Agrarian Landscapes in Transition researches human interaction with the earth. With hundreds of acres of agricultural land going out of production every day, the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture represents the most pervasive alteration of the Earth's environment for several thousand years. What happens when humans impose their spatial and temporal signatures on ecological regimes, and how does this manipulation affect the earth and nature's desire for equilibrium?
Studies were conducted at six Long Term Ecological Research sites within the US, including New England, the Appalachian Mountains, Colorado, Michigan, Kansas, and Arizona. While each site has its own unique agricultural history, patterns emerge that help make sense of how our actions have affected the earth, and how the earth pushes back. The book addresses how human activities influence the spatial and temporal structures of agrarian landscapes, and how this varies over time and across biogeographic regions. It also looks at the ecological and environmental consequences of the resulting structural changes, the human responses to these changes, and how these responses drive further changes in agrarian landscapes.
The time frames studied include the ecology of the earth before human interaction, pre-European human interaction during the rise and fall of agricultural land use, and finally the biological and cultural response to the abandonment of farming, due to complete abandonment or a land-use change such as urbanization.

A collection of studies on the ecologies of European cities, including Paris, Zurich, and Amsterdam among others. Discussion includes the natural and historical development of each city, local flora, the environmental impact of city growth, and environmental planning, design, and management.

Seaweed is so familiar and yet its names - pepper dulse, sea lettuce, bladderwrack - are largely unknown to us. In this short, exquisitely illustrated portrait, the Dutch poet and artist Miek Zwamborn shares her discoveries of its history, culture and use, from the Neolithic people of the Orkney Islands to sushi artisans in modern Japan. Seaweed troubled Columbus on his voyages across the Atlantic, intrigued von Humboldt in the Sargasso Sea and inspired artists from Hokusai to Matisse. Covering seaweed's collection by Victorians, its adoption into fashion and dance and its potential for combating climate change, and with a fabulous series of recipes based around the 'truffles of the sea', this is a wonderful gift for every nature lover's home.

The book is designed to provide a review on the methods and current status of conservation of the tropical plant species. It will also provide the information on the richness of the tropical plant diversity, the need to conserve, and the potential utilization of the genetic resources. Future perspectives of conservation of tropical species will be discussed. Besides being useful to researchers and graduate students in the field, we hope to create a reference for a much wider audience who are interested in conservation of tropical plant diversity.

Sunday Times Bestseller 'A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement' Charles Foster Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September) Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? In The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohlleben makes the case that the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death and regeneration he has observed in his woodland. A walk in the woods will never be the same again.

This edited book is focused on SDG 15. This volume covers aspects of species and ecosystem modeling in understanding the complexity of ecological systems, restoration, protected area management, and species conservation. The book follows a systematic and situation-sensitive approach to discuss ecosystem and species modeling tools, approaches, science, case studies, opportunities, and gaps for enhancing conservation efforts, ensuring ecosystem resilience, and addressing sustainability issues. The book emphasizes on science, innovations, case studies, and strategic relevance as main pillars of using ecosystem and species modeling tools and implementing the outcomes and results. In addition, clear conceptual frameworks, elaborated methodologies, and their applications are included to support policy planning and interventions to reduce and reverse human encroachment in human-dominated natural ecosystems, their degradation, and loss of important species and ecosystem services. Essential information with a special focus on advances and opportunities in advancing the implementation of results and outputs of the modeling tools, challenges and constraints for addressing loss of ecosystem services, designing and implementing sustainable landscape restoration, environmental risk assessment, and finally understanding policy implications and concerns for mainstreaming modeling results in conservation planning and decision-making is included in the book. Further topics include ultimate translational value of modeling tools and efforts across transitional ecosystems and species habitat to provide better evidence to influence the nature-based solutions (NbS) and ecosystem health assessment using Red List of Ecosystems (RLE). The emerging roles of integrative socio-ecological as well as techno-cultural factors in promoting the relevance of ecosystem and species modeling is one of the key features of this book. This edited volume is of interest and useful to researchers, students, scholars, policy makers, forest managers, consultants, and policy makers in the fields of protected area management, forest department, conservation, modeling, climate change, and sustainability science, and also authors engaged in IPBES, IPCC, and several other assessments.

Over the last decade, the field of plant ecology has significantly developed and expanded, especially in research concerning the herb layer and ground vegetation of forests. This revised second edition of The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America accounts for that growth, presenting research that approaches the ecology of the herb layer of forests from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. The book synthesizes the research of top ecologists and biologists on herbaceous layer structure, composition, and dynamics of a variety of forest ecosystem types in eastern North America. The 2003 first edition of The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America was praised for containing the most extensive listing of herb-layer literature in existence. This second edition brings this material up to date, revised to include current research and data. The book incorporates quantitative data to support analyses that was previously unavailable during the publication of the first edition. Also featured are six entirely new chapters, focused on the response of the herbaceous layer to a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Building on the over 1,200 references and sources of the first edition, the second edition of The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America is an invaluable resource for plant ecologists, forest ecologists, and conservationists.

Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective summarizes and synthesizes more than 60 years of research that has been conducted throughout the shortgrass region. The shortgrass steppe was an important focus of the International Biological Programme's Grassland Biome project that ran from the late 1960s until the mid 1970s. The work conducted by the Grassland Biome project was preceded by almost 40 years of research by U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers - primarily from the Agricultural Research Service - and followed to the present by the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research project. Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe is an enormously rich source of data and insight into the structure and function of a semiarid grassland.

Global change threatens ecosystems worldwide, and tropical systems with their high diversity and rapid development are of special concern. We can mitigate the impacts of change if we understand how tropical ecosystems respond to disturbance. For tropical forests and streams in Puerto Rico this book describes the impacts of, and recovery from, hurricanes, landslides, floods, droughts, and human disturbances in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. These ecosystems recover quickly after natural disturbances, having been shaped over thousands of years by such events. Human disturbance, however, has longer-lasting impacts. Chapters are by authors with many years of experience in Puerto Rico and other tropical areas and cover the history of research in these mountains, a framework for understanding disturbance and response, the environmental setting, the disturbance regime, response to disturbance, biotic mechanisms of response, management implications, and future directions. The text provides a strong perspective on tropical ecosystem dynamics over multiple scales of time and space.

Ecometabolomics: Metabolic Fluxes versus Environmental Stoichiometry focuses on the interaction between plants-particularly plants that have vigorous secondary metabolites-and the environment. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the responses of the metabolome of organisms to biotic and abiotic environmental changes. It includes an introduction to metabolomics, summaries of metabolomic techniques and applications, studies of stress in plants, and insights into challenges. This is a must-have reference for plant biologists, plant biochemists, plant ecologists and phytochemists researching the interface between plants and the environment using metabolomics.

The classic reference on weeds and invasive plants, revised and updated

The Third Edition of the authoritative reference gives readers an in-depthunderstanding of how weeds and invasive plants develop and interact in the environment so they can manage and control them more effectively. The guide includes an introduction to weeds and invasive plants in various environments and an overview of their ecology and evolution. With extensive examples, it:

Focuses on the biological features of weeds and invasive plants, especially as they exist in agriculture, forests, rangelands, and natural ecosystems

Includes coverage of exotic invasive plants

Discusses a variety of methods and tools for managing weeds and invasive plants, including physical, cultural, biological, and chemical approaches

Examines systems approaches for management, including modern Integrated Pest Management

Addresses future challenges for scientists, farmers, and land managers

This is the definitive, hands-on reference for land managers and professionals in plant sciences, agronomy, weed science, and horticulture. It is also an excellent textbook for senior undergraduate or graduate students studying agriculture, ecology, natural resources management, environmental management, or related fields.

This book describes the latest advances in systems biology in four plant-based marine ecosystems: seaweeds, seagrasses, microalgae, and corals. Marine organisms that inhabit the oceanic environment experience a diverse range of environmental fluctuations, anthropogenic stress, and threats from invasive species and pathogens. System biology integrates physiology, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics into numerical models and is emerging as an important approach to elucidate the functional adaptations of marine organisms to adverse environmental conditions. This book focuses on how ecophysiology, omics platforms, their integration (a systems biology perspective), and next generation sequencing tools are being used to address the stress response of marine seaweeds, seagrasses, corals, marine microbe diversity, and micro-and macroalgae/corals-bacterial interactions to global climate change and anthropogenic activities. The contents of the book are of special interest to graduate and postgraduate marine biology students and marine biology researchers, particularly those interested in marine ecology, stress physiology of marine macrophytes/corals/phytoplankton, and environmental microbiology. This book would also be of interest to marine engineers engaged in the management and conservation of our valuable marine resources.

At present the study of functional and ecological wood anatomy enjoys a vigorous renaissance and plays a pivotal role in plant and ecosystem biology, plant evolution, and global change research. This book contains a selection of papers presented at the successful meetings of the International Association of Wood Anatomists and the Cost-Action STReESS (Studying Tree Responses to extreme Events: a Synthesis) held in Naples in April 2013. Reprinted from IAWA Journal 34 (4), 2013.

This book addresses all the major mechanisms by which endophytes are thought to impact plant growth and health. A unique aspect of this publication is that it is multidisciplinary, covering plant microbiology, plant physiology, fungal and bacterial endophytes, plant biochemistry, and genomics. Just as research on the mammalian microbiome has demonstrated its importance for overall health of the host, the plant microbiota is essential for plant health in natural environments. Endophytes, the microorganisms living fully within plants, can provide a multitude of benefits to the host including N-fixation, P solubilization, increased photosynthetic efficiency and water use efficiency, stress tolerance, pathogen resistance, and overall increased growth and health. A variety of culturable endophytes have been isolated and shown to be mutualistic symbionts with a broad range of plant species. These studies point to the functional importance of the microbiota of plants and suggest the potential for tailoring plant microbiota for improved vigor and yields with reduced inputs. This review covers the major benefits of microbial endophytes to plants and discusses the implications of using symbiosis as an alternative to chemical inputs for agriculture, forestry, and bioenergy.

This book systematically discusses the vegetation dynamics in northern China since the LGM, with a focus on three dominant tree species (Pinus, Quercus and Betula). By integrating methods of palaeoecology, phylogeography and species distribution model, it reconstructs the glacial refugia in northern China, demonstrating that the species were located further north than previously assumed during the LGM. The postglacial dynamics of forest distribution included not only long-distance north-south migration but also local spread from LGM micro-refugia in northern China. On the regional scale, the book shows the altitudinal migration pattern of the three dominant tree genera and the role of topographical factors in the migration of the forest-steppe border. On the catchment scale, it analyzes Huangqihai Lake, located in the forest-steppe ecotone in northern China, to indentify the local forest dynamics response to the Holocene climatic change. It shows that local forests have various modes of response to the climate drying, including shrubland expansion, savannification and replacement of steppe. In brief, these studies at different space-time scales illustrate the effects of climate, topography and other factors on forest migration.

Advances in Agronomy, Volume 144, the newest release in a serial that continues to be recognized as a leading reference and first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy presents new information on the following topics: An Important Tool with No Instruction Manual: A Review of Gypsum Use in Agriculture, Preventive Weed Management in Direct-Seeded Rice: Targeting the Weed Seedbank, Current Approaches and Future Trends in Compost Quality Criteria for Agronomic, Environmental and Human Health Benefits, and Grain Legume Production and Use in European Agricultural Systems. This highly regarded series contains an eclectic group of reviews by leading scientists throughout the world. As always, the subjects covered are rich, varied and comprehensively covered.

The Flowering of Australia's Rainforests provides a comprehensive introduction to the pollination ecology, evolution and conservation of Australian rainforest plants, with particular emphasis on subtropical rainforests and their associated pollinators. This significantly expanded second edition includes new information on the impact of climate change, fire, fragmentation and invasive species. Rainforests continue to be a focus of global conservation concern, not only from threats to biodiversity in general, but to pollinators specifically. Within Australia, this has been emphasised by recent cataclysmic fire impacts, ongoing extreme drought events, and the wider consideration of climate change. This second edition strengthens coverage of these issues beyond that of the first edition. The Flowering of Australia's Rainforests makes timely contributions to our understanding of the nature and function of the world's pollinator fauna, plant-reproduction dependencies, and the evolutionary pathway that has brought them to their current state and function. Illustrated with 150 colour plates of major species and rainforest formations, this reference work will be of value to ecologists and field naturalists, botanists, conservation biologists, ecosystemmanagers and community groups involved in habitat restoration. FEATURES: Provides an overview of the pollination ecology of Australia's rainforests in a world rainforest context. In particular discusses the pollination ecology of threatened subtropical rainforests, including the impact of climate change, fragmentation, fire and invasive species. Provides an introductory review of plant evolution and plant-pollinator relationships. Discusses pollination syndromes and the role and function of pollinator groups. Serves as a companion volume to The Invertebrate World of Australia's Subtropical Rainforests

Abiotic stress adversely affects crop production worldwide, decreasing average yields for most of the crops to 50%. Among various abiotic stresses affecting agricultural production, drought stress is considered to be the main source of yield reduction around the globe. Due to an increasing world population, drought stress will lead to a serious food shortage by 2050. The situation may become worse due to predicated global climate change that may multiply the frequency and duration and severity of such abiotic stresses. Hence, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding on complex mechanisms of drought stress tolerance and to develop modern varieties that are more resilient to drought stress. Identification of the potential novel genes responsible for drought tolerance in crop plants will contribute to understanding the molecular mechanism of crop responses to drought stress. The discovery of novel genes, the analysis of their expression patterns in response to drought stress, and the determination of their potential functions in drought stress adaptation will provide the basis of effective engineering strategies to enhance crop drought stress tolerance. Although the in-depth water stress tolerance mechanisms is still unclear, it can be to some extent explained on the basis of ion homeostasis mediated by stress adaptation effectors, toxic radical scavenging, osmolyte biosynthesis, water transport, and long distance signaling response coordination. Importantly, complete elucidation of the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms for drought stress, perception, transduction, and tolerance is still a challenge to the plant biologists. The findings presented in volume 1 call attention to the physiological and biochemical modalities of drought stress that influence crop productivity, whereas volume 2 summarizes our current understanding on the molecular and genetic mechanisms of drought stress resistance in plants.

This book is a compilation of recent global measures to conserve bio-resources and manage biotic and abiotic stresses. It highlights emerging issues related to agriculture, abiotic and biotic stress factors, ethnic knowledge, climate change and global warming, as well as natural resources and their sustainable management. It also focuses on the consolidated efforts of scientists and academics engaged in addressing a number of issues related to resource management and combating stresses in order to protect the Earth. Crop production and productivity have been significantly improved, however, there have been no corresponding practical advances in sustainable agriculture.This book offers a wide range of affordable approaches to managing bio-resources with a focus on sustainability. Lastly, it describes research highlights and future areas of research.

This book provides an overview of the intricacies of plant communication via volatile chemicals. Plants produce an extraordinarily vast array of chemicals, which provide community members with detailed information about the producer's identity, physiology and phenology. Volatile organic chemicals, either as individual compounds or complex chemical blends, are a communication medium operating between plants and any organism able to detect the compounds and respond. The ecological and evolutionary origins of particular interactions between plants and the greater community have been, and will continue to be, strenuously debated. However, it is clear that chemicals, and particularly volatile chemicals, constitute a medium akin to a linguistic tool. As well as possessing a rich chemical vocabulary, plants are known to detect and respond to chemical cues. These cues can originate from neighbouring plants, or other associated community members. This book begins with chapters on the complexity of chemical messages, provides a broad perspective on a range of ecological interactions mediated by volatile chemicals, and extends to cutting edge developments on the detection of chemicals by plants.

This book describes important anatomical adaptations in halophytes, based on a large review of relevant literature (since the 17th century) and recent research findings. Scientists involved in the study of plant biology, from a molecular to ecosystemic level, will find information about all major structural strategies of salt tolerant plants. The book starts with an introductory theoretical background, where several aspects related to the definition and classification of halophytes and saline environments are included. Major anatomical adaptations are then grouped around major concepts: succulence, tracheoidioblasts, salt secretion, Kranz anatomy, successive cambia, and bulliform cells. Each of them is treated following a general scheme: introductory considerations, anatomical basis, and ecological implications; a review of relevant literature is then conducted and the text is supported by a large number of figures, especially ink drawings and color micrographs.

In recent years, radioactive contamination in the environment by uranium (U) and its daughters has caused increasing concerns globally. This book provides recent developments and comprehensive knowledge to the researchers and academicians who are working on uranium contaminated areas worldwide. This book covers topics ranging from the beginning of the nuclear age until today, including historical views and epidemiological studies. Modelling practices and evaluation of radiological and chemical impact of uranium on man and the environment are included. Also covered are analytical methods used for the determination of uranium in geo/bio environments. Some chapters explore factors which influence uranium speciation and in consequence plant uptake/translocation. Last but not least, several chapters provide approaches and practices for remediation of uranium contaminated areas.

This book provides extensive and comprehensive knowledge to researchers and academics who work on strontium contaminated areas. Topics covered include impact on plants and environment, as well as remediation strategies. This book will inform graduate and undergraduate students who are specializing in radioecology, especially strontium uptake via soil to plants, safe disposal of strontium waste, remediation legacies and impact of strontium waste material on the natural and manmade environment. A broad overview of reviews is provided covering a number of original publications on strontium plant uptake, including case studies that present the latest technological developments and future trends for investigating strontium mobility in soil and treatment of strontium contaminated areas.