The book illustrates the use of putative microbial agents which provide good protection to the plant from biotic pathogens attack. An up to date knowledge on plant-microbiome interaction strategies in terms of improved sustainability has been discussed. Information from experts across the globe on the application of microbes for providing amicable solution in sustainable agriculture has been gathered. In addition, information related to microbes mediated resistance levels leading to enhanced plant health has been well presented. The chapters have emphasised the use of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and other potential biocontrol agents/antagonists in the management of plant diseases which provide extensive information to the readers. Literature on microbial root colonization, plant growth promotions, and also on the protection of plants from attack of various soil borne pathogens have been presented in a coherent way. Information on the application of potential strain of the bio-control fungi, endophytes, actinomycetes strengthening the plants ability which rescue the plant from pathogens attack leading to improved plant health has also been underpinned.

This book summarizes the taxonomic details of selected fossil angiosperm pollen genera and species along with their affinity and occurrences in space and time. It provides information about the historical background of palynology from Palaeogene and Neogene sediments in India, general pollen morphology along with the terms commonly used in describing fossil angiosperm pollen and an overview of the Indian Tertiary sediments. A complete list of genera described in this book is given. It also includes a key for identification of Indian angiosperm genera as well as a description of selected fossil angiosperm pollen from India along with their Indian records, illustrations, locality, age and horizon from where these have been reported. In all 130 genera and 402 species have been dealt with. The names of genera and species are arranged alphabetically. The Discussion part includes a summarized account of palynofloras, their biostratigraphic application in various regions of India and their palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatic implications.

This book presents recent findings on the structure and evolution of the Southern Andes. Through a detailed description of a series of orogenic segments reviewed by the different groups that have worked with structural and geophysical tools in each area over the last several years, it illustrates the diversity of mechanisms that have impacted strong orogenic gradients and consequently mountain morphology, from the southern Pampean flat subduction zone to the southern tip of the continent (33-56 S). The book also revises our conventional understanding of the source of the different Mesozoic to Cenozoic sections exhumed in the orogenic wedge, with the objective of discussing basin mechanisms through time. A final chapter discusses probable orogenic controls that have acted together in order to explain structure, the different deformational stages and intra-orogenic extensional collapses that affected the fold and thrust belt over time.

All the solid fuels fossil energy and mineral commodities we use come out of the Earth. Modern society is increasingly dependent on mineral and fossil energy sources. They differ in availability, cost of production, and geographical distribution. Even if solid fuels, fossil energy resources and mineral commodities are non-renewable, the extracted metals can to a large extent be recycled and used again and again. Although the stock of these secondary resources and their use increases, the world still needs and will continue to need primary mineral resources for the foreseeable future. Growing demands have begun to restrict availability of these resources. The Earth is not running out of critical mineral resources - at least for the near future - but the ability to explore and extract these resources is being restricted in many regions by competing land use, as well as political and environmental issues. Extraction of natural resources requires a clear focus on sustainable development, involving economic, environmental and socio-cultural aspects. Although we do not know what the most important resources will be in 100 years from now, we can be quite certain that society will still need energy and a wide range of raw materials. These resources will include oil and gas, coal, uranium, thorium, geothermal, metallic minerals, industrial and specialty minerals, including cement, raw materials, rare-earth elements. A global approach for assessing the magnitude and future availability of these resources is called for - an approach that, with appropriate international collaboration, was started within the triennium of the International Year of Planet Earth. Some global mineral resource assessments, involving inter-governmental collaboration, have already been initiated. The International Year of Planet Earth helped to focus attention on how the geosciences can generate prosperity locally and globally, as well as sustainability issues in both developed and developing countries.

In 1988, in an article on the analysis of the measurements of the variations in the radial velocities of a number of stars, Campbell, Walker, and Yang reported an - teresting phenomenon;the radial velocity variations of Cephei seemed to suggest the existence of a Jupiter-like planet around this star. This was a very exciting and, at the same time, very surprising discovery. It was exciting because if true, it would have marked the detection of the ?rst planet outside of our solar system. It was surprising because the planet-hosting star is the primary of a binary system with a separation less than 19 AU, a distance comparable to the planetary distances in our solar system. The moderatelyclose orbit of the stellar companionof Cephei raised questions about the reality of its planet. The skepticism over the interpretation of the results (which was primarily based on the idea that binary star systems with small sepa- tions would not be favorable places for planet formation) became so strong that in a subsequent paper in 1992, Walker and his colleagues suggested that the planet in the Cephei binary might not be real, and the variations in the radial velocity of this star might have been due to its chromospheric activities.

This text outlines the fundamentals required to understand the science of thermodynamics and provides a comprehensive and balanced coverage of the application of thermodynamics in geochemistry.

Geophysics operations in archaeology have become well known through exposure on television. However, the technique is presented as the action of specialists and something of a mystery, where people walk about with strange contraptions, and results appear from a computer. This is not the case, however. Some scientific knowledge is needed in order to understand how the machines work and what they detect but otherwise it is only necessary to know how to handle the instruments, how to survey a field and how to interpret the computer results. This book provides all the relevant information. It explains geophysics operations in archaeology, describes the science that gives the soil properties to measure and the means by which the instruments make their measurements.

Dr John Oswin is in charge of the geophysics operation of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society and his work has recently been the subject of a television programme. He has taught many students how to use geophysical equipment.

This book examines in detail the entire process involved in implementing geotechnical projects, from a well-defined initial stress and deformation state, to the completion of the installation process. The individual chapters provide the fundamental knowledge needed to effectively improve soil-structure interaction models. Further, they present the results of theoretical fundamental research on suitable constitutive models, contact formulations, and efficient numerical implementations and algorithms. Applications of fundamental research on boundary value problems are also considered in order to improve the implementation of the theoretical models developed. Subsequent chapters highlight parametric studies of the respective geotechnical installation process, as well as elementary and large-scale model tests under well-defined conditions, in order to identify the most essential parameters for optimizing the process. The book provides suitable methods for simulating boundary value problems in connection with geotechnical installation processes, offering reliable predictions for the deformation behavior of structures in static contexts or dynamic interaction with the soil.

In any ecosystem, plant and microbe interaction is inevitable. They not only co-exist but also support each other's survival and also provide for sustenance in stressful environment. Agro-ecosystems of many regions around the globe are affected by multi-stress. Major limiting factors affecting the agricultural productivity worldwide are environmental stresses. Apart from decreasing yield they introduce devastating impact on plant growth as well. Plants battle with various kind of stresses with the help of symbiotic association with the microbes in the rhizosphere. Naturally existing plant-microbe interaction facilitates survival of plants under these stressful conditions. Rhizosphere consists of many groups of microbes, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) is one such group of microbes which assist plants in coping with multiple stresses and in plant growth as well. These microbes help in stress physiology of the plants and can be extremely useful in solving agricultural as well food security problems. The proposed book is split into two parts, with an aim to provide comprehensive description and highlight a holistic approach. It elucidates various mechanisms in rhizosphere of nutrient management, stress tolerance and enhanced crop productivity. The book discusses rhizospheric flora and its importance in enhancement of plant growth, nutrient content, yield of various crops and vegetables as well as soil fertility and health. Both volumes of the book addresses fundamentals, applications as well as research trends and new prospects of agricultural sustainability. Volume 2: Nutrient Management and Crop Improvement, contains chapters which cover a broad overview of plant growth promoting activities of microbes. This proposed book also highlights the contribution of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron and zinc-solubilizing microbes from rhizospheric soil to develop efficient indigenous microbial consortia to enhance the food and nutritional security. With the given content and layout the proposed book will be an all-inclusive collection of information, which will be useful for students, academicians, researchers working in the field of rhizospheric mechanisms, agricultural microbiology, soil microbiology, biotechnology, agronomy and sustainable agriculture and also for policy makers in the area of food security and sustainable agriculture. It will be of special interest to both academics and professionals working in the fields of microbiology, soil microbiology, biotechnology and agronomy, as well as the plant protection sciences. Timely, this edited and research book provides an essential and comprehensive source of material from basic to advance findings on microbes and their role in agricultural and soil sustainability.

The book contains high-quality research papers presented at Sixth International Conference on Solid Waste Management held at Jadavpur University, Kolkata India during November 23-26, 2016. The Conference, IconSWM 2016, is organized by Centre for Quality Management System, Jadavpur University in association with premier institutes and societies of India. The researchers from more than 30 countries presented their work in Solid Waste Management. The book is divided into two volumes and deliberates on various issues related to innovation and implementation in sustainable waste management, segregation, collection, transportation of waste, treatment technology, policy and strategies, energy recovery, life cycle analysis, climate change, research and business opportunities.

This book describes the application of modern information technology to reservoir modeling and well management in shale. While covering Shale Analytics, it focuses on reservoir modeling and production management of shale plays, since conventional reservoir and production modeling techniques do not perform well in this environment. Topics covered include tools for analysis, predictive modeling and optimization of production from shale in the presence of massive multi-cluster, multi-stage hydraulic fractures. Given the fact that the physics of storage and fluid flow in shale are not well-understood and well-defined, Shale Analytics avoids making simplifying assumptions and concentrates on facts (Hard Data - Field Measurements) to reach conclusions. Also discussed are important insights into understanding completion practices and re-frac candidate selection and design. The flexibility and power of the technique is demonstrated in numerous real-world situations.

There are several books on properties of chitin and associated biomolecules and their biochemical significance. However, the present volume deals with a wide variety of biogeochemical and organic geochemical aspects of this vital macromolecule written by leading authors and experts in the field. Each chapter is carefully peer reviewed and is an updated account of recent research in isotopic, nanostructural, biochemical, microstructural, geochemical, paleontological and experimental aspects of chitin formation, distribution and preservation in the environment and earth history.

In an effort to implement conservation measures farmers have used a variety of production methods, including the use of reduced or zero tillage and cover crops. One benefit of these production methods has been early season weed control. The literature suggests that a variety of mechanisms may be involved, among them the allelopathic effects of phenolic acids. This retrospective analysis addresses the following: How likely are phenolic acid concentrations and environmental conditions in wheat no-till cropping systems for the inhibition of annual broadleaf weed emergence? and Do phenolic acids have a dominant role or are they just one component of a larger promoter/modifier/inhibitor complex? The book covers allelopathic plant-plant interactions, laboratory and field experiments, and future research. It uses a journal format, provides justifications for procedures used, if-then hypotheses, and cons and pros so that readers can reach their own conclusions.

This book includes a collection of chapters illustrating the application of geochemical methods to investigate the interactions between geological materials and fluids with humans. Examples include the incorporation and human health effects of inhaling lithogenic materials, the reactivity of biological fluids with geological materials, and the impact on nascent biomineral formation. Biomineralization is investigated in terms of mineralogy, morphology, bone chemistry, and pathological significance with a focus on the health impacts of "foreign" geological/environmental trace element incorporation. One of the contribution is devoted to particulate matter, the presence of metals and metalloids in the environment, and the possibility of using human hair as a biomarker between environmental/geological exposure and human bioincorporation. Other chapters focus on the last advances on the analytical methods and instrumentational approaches to investigating the chemistry of biological fluids and tissues.

This book offers a cross disciplinary treatment of the rapidly growing field of integrated approaches in risk assessment in mountainous areas. All major aspects related to hazard and risk assessment, risk management, and governance are illustrated with a wide range of case studies. The first part of the book focuses on new techniques for assessing the natural hazards of different types of mass movements. State-of-the-art techniques for morphological characterization and monitoring of displacements are described. Computational advances are covered to explain the process systems and to quantify the hazards of fast and slow-moving landslides. In the second part of the book methodologies are included for assessing the impact of these natural hazards on the society in terms of risks. In this part, methodologies for defining the vulnerability of the elements at risk are shown and the use of run-out models for risk assessment of the dangerous rapid mass movements are evaluated. The third part of the book focuses on the response of society towards the problems of hazard and risk. It highlights the role of spatial planning, early warning systems and evacuation plans for risk management. It establishes practical thresholds for acceptable and tolerable risks and emphasizes the importance of education and communication to society. Audience The book is of interest to a wide range of experts from related disciplines, practitioners and stakeholders to demonstrate the importance of an integrated approach for all aspects of risks in mountainous areas.

Chemical additives are used to enhance the properties of many industrial products. Since their release into the environment is a potential risk for man and nature, their fate and behavior have been investigated in the framework of the European Union-funded project RISKCYCLE. The results are presented in two volumes, Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives I: Production, Usage and Environmental Occurrence and Global Risk-Based Management of Chemical Additives II: Risk-Based Assessment and Management Strategies. This book is the second of the two volumes and features two main parts. In the first part, experts in the field discuss different models related to the assessment of the potential risks posed by chemical additives and analyze their benefits and drawbacks. In the second part, specific case studies in which the models have been applied are presented and the reliability of the models is evaluated. This volume is an invaluable source of information for scientists and governmental agencies dealing with the risk assessment of chemicals on a global scale.

Global Change studies are increasingly being considered a vital source of information to understand the Earth Environment, in particular in the framework of human-induced climate change and land use transformation. Satellite Earth Observing systems provide a unique tool to monitor those changes. While the range of applications and innovative techniques is constantly increasing, this book provides a summary of key case studies where satellite data offer critical information to understand the causes and effects of those environmental changes, minimizing their negative impacts. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of remote sensing, geographical information, meteorology and environmental sciences. Also scientists and graduate up to post-graduate level students in environmental science will find valuable information in this book.

The disturbance of soils, like other phenomena of environmental pollution, encountered in so many areas all over the world, has become a subject of extensive concern and has led to a vast amount of literature in the field of enzymology, too.
The book is the first comprehensive and updated review of the enzymological literature on three great categories of disturbed soils, including their remediation. The volume consists of three sections: I. Enzymology of oil-contaminated soils; II. Enzymology of soils affected by industrial emissions; and III, enzymology of technogenic soils. Within each section the reviewed studies are grouped by country.
The volume will be of great value to soil scientists, environmental scientists, conservationists, and many other scientists in these and related fields.

In arid and semi-arid areas, the main contributions to land surface processes are precipitation, surface evaporation and surface energy balancing. In the close-to-surface layer and root-zone layer, vapor flux is the dominant flux controlling these processes - process which, in turn, influence the local climate pattern and the local ecosystem. The work reported in this thesis attempts to understand how the soil airflow affects the vapor transport during evaporation processes, by using a two-phase heat and mass transfer model. The necessity of including the airflow mechanism in land surface process studies is discussed and highlighted.

This book is dedicated to the occurrence and behaviour of PHEs in the different compartments of the environment, with special reference to soil. Current studies of PHEs in ecosystems have indicated that many industrial areas near urban agglomerates, abandoned or active mines, major road systems and ultimately also agricultural land act as sources and at the same time sinks, of PHEs and large amounts of metals are recycled or dispersed in the environment, posing severe concerns to human health.

Thanks to the collaboration of numerous colleagues, the book outlines the state of art in PHEs research in several countries and is enforced with case studies andenriched with new data, not published elsewhere. The book will provide to Stakeholders (both Scientists Professionals and Public Administrators) and also to non-specialists a lot of data on the concentrations of metals in soils and the environment and the critical levels so far established, in the perspective to improve the environmental quality and the human safety."

During the past years, Saudi Arabia has been affected by particularly severe torrential rains and floods. This book presents an in-depth and all-encompassing study on the floods that occurred in the Jeddah area in 2009 and 2011, including water-flow mechanisms, state-of-the-art techniques for flood assessment, flood control and appropriate management approaches. It highlights a number of methods and concepts that can be applied in similar areas in Saudi Arabia in order to reduce and mitigate the impact of torrential rains and floods.

The establishment of relationships between sediment composition and climatic - vironment in the sediment basin and subsequent evolution of climate relates to the classical problems of fundamental sedimentology. The widely known publications by the Russian academicians N. M. Strakhov, A. B. Ronov, and A. P. Lisitsin are dedicated to different aspects of this problem. In particular, the monograph p- lished by A. P. Lisitsin "Sea-ice and iceberg sedimentation in the Ocean: recent and past" (Lisitsin, 2002) closely corresponds to the issues examined in this book. This monograph discusses in detail the environments and means of accumulations of recent marine and oceanic sediments in the ice zone of sedimentation of the Ocean, however, much less attention is given to the history of ice sedimentation, especially to high-resolution paleoceanography. In the present work the authors accepted the following basic principles: 1. StudynotonlyoftheArctic, butalsooftheSubarctic, especiallyofthoseregions, where there were conducted the original studies by the authors. 2. Study of climatic history in uence ( rst of all, - the glaciation evolution of NorthernHemisphere)on sedimentationforthe last 130ka (MIS5e - MIS1)not only in the marine periglacial environment (term of G. G. Matishov), but also in the deep water areas and on the adjacent continental blocks. 3. Imperative description of recent sedimentation environment for subsequent - plication of the comparative-lithologicalmethod. 4. Detailed consideration of accessible stratigraphic and geo-chronometricdata for partition and correlation of various sedimentary facies. Some of the above-mentionedprinciples require further explanation.

Water Relations of Plants and Soils, successor to the seminal 1983 book by Paul Kramer, covers the entire field of water relations using current concepts and consistent terminology. Emphasis is on the interdependence of processes, including rate of water absorption, rate of transpiration, resistance to water flow into roots, soil factors affecting water availability. New trends in the field, such as the consideration of roots (rather than leaves) as the primary sensors of water stress, are examined in detail.
Key Features
* Addresses the role of water in the whole range of plant activities
* Describes molecular mechanisms of water action in the context of whole plants
* Synthesizes recent scientific findings
* Relates current concepts to agriculture and ecology
* Provides a summary of methods

Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) provide us with a flexible tool to combat global warming through conserving energy while utilizing natural renewable energy resources. Primarily, they act as a buffer to balance fluctuations in supply and demand of low temperature thermal energy. "Underground Thermal Energy Storage "provides an comprehensive introduction to the extensively-used energy storage method.

"Underground Thermal Energy Storage" gives a general overview of UTES from basic concepts and classifications to operation regimes. As well as discussing general procedures for design and construction, thermo-hydro geological modeling of UTES systems is explained. Finally, current real life data and statistics are include to summarize major global developments in UTES over the past decades.

The concise style and thorough coverage makes "Underground Thermal Energy Storage" a solid introduction for students, engineers and geologists alike.

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