Enclosed ecosystem experiments have gained in popularity as research tools in ecological science, particularly in the study of coastal aquatic environments. These systems provide scientists with a degree of experimental control that is not achievable through field experiments. Yet to date, techniques for systematically extrapolating results from small-scale experimental ecosystems to larger, deeper, more open, more biologically diverse, and more heterogeneous ecosystems in nature have not been well developed. Likewise, researchers have lacked methods for comparing and extrapolating information among natural ecosystems that differ in scale. Enclosed Experimental Ecosystems and Scale: Tools for Understanding and Managing Coastal Ecosystems provides scientists, managers, and policy makers with an introduction to what has been termed the "problem of scale", and presents information that will allow for improved design and interpretation of enclosed experimental aquatic ecosystems. The book integrates the results of a 10-year research project involving a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and students to explore scale-related questions in a variety of coastal habitats. Anticipating use as a reference, the book has been designed so that individual sections and individual pages can function as stand alone units.

This book features research on historical land use and land cover in the Amur River Basin, which are important not only for residents there but also for those affected by its material and water cycles. Land use and land cover are affected by natural and human interactions over long and short timescales. The authors address historical changes in the land cover analysis of the Amur. The Amur region of Russia, land cover change analysis of the Amur, wetland, and flooding of the Amur provide evidence of land cover change. Changes of wetland and floodplain sedimentation processes demonstrate the influences of land cover change on fluvial environment, which are discussed with geomorphology. Water chemistry is showing the physical dimension of the geography of the Amur. The development process of timber harvesting in the Khabarovsk area and land use dynamics in the twentieth century are important evidence of development. The Amur poses an essential question: how can we manage a transboundary watershed without disturbing terrestrial and marine ecosystems for future generations? This book provides essential information for geographers about this relatively unknown region.

The book is written in the backdrop of the environmental impacts of and future requirements from the natural environment for rapid economic growth that has characterized recent economic history of China and India, especially over the past few decades. The environmental impacts of such rapid economic changes have been, more frequently than otherwise, degrading in character. Environmental impacts of economic activities create degraded natural ecosystems by over utilization of nature's provisioning ecosystem services (from Himalaya to the Ocean), as well, by the use of the natural environment as sink for dumping of unmarketable products or unused inputs of economic activities. Such processes affect wide range of ecosystem processes on which the natural environment including human population depend on. Critical perspectives cast by various chapters in this book draw attention to the various ways in which space and power interact to produce diverse geographies of sustainability in a globalizing world. They also address the questions such as who decides what kind of a spatial arrangement of political power is needed for sustaining the environment. Who stands to gain (or lose) what, when, where, and why from certain geographical areas being demarcated as ecologically unique, fragile and vulnerable environments? Whose needs and values are being catered to by a given ecosystem service? What is the scope for critical inquiry into the ways in which the environment is imagined, represented and resisted in both geopolitical struggles and everyday life? The book provides insights to both academics from diverse disciplines and policy makers, civil society actors interested in mutual exchange of knowledge between China and India.

This book is a landmark study of the Holocene evolution and functioning of a suite of seasonal wetland basins in the temperate coastal zone of Western Australia. In 2001, a series of discrete small scale wetlands on the Becher cuspate foreland in Western Australia, were nominated as a Ramsar site because of their scientific values. These values pertained to their setting, their method of formation and deepening, their history of infilling, their complex hydrological mechanisms, and their dynamic hydrochemical and vegetation responses. The wetlands were the subjects of intense curiosity, observation, measurement, and experiment, for over 10 years. The results of this interest and passion are presented here in order to demonstrate the considerable importance of what lay beneath the ordinary surface.

From killer fires to ecosystem rehabilitation, an exhaustive survey exploring the ecological, social, and economic consequences of managing fires in U.S. wildland areas. Fire management involves protecting natural resources from fire but also using controlled burning for land management purposes. Who are the stewards of land management and the researchers who devote their entire careers studying fire? How are ecosystems restored after major fires? What are the economic ramifications and what assessment tools are available? Forest Fires: A Reference Handbook explores the historical, ecological, economic, and social dimensions of wildland combustion and their impacts in North America. Explaining how legislation and public perception have been shaped by historic fires and fire seasons, particular emphasis is placed on the summer of 2000 as a way of understanding and managing future fires. Provides a detailed chronology of events, legislative acts, policy controversies, and precedents for fire management in the United States, illustrating how the fires discussed reflect a continuation of trends established in the 20th century and before Includes biographies of past and present forest fire management leaders, scientists, academicians, and policy makers

Intense uplift of the Tibetan Plateau in Late Cenozoic Era is one of the most important events in geological history of the Earth. The plateau offers an ideal region for studying of lithospheric formation and evolution, probing into the mechanism of crustal movement, and understanding of changes in environments and geo-ecosystems in Asia. Intense uplift ofthe plateau resulted in drastic changes of natural environment and apparent regional differentiation on the plateau proper and neighboring regions. The plateau therefore becomes a sensitive area of climate change in Asian monsoon region, which is closely related to the global change. As a special physical unit, its ecosystems occupy a prominent position in the world. Due to its extremely high elevation and great extent, natural types and characteristics of physical landscapes on the plateau are quite different from those in lowlands at comparable latitudes, and environments are also different from those in high latitudinal zones. Consequently, the Tibetan Plateau has been classified as one of three giant physical regions in China and considered as a unique unit on Earth. Scientific surveys and expeditions to the Tibetan Plateau on large scale began from 1950's. Amongst them, a number of comprehensive scientific expeditions to the Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region, Hengduan Mts. areas, Karakorum and Kunlun Mts. regions, as well as the Hoh Xii Mts. areas, have been successively carried out by the Integrated Scientific Expedition to Tibetan Plateau, sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1973."

Interest in the environment has never been greater and yet most of us have little knowledge of the 4 billion years of history that formed it. This book explains the principles of geology, geography and geomorphology, and shows how a basic understanding of geological timescales, plate tectonics and landforms can help you 'read' the great outdoors. This is a highly illustrated book with a very accessible text that beautifully illuminates the landscape around us.

Forestry has been witness to some dramatic changes in recent years, with several Western countries now moving away from the traditional model of regarding forests merely as sources of wood. Rather these countries are increasingly recognizing their forests as multi-purpose resources with roles which go far beyond simple economics. In this innovative book, Sylvie Nail uses England as a case study to explore the relationships between forests, society and public perceptions, raising important questions about forest policy and management both now and in the future. Adopting a sociological approach to forest policy and management, the book discusses the current validity of the two principles underlying forestry since the Middle Ages: first, that forestry should only exist when no better use of the land can be made, and second, that forestry itself should be profitable. The author stresses how values and perceptions shape policies, and conversely how policies can modify perceptions, and also how policies can fail if they do not take perceptions into account. She concludes that many of the issues facing English forestry in the 21st century - from leisure, health and amenity provision, through education and rural as well as urban regeneration, to biodiversity conservation - go well beyond both national borders and the scope of forestry. Indeed forestry in the 21st century seems to be less about planting and managing trees than about being a vector and a mirror of social change. This novel synthesis provides a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers from all areas of natural resource studies, including those interested in social history, socio-economics, cultural geography and environmental psychology, as well as those studying landscape ecology, environmental history, policy analysis and natural resource management.

This book highlights classification patterns and underlying ecological drivers structuring the vegetation of selected indigenous subtropical forests in South Africa. It uses original field sampling and advanced numerical data analysis to examine three major types of forest - Albany Coastal Forests, Pondoland Coastal Scarp and Eastern Scarp - all of which are of high conservation value. Offering a unique and systematic assessment of South African ecology in unprecedented detail, the book could serve as a model for future vegetation surveys of forests not only in Africa, but also around the globe.

Today, society s impact on the geographical environment, and especially on the Earth s surface, is obvious. Yet up until the last century, the forces of nature held sway, with mankind vulnerable and exposed to its vagaries. However, our recent development has meant that our effect on our surroundings is now commensurate with the power of nature itself. More and more, we face the consequences mostly disadvantageous of our interventions, and we must pay more attention to the wider impacts of our activities, which include everything from the extraction of fossil fuels to the influence of tourism. Anthropogenic geomorphology, as the study of the way man affects his physical environment, has thus developed rapidly as a discipline in recent decades. This volume provides guidance to students discussing the basic topics of anthropogenic geomorphology. The chapters cover both its system, and its connections with other sciences, as well as the way the subject can contribute to tackling today s practical problems. The book represents all fields of geomorphology, giving an introduction to the diversity of the discipline through examples taken from a range of contexts and periods, and focusing on examples from Europe. It is no accident that anthropogenic geomorphology has been gaining ground within geomorphology itself. Its results advance not only the theoretical development of the science but can be applied directly to social and economic issues. Worldwide, anthropogenic geomorphology is an integral and expanding part of earth sciences curricula in higher education, making this a timely and relevant text. "

This book studies the historical changes of the cityscape of Nanjing from the point of view of geographical systems. Nanjing is a city located along the Yangtze River, originated 2500 years ago, after which ten dynasties established their capital dependent on the geographical conditions. The book focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of mountain and river systems in the various historical periods, and provides investigations of historical sites along with these systems. This enables the search for the laws of historical evolution and spatial structure changes, which is also the research of the relationship between man and nature. It extends the traditional preservation and cityscapes planning to that of geographical landscape system. Readers working in the area of geography, history, urban and landscape planning will benefit from it.

Cratons and Fold Belts of India, is a unique attempt at presenting geological characteristics and evolution of the fold belts and the cratonic areas of the Indian shield. The author has evaluated the different evolutionary models for each fold belt in light of all the currently available geological and geochronological informations that are clearly listed. Shortcomings, if any, of each model are stated and a viable geodynamic model is presented for each fold belt. The book is self-contained it includes an introduction to the processes of mountain building, especially plate tectonics theory with its application to the evolution of the Himalaya as an illustrative example so that the reader can better appreciate the novel approach to the evolution of Proterozoic fold belts. The author eschews a detailed account of the fold belts for a clear description of all the concepts that go into building models. It is primarily written for graduate students, teachers and for those geoscientists who aspire to know all about the Indian shield."

Forest ecosystems represent a major type ofland use in Germanyand in Europe. They provide a number of functions, or ecosystem services, beneficial to humans, namely biomass production, regulation of the water- and energy cyde, C and N sequestration, erosion control, recreation, and they act as habitat for numerous species. The stability of forest ecosystems in Europe as influenced by the deposition of air pollutants has been a matter of debate for more than 20 years. Besides atmospheric deposition, other environmental conditions affecting forest ecosystems, such as temperature, CO content of the atmosphere 2 and precipitation, have significantly changed in the past and continue to change in the future. Quantifying and predicting the effects of these changes on ecosys tem functioning are achallenge to ecosystem research and also a requirement to establish sustainable use of forest ecosystems in the future. This book summarizes results of long-term, interdisciplinary ecosystem research conducted in two forested catchments and coordinated at the Bayreuth Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research (BITOEK), University of Bayreuth, Germany. It does not aim to summarize all the research of BITOE K in the past decade, which would go far beyond the studies in these two catch ments. Instead, we concentrate here on the long-term developments in the biogeochemistry of carbon and mineral elements and on the water cyde, at both the plot and the catchment scale.

This highly topical book provides an in-depth account of the South Asian experience with the deadly disease that has held this region hostage for millennia. The book touches specifically on the resurgence of malaria experienced in the second half of the twentieth century, which occurred just a few years after malaria was thought to have been virtually eradicated from the region. The progress of this reappearance across space and time, as well as its causes and consequences, are discussed. The book also covers past, present and future ways to curb, control and ultimately, conquer malaria. As malaria continues to ravage the developing world, even in today s age of science, this is a particularly relevant book, especially as most studies analyze the problem in Africa, the continent that bears the brunt of this disease. Here, the authors call attention to challenges in South Asia, home to an immense at-risk population. The chapters in this book use a range of conceptual frameworks, quantitative analyses and descriptive aapproaches, finding that malaria is not just a complex disease driven by highly adaptive agents and vectors thriving in particular ecologies, but also a social concern deeply related to the region s cultural traditions, financial and developmental shortfalls, and inexorably related to political will.

The book comprehensively deals with all aspects of the malaria situation in South Asia, and is invaluable to upper level students as well as emerging and established scholars in the fields of medical geography and epidemiology, Asian studies and development studies."

This highly practical handbook is an exhaustive treatment of eddy covariance measurement that will be of keen interest to scientists who are not necessarily specialists in micrometeorology. The chapters cover measuring fluxes using eddy covariance technique, from the tower installation and system dimensioning to data collection, correction and analysis.
With a state-of-the-art perspective, the authorsexamine the latest techniques and address the most up-to-date methods for data processing and quality control. The chapters provide answers to data treatment problems including data filtering, footprint analysis, data gap filling, uncertainty evaluation, and flux separation, among others.The authors cover the application of measurement techniques in different ecosystems such as forest, crops, grassland, wetland, lakes and rivers, and urban areas, highlighting peculiarities, specific practices and methods to be considered. The book also covers what to do when you have all your data, summarizing the objectives of a database as well as using case studies of the CarboEurope and FLUXNET databases to demonstrate the way they should be maintained and managed. Policies for data use, exchange and publication are also discussed and proposed.
This one compendiumisa valuable source of information on eddy covariance measurement that allows readers to make rational and relevant choices in positioning, dimensioning, installing and maintaining an eddy covariance site; collecting, treating, correcting and analyzing eddy covariance data; and scaling up eddy flux measurements to annual scale and evaluating their uncertainty.
"

Changing the narrative of mountaineering books, Sherpa focuses on the people who live and work on the roof of the world. Amid all the foreign adventurers that throng to Nepal to scale the world's highest peaks there exists a small community of mountain people at the foothills of Himalayas. Sherpa tells their story. It's the story of endeavour and survival at the roof of the world. It dives into their culture and tells of their existence at the edge of life and death. Written by Ankit Babu Adhikari - a writer, social science researcher and musician - and Pradeep Bashyal - a journalist with the BBC based in Nepal - Sherpa traces their story pre- and post-mountaineering revolution, their evolution as climbing crusaders with previously unpublished stories from the most notable and incredible Sherpas of the last 50 years. This is the story of the Sherpas.

This book pulls together major critiques of contemporary attempts to explain nature-society relations in an environmentally deterministic way. After defining key terms, it reviews the history of environmental determinism's rise and fall within geography in the early twentieth century. It discusses the key reasons for the doctrine's rejection and presents alternative, non-deterministic frameworks developed within geography for analyzing the roles played by the environment in human affairs. The authors examine the rise in recent decades of neo-deterministic approaches to such issues as the demarcation of regions, the causes of civilizational collapse in prehistory, today's globally uneven patterns of human well-being, and the consequences of human-induced climate change. In each case, the authors draw on the insights and approaches of geography, the academic discipline most conversant with the interactions of society and environment, to challenge the widespread acceptance that such approaches have won. The book will appeal to those working on human-environmental research, international development and global policy initiatives.

Coral reefs are the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems in the marine environment. Over the last decades, however, dramatic declines of coral reef communities have been observed. Corals are endangered due to natural and anthropogenic detrimental factors, such as global warming and environmental pollution.

Based on an international meeting on "Coral Health and Disease" in Eilat, Israel in April 2003, the book starts with case studies of reefs, e.g. the Red Sea, Caribbean, Japan, Indian Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. The second part on microbial ecology and physiology describes the symbiotic relations of corals and microbes, and the microbial role in nutrition or bleaching resistance of corals. Particular coral diseases such as aspergillosis, white pox, black and white band diseases are treated in the third part. Finally, various hypotheses of the mechanisms of coral bleaching, including a projection of the future of coral reefs, are discussed.

Addressing the links between science and the real world with a sound scientific baseline, "Coastal Water Bodies" targets researchers of various disciplines whose interest lies in the integrated sustainable management of coastal water bodies. The main topic of this book is not the ecology according to its accepted meaning, but rather the places and people concerned the coastal zones of the Mediterranean that are rich in ecological value and the local people who survive thanks to these environmental resources.

Integration is the joint consideration of different aspects of water uses and values, and new ways of understanding and managing conflicts around water use are needed if people are to benefit from integration. Sustainability of the ecological and socioeconomic environments requires a climate in which conflicts, if they need to exist, are properly managed in a non-destructive manner.

Major changes are taking place in the Chinese countryside as China rushes to modernizes and urbanizes its rural fabric. The transformation is improving the quality of life of rural inhabitants, but also brings about challenges as people strive to adjust. This book systematically examines the impact of change on the daily lives and activities of the residents of Sichuan Province, in China's South-west. It examines the themes of infrastructure, transport modes and preferences, sanitation, water conservation, earthquake and flood disaster preparedness, and the impact these have on villager behavior and quality of life. This book is an essential reference guide for graduate students and practitioners in the fields of rural planning, renewal, and construction.

This book covers selected papers that were presented by participants at a "Wetland Invitational" held in Columbus Ohio, USA in May 2003. They are divided, by subject matter into four general categories: 1. Restoration of a large river basin and delta; 2. Long-term wetland restoration; 3. Creation of wetlands for mitigation of wetland loss; 4. Conservation and restoration of the world s wetlands.
* Provides key integrated, long-term assessments
* Covers a selection of the world's most significant wetlands
* Addresses management approaches for wetland conservation, creation and restoration

This book explores the concepts, premises, advancements, and challenges in quantifying natural forest landscape patterns through mapping techniques. After several decades of development and use, these tools can now be examined for their foundations, intentions, scope, advancements, and limitations. When applied to natural forest landscapes, mapping techniques must address concepts such as stochasticity, heterogeneity, scale dependence, non-Euclidean geometry, continuity, non-linearity, and parsimony, as well as be explicit about the intended degree of abstraction and assumptions. These studies focus on quantifying natural (i.e., non-human engineered) forest landscape patterns, because those patterns are not planned, are relatively complex, and pose the greatest challenges in cartography, and landscape representation for further interpretation and analysis.

Wetlands are very sensitive ecosystems, functioning as habitat for many organisms. Protection and regeneration of wetlands are of great importance in ecological research and in nature conservation. A great amount of research has been done on the hydrology, plants and animals in wetlands. Knowledge on soil organisms and soil ecological processes of wetlands is still lacking. This knowledge is highly needed for landscape planning purposes or climate change predictions. For climate change, trace gas emissions from wetlands are of great interest. The authors provide an overview of state-of-the-art on soil ecology of wetlands. The book is divided in the following main chapters: "Wetlands as habitats for soil organisms", "Soil ecological processes in fens and floodplains", "Carbon and nitrogen dynamics in soils with different water regimes" and "Trace gas emissions".

This book explores the knowledge, work and life of Pacific coastal populations from the Pacific Northwest to Panama. Center stage in this volume is the knowledge people acquire on coastal and marine ecosystems. Material and aesthetic benefits from interacting with the environment contribute to the ongoing building of coastal cultures. The contributors are particularly interested in how local knowledge -either recently generated or transmitted along generations- interfaces with science, conservation, policy and artistic expression. Their observations exhibit a wide array of outcomes ranging from resource and human exploitation to the magnification of cultural resilience and coastal heritage. The interdisciplinary nature of ethnobiology allows the chapter authors to have a broad range of freedom when examining their subject matter. They build a multifaceted understanding of coastal heritage through the different lenses offered by the humanities, social sciences, oceanography, fisheries and conservation science and, not surprisingly, the arts. Coastal Heritage and Cultural Resilience establishes an intimate bond between coastal communities and the audience in a time when resilience of coastal life needs to be celebrated and fortified.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of emerging challenges facing different social groups, policy-makers and the international community related to economic growth, social development and environmental change, social inclusion and regional development. The book undertakes a critical assessment of the tensions associated with the failures of mainstream regulatory approaches and impacts of social and economic policies whilst widening the discussion on the interface between the expansion of the socio-environmental demands, equity and justice. These are crucial challenges, of great importance today and of equal relevance to the Global North and South. The book explores one of the main contradictions of development, the simplification of assessments and narrow consideration of alternatives. Taking this dilemma as its departure point, it goes on to examine the justification, trends and limitations of Western-based development and possible alternatives to fundamentally modify the basis and the rationale of the development process. It considers theoretical and lived experiences of development, paying attention to multiple scales, local realities and economic frontiers. Contributing authors explore policy recommendations and discuss effective practical tools for determining the values different people hold for ecosystem services and territorial resources. They cover the monitoring of change in the provision of ecosystem services that might increase the well-being of vulnerable groups as well as strategies to promote innovation and integrated, equitable and sustainable development.