abundant fish in the coastal regions of high Antarctica, and plays a pivotal ecological role as the main prey of top predators like seals, penguins, whales and Antarctic toothfish. Broad circum-polar distribution, a key role in the Antarctic shelf pelagic ecosystem, and adaptations makes understanding the species' likely response to environmental change relevant to foresee the potential responses at the local ecosystem level. Additionally, a detailed understanding of the abundance and trophic interactions of such a dominant keystone species is a vital element of informing the development of marine spatial planning and marine protected areas in the Antarctic continental shelf region. Experts in the field provide here unique insights into the evolutionary adaptation, eco-physiology, trophic ecology, reproductive and population ecology of the Antarctic silverfish and provide new clues about its vulnerability in facing the challenges of the ongoing environmental changes.

Many endangered species of wild animals are managed in captivity through studbooks. In this book these data-rich resources are mined in innovative, integrated and statistically tested ways to maximise information gain for conservation practice - whether for captive or released/reintroduced or managed wild populations. This book is thus an important tool for all species managers, and for students and researchers in small population biology and wildlife conservation. The book's studbook analyses are grouped in three interrelated sections: natural history, demography and genetics. Statistical tests to determine the significance of results or to compare results between subgroups are undertaken throughout. Real studbooks of a variety of species, e.g. cranes, wolverines, blesbok, illustrate the practical applications and interpretations of the analyses and statistics. The "natural history" section presents analyses to determine baseline species information such as litter size, inter-birth interval, longevity and seasonality. "Demography" covers census(-style) analyses, age-class based life tables, comparative survival analyses and population projections. Solutions for dealing with small sample sizes are included.Inbreeding depression and unconscious selection form the main focus of the "genetics" section. Survival and life table analyses are used to assess inbreeding effects. Quantitative genetics methods are applied to natural history traits as a tool to monitor genetic variation. A fourth section on "conservation" shows how data from captive populations can be used where natural history data from wild populations are missing. A real example uses studbook data to inform Population Viability Analysis. The final section deals with issues related to incomplete and missing data and statistical topics. The purpose-written open-source software programs "Population Management Library (PML)" and "studbookR" used for analyses in the book, are available at www.princee.com.

On September 9th, 2012, the Abruzzo National Park - now Abruzzo, Latium and Molise National Park - celebrated its ninetieth birthday. It is - along with the Gran Paradiso National Park - the oldest protected area in Italy and one of the oldest in Europe. The colloquium held in Pescasseroli in May 2012, on which this volume is based, reconstructed the highlights of the Park's troubled but always influential history and took stock of its connections with the other protected areas, with Italian and international environmentalism and with the Italian society at large.

This Brief discusses potential alternative sources for feeds in aquaculture fish diet, and explains that the future of aquaculture's development is dependent on the costs of fishmeal and fish oil. Considering that the increasing costs of traditional feeds constrain this development, research is looking into alternatives, which can ensure adequate nutrition for animals' growth. This work reviews the use of alternative plant, microbial and insect protein sources, evaluating in particular their impact on growth, nutrient digestibility, fillet quality traits and sensorial perception in the most important farmed marine and freshwater fish species. The Brief specifically summarizes the pros and cons of plant oils from oilseeds, which can on the one hand be a sustainable substitute for fish oil, but which are on the other hand less rich in omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. The feeding might therefore result in an undesired reduced nutritional value of the flesh of farmed fish. The authors also explore the possible use of fishery discards as potential aquaculture feed source. Since the landing of by-catch will with the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) become obligatory (instead of simply returning it to the sea, often dead), suitable uses of what must not be used for human consumption can be investigated. The authors give an outlook whether this might become a sensible alternative to improve the management of discards and create more sustainable fisheries. The Brief also addresses the issues of additives to aquafeeds, such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, but also immunostimulants and enzymes. The authors discuss which effects these additives may have on fish growth, welfare, reproduction and health status in aquacultures.

This book documents and examines the state of health of coral reefs in the eastern tropical Pacific region. It touches on the occurrence of coral reefs in the waters of surrounding countries, and it explores their biogeography, biodiversity and condition relative to the El Nino southern oscillation and human impacts. Additionally contained within is a field that presents information on many of the species presented in the preceding chapters.

'When a man plants a tree, he plants himself. Every root is an anchor, over which he rests with grateful interest, and becomes sufficiently calm to feel the joy of living.' Steep Trails encompasses a delightful mix of John Muir's essays and adventure narratives, spanning a period of twenty-nine years. The selections included in this book are varied: ranging from geological studies to stories of the people and towns he encounters throughout his exploits. As Muir expert Terry Gifford observes in the foreword, 'Most of Steep Trails' chapters are dispatches from Muir as travelling correspondent with a mixture of insights into local cultures, criticism of pollution and enthusiasm for everything wild.' Muir's refreshing philosophy of being 'at one' with nature shines through every account he details, as does his agenda for environmental activism - to treat wildness lovingly, rather than selfishly for material greed. Covering mostly the western regions of the states, California, Washington, Nevada, The Grand Canyon, Oregon and Utah; Steep Trails showcases Muir's passion continuously as he climbs mountains, bathes in lakes, and sketches his findings. Muir's classic extended metaphors and knowledgeable tone are present throughout, making for both an enjoyable and educational read. The enthusiasm contained within these pages is infectious, and as well as simply describing the beauty he sees, Muir will inspire you too, to 'go and see for yourselves' the rewards of studying the endless gift of nature: 'Surely faithful and loving skill can go no farther in putting the multitudinous decorated forms on paper. But the colours, the living, rejoicing colours, chanting morning and evening in chorus to heaven! Whose brush or pencil, however lovingly inspired, can give us these? And if paint is of no effect, what hope lies in pen-work? Only this: some may be incited by it to go and see for themselves.'