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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > The hydrosphere > Hydrology (freshwater)
The dynamics of water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles so critical to mankind's well-being reflect the complex interaction of atmospheric, biological, geochemical, and hydrological factors. Written by an interdisciplinary team of biologists, hydrologists, and atmospheric scientists, this important text critically reviews the experimental, observational, and modeling approaches that have been used to describe biosphere-hydrosphere-atmosphere interactions, especially with regard to feedback controls. They examine how these modeling approaches can be used to determine which types of systems descriptions most help evaluate the effects of a particular landscape structure. The book also discusses: landscape function determined by remote sensing; ecosystem function affected by hydrological lateral flows; and the role of temporal and spatial ecosystem dynamics.
Gravel-Bed Rivers: Processes, Tools, Environments presents a definitive review of current knowledge of gravel-bed rivers, derived from the 7 th International Gravel-bed Rivers Workshop, the 5-yearly meeting of the world s leading authorities in the field. Each chapter in the book has been specifically commissioned to represent areas in which recent progress has been made in the field. The topics covered also represent a coherent progression through the principal areas of the subject (hydraulics; sediment transport; river morphology; tools and methods; applications of science). * Definitive review of the current knowledge of gravel-bed rivers * Coverage of both fundamental and applied topics * Edited by leading academics with contributions from key researchers * Thoroughly edited for quality and consistency to provide coherent and logical progression through the principal areas of the subject.
Formed by the confluence of the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers, the
Altamaha is the largest free-flowing river on the East Coast and
drains its third-largest watershed. It has been designated as one
of the Nature Conservancy's seventy-five Last Great Places because
of its unique character and rich natural diversity. In evocative
photography and elegant prose, "Altamaha" captures the distinctive
beauty of this river and offers a portrait of the man who has
become its improbable guardian.
Touching all parts of the natural environment and nearly all aspects of human culture, streams and rivers act as centers of organization within landscapes. They provide natural resources such as fish and clean water, transportation, energy, diffusion of wastes, and recreation. Today, with unprecedented demands on streams and rivers by an exponentially increasing human population, a basic ecological understanding of the structure and dynamics of running waters is essential for formulating sound management and policy decisions. The vast Pacific coastal ecoregion of the United States contains an extraordinary array of physical settings and examples of the range of dynamics associated with rivers and their management. The interface between the science and policy of natural resource management is illustrated by examples from this ecoregion, including the protection of riparian forest, the marbled murrelet, salmon, and amphibians. River Ecology and Management: Lessons from the Pacific Coastal Ecoregion includes sections on the Physical Environment, the Biotic Environment, Ecosystem Processes, Management, and Recommendations for the Future. Specific topics include channel dynamics, hydrology, water quality, microbial processes, primary production, fish and wildlife, riparian forest dynamics, organic matter and trophic dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, maintaining biodiversity, monitoring and assessment, economic perspectives, legal considerations, and the role of non-governmental organizations in river management. "The wealth of science and literature in the book renders it a useful summary and reference for aquatic and watershed researchers, and most of the concepts and applications extend beyond the ecoregion.The lessons to be learned from the history, conceptual paradigms, research findings, and management approaches presented in this book are many and varied." --Ecology
Rivers have been vitally important to human populations worldwide for millennia as “highways” for inland travel, and as sources of water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, manufacturing, irrigation, and power generation, as well as repositories for human, animal, and industrial wastes. This accessible textbook takes a broad approach to river ecology, covering the basics but going beyond by including topics that are often overlooked such as blackwater streams and rivers, tidal creek ecosystems, and reservoir limnology. Since most running water (lotic) systems have been altered or impacted by human activities, there is significant emphasis on anthropogenic impacts, including sedimentation, nutrient pollution and related eutrophication issues as well as the effects of dams and river fragmentation, power plant operations, chemical contamination, wastewater treatment discharges, industrial scale livestock production, invasive species, and rural and urban storm water runoff on river ecosystems. Advances in stream and river restoration are also discussed.
Temperate rivers are influenced by many factors including geology, climate, soils, sediment type, flow, as well as human activity. The complex interactions of the non-anthropogenic controlling factors have led to a wonderful diversity of river type throughout the British Isles. Sadly, almost all rivers in the UK have suffered significant and long-lasting modification by unsympathetic management, that has all but destroyed this variety, creating watercourses that are simplified conduits for water and sediment, designed primarily to drain the land and reduce flood risk. This volume aims to help reverse this, illustrating using over 200 images and descriptions, this variety of rivers in Britain, highlighting the many forms that temperate river systems take and providing an accessible summary of the underlying river science knowledge base. A Field Guide to British Rivers covers the full range of upland and lowland channel types and describes the full variety of substrate conditions from bedrock through boulder, cobble and gravel, to silt dominated systems. The authors describe examples gathered from their extensive research and practical experience working with rivers throughout mainland Britain and set those examples in their wider landscape context to exemplify the natural functioning of temperate river types. This book offers a practical and contextualised guide to contribute to efforts towards the sympathetic and sustainable restoration and re-naturalisation of degraded channels in the UK. Offering a unique viewpoint of both the underpinning science and the practicalities of river management, A Field Guide to British Rivers is an essential a stand-alone guide for anyone involved in river restoration and management as well as for those simply interested in rivers in general. Written as a field guide to demonstrate practical examples of river types, and to highlight the pressures they experience and their often-parlous condition, this book is intended to better inform both river management approaches and the policy necessary to achieve this. Fundamentally, the authors seek to demonstrate how the hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological functions of rivers and their catchments are inexorably intertwined, and together how they generate and maintain rivers as dynamic entities.
The Nile, one of the world's great rivers, has long been an object of fascination and obsession. From Alexander the Great and Nero, to Victorian adventurers David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, and Henry Morton Stanley, the river has enticed many into wild adventures. English writer, photographer, and explorer Levison Wood continues that tradition, and Walking the Nile is the captivating account of his remarkable and unparalleled Nile journey. Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda, where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water, Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations--Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt--to the Mediterranean coast. Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. As well as recounting his triumphs, like escaping a charging hippo and staving off wild crocodiles, Wood's gripping account recalls the loss of Matthew Power, a journalist who died suddenly from heat exhaustion during their trek. As Wood walks on, often joined by local guides who help him to navigate foreign languages and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African history and contemporary life. An inimitable tale of survival, resilience, and sheer willpower, Walking the Nile is an inspiring chronicle of an epic journey down this lifeline of civilization.
In The Big Muddy, the first long-term environmental history of the Mississippi, Christopher Morris offers a brilliant tour across five centuries as he illuminates the interaction between people and the landscape, from early hunter-gatherer bands to present-day industrial and post-industrial society. Morris shows that when Hernando de Soto arrived at the lower Mississippi Valley, he found an incredibly vast wetland, forty thousand square miles of some of the richest, wettest land in North America, deposited there by the big muddy river that ran through it. But since then much has changed, for the river and for the surrounding valley. Indeed, by the 1890s, the valley was rapidly drying. Morris shows how centuries of increasingly intensified human meddling-including deforestation, swamp drainage, and levee construction-led to drought, disease, and severe flooding. He outlines the damage done by the introduction of foreign species, such as the Argentine nutria, which escaped into the wild and are now busy eating up Louisiana's wetlands. And he critiques the most monumental change in the lower Mississippi Valley-the reconstruction of the river itself, largely under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers. Valley residents have been paying the price for these human interventions, most visibly with the disaster that followed Hurricane Katrina. Morris also describes how valley residents have been struggling to reinvigorate the valley environment in recent years-such as with the burgeoning catfish and crawfish industries-so that they may once again live off its natural abundance. Morris concludes that the problem with Katrina is the problem with the Amazon Rainforest, drought and famine in Africa, and fires and mudslides in California-it is the end result of the ill-considered bending of natural environments to human purposes.
The challenges that the world's running water systems now face have never been more numerous or acute; at the same time, these complex habitats remain absolutely crucial to human wellbeing and future survival. If rivers can ever be anything like sustainable, ecology needs to take its place as an equal among the physical sciences such as hydrology and geomorphology. A real understanding of the natural history and ecology of running waters must now be brought even more prominently into river management. The primary purpose of this textbook is to provide the up-to-date overview that students and practitioners will require to achieve this aim. The book's unifying focus is on rivers and streams as ecosystems in which the particular identity of organisms is not the main emphasis but rather the processes in which they are involved - specifically energy flow and the cycling of materials. It builds on the physicochemical foundations of the habitat templet and explores the diversity and adaptations of the biota, progressing from the population and community ecology of organisms and linking them to ecosystem processes and services in the wider biosphere via the complexities of species interactions and food webs. These include water quality and patterns of river discharge, as well as aesthetics, waste disposal, and environmental health. While the book is not primarily focused on application per se, each chapter addresses how humans affect rivers and, in turn, are affected by them. A final, future-oriented chapter identifies key strategic areas and sets a roadmap for integrating knowledge of natural history and ecology into policy and management. The Biology and Ecology of Streams and Rivers is an accessible text suitable for both senior undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in both lotic and general ecology as well as more established researchers, practitioners, managers, and conservationists requiring a concise and contemporary overview of running waters.
Stretching along 156 miles of Florida's East Coast, the Indian River Lagoon contains the St. Lucie estuary, the Mosquito Lagoon, Banana River Lagoon, and the Indian River. It is a delicate ecosystem of shifting barrier islands and varying salinity levels due to its many inlets that open and close onto the ocean. The long, ribbon-like lagoon spans both temperate and subtropical climates, resulting in the most biologically diverse estuarine system in the United States. Nineteen canals and five man-made inlets have dramatically reshaped the region in the past two centuries, intensifying its natural instability and challenging its diversity. Indian River Lagoon traces the winding story of the waterway, showing how humans have altered the area to fit their needs and also how the lagoon has influenced the cultures along its shores. Now stuck in transition between a place of labor and a place of recreation, the lagoon has become a chief focus of public concern. This book provides a much-needed bigger picture as debates continue over how best to restore this natural resource.
Includes Illustrative Applications of Practical Design Calculations Written in a straightforward style and user-friendly format, Practical Design Calculations for Groundwater and Soil Remediation, Second Edition highlights the essential concepts and important aspects of major design calculations used in soil and groundwater remediation. Drawing from the author's teaching and consulting experience, this text provides practical information that addresses the current needs of practicing engineers, scientists, and legal experts in the field. What's New in This Edition: This latest edition covers important aspects of major design calculations as well as practical and relevant working information for groundwater and soil remediation. Realistic examples are used liberally to illustrate the applications of the design calculations. Many examples are designed to assist the readers in building the right concepts. The text begins with an introductory chapter; it then illustrates the engineering calculations needed during site assessment and remedial investigation. It continues with a discussion on plume migration in soil and groundwater. It then covers the mass-balance concept, reaction kinetics, and types, configurations, and sizing of reactors. The author incorporates important design calculations for commonly used in situ and ex situ soil and groundwater remediation technologies, such as soil venting, air sparging, air stripping, bioremediation, and chemical oxidation, and off-gas treatment technologies. He also presents design calculations for capture zone and optimal well spacing. Includes both SI and US customary units, as well as unit conversions Presents examples that directly follow the design equations Provides discussion that assists engineers in building proper concepts Practical Design Calculations for Groundwater and Soil Remediation, Second Edition also serves as a reference or textbook for students dedicated to the study of site remediation.
Topography of the Landscape. Pattern and Form of Riverine Systems. Sources of River Flow. Characteristics of Flowing Water. Sediments and Sediment Loads. Wetlands. Chemicals in Riverine Water. Index.
Since its establishment as a federally protected wilderness in 1964, the Boundary Waters has become one of our nation's most valuable-and most frequently visited-natural treasures. When Amy and Dave Freeman learned of toxic mining proposed within the area's watershed, they decided to take action-by spending a year in the wilderness, and sharing their experience through video, photos, and blogs with an audience of hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens. This book tells the deeper story of their adventure in northern Minnesota: of loons whistling under a moonrise, of ice booming as it forms and cracks, of a moose and her calf swimming across a misty lake. With the magic-and urgent-message that has rallied an international audience to the campaign to save the Boundary Waters, A Year in the Wilderness is a rousing cry of witness activism, and a stunning tribute to this singularly beautiful region.
This book reviews the major achievements recently made in soil erosion and sediment redistribution research and management, and identifies future requirements. The book presents work from key players in river basin soil erosion and sediment redistribution from sources to sinks, field to riverbank, from academia to policy and industry. It examines the developments made in three themes - measurement, modeling and management - and covers a variety of scales (in both time and space) and geographical locations.
The stuff of nightmares in both their looks and the horrifying wounds inflicted on their victims, sea lampreys are perhaps the deadliest invasive species to ever enter the Great Lakes. At the invasion's peak in the mid-20th century, annual catches of lake trout, the lampreys' preferred host fish in the Great Lakes, plummeted from 6.5 million pounds to a mere 11,000 pounds. Threatening the complete collapse of the fishery, the sea lamprey invasion triggered an environmental awakening across the region, prompting an international treaty that dissolved political boundaries in a cooperative effort to protect and rehabilitate the Great Lakes. The resulting war on Great Lakes sea lampreys fostered a pioneering scientific spirit leading to discoveries that are the backbone of a program that eventually brought the creature under control and now protects the largest freshwater ecosystem in the world. Great Lakes Sea Lamprey draws on extensive interviews with individuals who experienced the invasion firsthand as well as a trove of unexplored archival materials to tell the incredible story of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes. Richly illustrated with color and black & white photographs, the book will interest readers concerned with the health of the Great Lakes and the ongoing threat of invasive species.
In the Pacific Northwest, the river of dominance is the Columbia, and in ways both profound and mundane its history is the history of the region. In "Great River of the West" historians and anthropologists consider a range of topics about the river, from Indian rock art, Chinook Jargon, and ethnobotany on the Columbia to literary and family history, the creation of an engineered river, and the inherent mythic power of place. Since first contact between Euro-Americans and Native peoples during the late 18th century, the river's history has been characterized by dramatic demographic, social, and economic changes. The remarkable set of essays in Great River of the West investigate these changes by highlighting important episodes in the history of the river. Readers meet mariners who challenge the Columbia River bar, a family torn by insanity, Native people who preserve fishing traditions, and dam-builders who radically change the Columbia.
A three-thousand-year history of China's Yellow River and the legacy of interactions between humans and the natural landscape "No other scholar has produced such a systematic, comprehensive account of the long-term changes in the river's function and structure. I consider it to be the definitive work on the topic of the Yellow River to date."-Peter C. Perdue, author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia From Neolithic times to the present day, the Yellow River and its watershed have both shaped and been shaped by human society. Using the Yellow River to illustrate the long-term effects of environmentally significant human activity, Ruth Mostern unravels the long history of the human relationship with water and soil and the consequences, at times disastrous, of ecological transformations that resulted from human decisions. As Mostern follows the Yellow River through three millennia of history, she underlines how governments consistently ignored the dynamic interrelationships of the river's varied ecosystems-grasslands, riparian forests, wetlands, and deserts-and the ecological and cultural impacts of their policies. With an interdisciplinary approach informed by archival research and GIS (geographical information system) records, this groundbreaking volume provides unique insight into patterns, transformations, and devastating ruptures throughout ecological history and offers profound conclusions about the way we continue to affect the natural systems upon which we depend.
SUSTAINABLE WATER TREATMENT: ADVANCES AND INTERVENTIONS This outstanding new volume is a compendium of reference material which will cover most of the relevant and state-of-art approaches in the field of water treatment, focusing on technological advances for water treatment in four categories: advanced oxidation technologies, nanoparticles for water treatment, membrane separations, and other emerging technologies or processes. Apart from this perspective, fundamental discussions on a wide variety of pollutants have also been included, such as acidic wastewater treatment, metallurgical wastewater, textile wastewater as well as groundwater. The editors have not only covered a wide range of water treatment techniques, but also focus on their applications, offering a holistic perspective on water treatment in general. Covering all of the latest advances, innovations, and developments in practical applications for sustainable water treatment, this volume represents the most comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the issues of the day and state of the art. Whether for the veteran engineer or scientist or a student, this volume is a must-have for any library. Sustainable Water Treatment: Advances and Interventions covers: Provides an insight into various sectors of water and wastewater treatment technologies, introducing key technical topics Is a comprehensive guide to technological interventions for water and wastewater treatment Is also a reference book for any elective course on water treatment for engineers, scientists, and students, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels Presents the most current and up-to-date advances in sustainable water treatment Covers key technical topics and gives readers a comprehensive understanding of the latest research findings Includes perspectives on future trends and challenges
Hydrology in Practice is an excellent and very successful introductory text for engineering hydrology students who go on to be practitioners in consultancies, the Environment Agency, and elsewhere. This fourth edition of Hydrology in Practice, while retaining all that is excellent about its predecessor, by Elizabeth M. Shaw, replaces the material on the Flood Studies Report with an equivalent section on the methods of the Flood Estimation Handbook and its revisions. Other completely revised sections on instrumentation and modelling reflect the many changes that have occurred over recent years. The updated text has taken advantage of the extensive practical experience of the staff of JBA Consulting who use the methods described on a day-to-day basis. Topical case studies further enhance the text and the way in which students at undergraduate and MSc level can relate to it. The fourth edition will also have a wider appeal outside the UK by including new material on hydrological processes, which also relate to courses in geography and environmental science departments. In this respect the book draws on the expertise of Keith J. Beven and Nick A. Chappell, who have extensive experience of field hydrological studies in a variety of different environments, and have taught undergraduate hydrology courses for many years. Second- and final-year undergraduate (and MSc) students of hydrology in engineering, environmental science, and geography departments across the globe, as well as professionals in environmental protection agencies and consultancies, will find this book invaluable. It is likely to be the course text for every undergraduate/MSc hydrology course in the UK and in many cases overseas too.
Das Standardwerk zur Ökologie von Seen erklärt und dokumentiert anhand von umfangreichen Datenmaterial den Stand des Wissens und ist ein zuverlässiger Begleiter für Ausbildung und Beruf.
Now in its second edition, "Pollution of Lakes and Rivers" provides
essential insights into present-day water quality problems from an
international perspective. PowerPoint slides of the artwork from the book are available from: http: //post.queensu.ca/ pearl/textbook.htm
Reviews: "This is a very well-written and wide-ranging volume that is both instructive and topical. It is likely to prove useful as an introduction to the general area, a reference source and for teaching purposes." ("The Holocene," November 2008) "If you thought that paleolimnology was just mud, pollen, and diatoms then you will likely be both struck by the complexity of this field of research and grateful that John Smol, FRSC, has described it so clearly and broadly. Simply put, the second edition is an excellent book." "( Journal of Phycology, 2008)" "This is a useful text. It provides a good level of detail so that the beginner in this area can appreciate what palaeolimnology can (and cannot) achieve. It goes beyond the simple introduction to provide a detailed understanding of how techniques can be applied ... This is a different take on the usual pollution text and would be of great use to those wishing to understand more from sedimentary records." "Taken from the British Ecological Society's Teaching Ecology website" "John Smol has extensive experience in this field of paleoenvironmental research which he combines well with his excellent written communication skills to produce a text that is easy to read but also thought provoking." "(Quaternary Science Reviews, 2009)" "The breadth of coverage in this text is impressive." "(Lake and Reservoir Management"," 2009)" "If I could speak with fluidity and clarity in my lectures as consistently as John Smol writes my students would be very grateful." "(Journal of Paleolimnology, 2009)"
To understand hydrochemistry and to analyze natural as well as man-made impacts on aquatic systems, hydrogeochemical models have been used since the 1960's and more frequently in recent times. Numerical groundwater flow, transport, and geochemical models are important tools besides classical deterministic and analytical approaches. Solving complex linear or non-linear systems of equations, commonly with hundreds of unknown parameters, is a routine task for a PC. Modeling hydrogeochemical processes requires a detailed and accurate water analysis, as well as thermodynamic and kinetic data as input. Thermodynamic data, such as complex formation constants and solubility-products, are often provided as databases within the respective programs. However, the description of surface-controlled reactions (sorption, cation exchange, surface complexation) and kinetically controlled reactions requires additional input data. Unlike groundwater flow and transport models, thermodynamic models, in principal, do not need any calibration. However, considering surface-controlled or kinetically controlled reaction models might be subject to calibration. Typical problems for the application of geochemical models are: * speciation * determination of saturation indices * adjustment of equilibria/disequilibria for minerals or gases * mixing of different waters * modeling the effects of temperature * stoichiometric reactions (e.g. titration) * reactions with solids, fluids, and gaseous phases (in open and closed systems) * sorption (cation exchange, surface complexation) * inverse modeling * kinetically controlled reactions * reactive transport Hydrogeochemical models depend on the quality of the chemical analysis, the boundary conditions presumed by the program, theoretical concepts (e.g.
Nematodes are the most numerous metazoans in aquatic sediments. The majority of conducted studies on these aquatic forms focus mainly on those in marine and estuarine habitats. Nematodes from inland water bodies have been relatively forgotten or ignored. Recognizing this serious drawback and its impact on research on nematodes, this book brings together the available information on freshwater nematodes. It addresses the taxonomy of this extremely diverse phylum and provides analysis of its ecology in freshwater habitats from nematologists from 12 countries worldwide. Descriptions of each taxon at genus-level and above are provided with an augmenting pictorial guide to the currently valid genera. Also, a complete, up-to-date and valid species-list is given for every genus with an emphasis on those reported from freshwater bodies.
This book studies land use change in tropical landscapes, with particular emphasis on the economic processes that influence rates of land degradation and forest clearing. Multidisciplinary contributions draw lessons from a rich, decade-long collection of economic, social and environmental data on the Manupali upland watershed in the southern Philippines. Through this detailed case study the book documents forces leading to land use changes, in particular the potential impacts of institutional evolution and policy reforms, and highlights interrelationships between biological, economic, and social phenomena. |
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