This book provides a first overview of the phemonemon of post-industrial urban wilderness: urban landscapes once shaped by heavy industry that are being re-colonized naturally by forests. These new types of urban woodlands are often overlooked by ecologists, foresters and planners. Individual chapters consider urban woodlands from the perspectives of ecology, environmental sociology, forestry, nature conservation and landscape architecture.

In North America, Juniperus woodlands occupy approximately 55 million hectares, an area larger than the state of Texas. This title addresses various aspects of the biology, ecology, and management of Juniperus woodlands and savannas, synthesizing past and current research findings as well as proposed research. The book provides ecologists, land managers, and foresters with a solid foundation in Juniperus ecosystems, enabling them to manage the communities for maximum sustained productivity and diversity.

In this book we undertake one of the first global-scale comparisons of the relationships between tropical plants and frugivorous animal communities, comparing sites within and across continents. In total, 12 primary contributors, including noted plant and animal ecologists, present newly-analyzed long-term datasets on the floristics and phenological rhythms of their study sites, identifying important seed dispersers and key plant taxa that sustain animal communities in Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, and the Neotropics.

This work is the first monograph devoted solely to "Bombax ceiba," popularly known as the Red Silk Cotton Tree. Consisting of seven chapters, it covers all relevant aspects of this plant, from its historical and spiritual importance, to its botanical characterization, pharmacognostical details and ethnobiological uses, to its scientific validation in various animal and human studies. Each part of the tree is of medicinal value and possesses many novel chemical constituents such as shamimicin, bombasin, bombamalone, bombamaloside etc. along with other bioactive secondary metabolites. The book presents the chemical structures of the most important constituents and highlights various pharmacological activities, predominantly antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, hypoglycemic, hypotensive, hepatoprotective and fibrinolytic, which may prove to be a source for the development of a novel phyto-pharmaceutical agent to treat diabetes, heart disease and cancer. In addition, separate chapters deal with the commercial and ecological significance of "B. ceiba," as well as a case study on its conservation. Numerous color illustrations are included to identify the plant and to justify its nickname, the Little Bird s Cafeteria . "

More than a decade has passed since Professor Gisela Jahn completed Volume 12 of the Handbook of Vegetation Science, dealing with the application of vegetation science in forestry, mostly European forestry. The volume was well received by the critics with the exception that they wanted a more diversified demonstration of forestry-related vegetation science work and a wider representation of forest types from different continents. The topics covered in this volume, 12/1, widen the scope of vegetation science work in forestry over the phytosociological work which was the main focus in the Handbook as perceived by Dr Tuxen. Section 1. Overview T. Kira: Forest Ecosystems of East and Southeast Asia in a Global Perspective; E.O. Box: Climatic Relations of the Forests of East and Southeast Asia; K. Iwatsuki: Species Diversity in East Asia in Global Perspective. The remaining contributions are divided into the following sections: Evergreen Forest Region; Summergreen Forest Region; Montane/Boreal Region; Tropical Forest Region. "

Glutathione is a thiol-containing tripeptide, which appears to be present in nearly all living organisms and which is involved in many important metabolic and physiological processes. The present volume focuses on the biological significance of glutathione in plants. The biochemistry and the metabolism of glutathione are reviewed, and its role in sulphur and selenium metabolism in plants is discussed. The significance of glutathione and of glutathione-related enzymes in the adaptation to natural stress, heavy metals, xenobiotics, air pollution, and in plant-pathogen and plant-animal interactions are evaluated. The main aim of this second volume in the series Plant Ecophysiology is to raise the interest of advanced students and junior researchers in the role of glutathione in plants and to supply basic and comprehensive information for scientists already working on related topics.

The impetus for this volume was the 2nd International Wetlands Conference which was held in June, 1984 at Trebon, Czechoslovakia. An overview of the worlds wetlands was one of the themes of the conference and it was decided that a useful follow-up would be a publication on the same topic. The initial goal was to cover as many of the worlds wetlands as possible in one volume and to have an emphasis on wetland ecology, biota, classification, and management. Individuals who made presentations at the Trebon confer ence were asked to prepare chapters and the editors also solicited other contributions. For a variety of reasons, the initial goal has been difficult to reach, especially coverage of the entire globe, and it has been necessary to publish the contributions in more than one volume. Volume 1 represents the com pletion of the first phase of the project and it covers most of the Western Hemisphere, Australia, most of Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Mediter ranean region, and Papua New Guinea. Volume 2 will contain chapters on Western Europe, Northern Europe, Central Europe, most of northern and It is our hope that Volume western Asia, the Middle East, and Indonesia. 2 will appear in the near future and, if possible, a third volume will be published if authors can be secured to cover areas such as the Far East, other parts of the Indo-Pacific region, and New Zealand."

Plants are unique as their development and morphogenesis are plastic throughout their lives. They continuously monitor diverse biotic and abiotic parameters of their environment and these sensory perceptions shape their organs and bodies. Although genes are critical, the final form and architecture of above-ground organs, and es- cially of root systems, are determined by their sensory activities associated with motoric responses (Friml 2003; Hodge 2009). Sensory plant biology and plant el- trophysiology were two lively disciplines until the late 1970s (Bunning 1959; Haupt and Feinleib 1979) but then, for somewhat obscure reasons, they showed no further development. In the last few years, however, there have been numerous advances in plant sciences. These necessitate not just a revival of plant electrophysiology and sensory biology, but also the introduction of plant neurobiology, which includes also plant sensory ecology (Balu ka et al. 2006a; Brenner et al. 2006). First of all, and contrary to all "mechanistic" predictions based on the high turgor pressure of plant cells, endocytosis has been found to be an essential process of plant cells which impinges upon almost all aspects of plant life ( amaj et al. 2005, 2006). Moreover, recent advances in plant molecular biology have identified, besides classic n- rotransmitters, also several proteins typical of animal neuronal systems, such as acetylcholine esterases, glutamate receptors, GABA receptors, and endocannabinoid signaling components, as well as indicating signaling roles for ATP, NO, and re- tive oxygen species (Balu ka et al. 2006b)."

Plants have developed very sophisticated mechanisms to combat pathogens and pestsusingtheleastamountofreservedorgeneratedenergypossible. Theydothis by activating major defense mechanisms after recognition of the organisms that are considered to be detrimental to their survival; therefore they have been able to exist on Earth longer than any other higher organisms. It has been known for the past century that plants carry genetic information for inherited resistance against many pathogenic organisms including fungi, bacteria, and viruses, and that the relationship between pathogenic organisms and hosts plants are rather complex and in some cases time dependent. This genetic information has been the basis for breeding for resistance that has been employed by plant breeders to develop better-yielding disease resistant varieties, some of which are still being cultivated. Single gene resistance is one type of resistance which has been extensively studied by many research groups all around the world using biotechnological methodologies that have been the subject of many books and journal articles; therefore, it is beyond the scope of this book. This type of resistance is very effective, although it can be overcome by the pressure of pathogenic organisms since it depends on interaction of a single elicitor molecule from the pathogen with a single receptor site in the host.

This book critically examines the idea that the sustainability of agriculture could be improved by mimicking the structure and processes occurring in natural ecosystems. Researchers from around the world present comparative studies of multi-species farming systems, natural ecosystems and conventional agriculture. Case studies from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America examine the implications of increasing the complexity of farming systems on water and nutrient cycling, productivity and resilience. Theoretical issues discussed include the role of biodiversity in agriculture, the trade-off between perenniality and productivity, the choice to integrate or segregate production and conservation in an agricultural landscape, and the social and economic challenges to adopting complex farming systems. One section is devoted to the application of this concept in southern Australia, where 15 million hectares of land are expected to be affected by salinity by the middle of the next century unless there is a significant change in agricultural practice.

The dictionary provides explanations of the meaning and origins of generic and specific names of grasses, one of the largest and economically most important plant families. There are about 15,000 entries which far exceeds in number those of any other dictionary in print. Most of the names published during the past 250 years are included. This work should be of value to a wide audience including ecologists, agronomists, and anthropologists.

I have spent less time in the arid zone in the last few years than I did during the 1960's, 1970's and early 1980's. This results from a progression through age and a career structure which gradually shifted the emphasis of my work from being essentially field-oriented to essentially office-hound. When, therefore, I was asked by John Cloudsley-Thompson to undertake the writing of this hook I hesitated for two reasons. One reason was that, although I now had access to good library facilities and kept up with the literature on the arid zones and their fauna, I was not sure that a sedentary and pleasant life in a temperate highland island in tropieal Africa would provide a mental attitude suitable to writing a hook which related to areas where life is usually nomadie and often extremely disagreeable. The other reason was that I was uncertain whether I could devote the time necessary to researehing and writing the hook on top of my professional (which now specifical ly excluded research in the arid zones and on camels) and social (new-found and time-consuming) commitments. In the event I accepted and the fates were kind to me. By some peculiar combination of circumstances I was given the opportunity to spend a considerable part of the first half of 1988 in some of the driest areas of the globe. I had already visited all of the locations used for the construction of Fig. 2."

The ecology of potamoplankton has received less attention than lake plankton. These proceedings produce a synthesis of the composition, community structure and dynamics of lotic phytoplankton, which are intuitively submitted to a strong physical control in the flowing environment, perceived as much more disturbed' than a lake, even than a well-mixed shallow one. It turns out that the boundary between the phytoplankton of rivers and lakes is not as clear-cut as was thought. In particular, most contributions provide arguments emphasizing the prominent role of physical control in both aquatic systems, especially due to the steep light gradient resulting from turbulent mixing in a turbid water column. Similarities and differences between potamoplankton and limnoplankton, largely based on the information gathered by the contributors are discussed in the introductory paper by Reynolds et al.

This book is the result of a symposium dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Delta Institute for Hydrobiological Research in Yerseke, the Netherlands. The primary idea did not come from one of the scientists working in this Institute, but from the second editor. Long before the Institute celebrated itsjubilee on 20-23 October 1982, he expressed his feelings to the other editors, that the time had come for a second European symposium on the ecology of coastal vegetation. The first symposium on this theme was held in Norwich, 12-16 September 1977, being the first meeting of the European Ecological Symposium. He only So the working group Salt waited for a suitable opportunity. Well, the 25th anniversary was a good one. Marsh Ecosystems of the Delta Institute, in close collaboration with him, adopted Dr. Rozema's initiative and set about realizing his idea. An organising committee composed of the editors of this volume, planned the scope of the meeting.

Life originated and evolved in water. Later the The tropical countries where the need to under plants moved out of water, conquered the land and stand the natural ecosystems is far greater because became dominant over it. The evolution through they are under intensive pressure from develop the millennia resulted in enormous complexity of ment from a rapidly growing human population, form, tissue organisation, reproductive mechan have generally devoted much less attention to the isms and specialisation of taxa in different niches. studies of aquatic ecosystems. The Indian subconti At some stage during evolution, some plants devel nent is a well-recognised biogeographic region with oped appropriate morphological and physiological a distinct geological history, climate, soils and adaptations and reverted back to the aquatic and/ biota. It is also distinct in the history of human civilisation and cultures which have a profound bear or semi-aquatic habitat. These plants, perhaps with the exception of a few ing on the natural ecosystems. This book is in with beautiful flowers, have attracted little atten tended to provide the state of our knowledge of the tion from mankind. The fact that humans evolved aquatic and semi-aquatic vegetation in the inland in a tropical forest or savanna environment appears freshwaters of the subcontinent. The book covers responsible for a permanent bias in human atti only the herbaceous vegetation, since there is al tudes towards land and its biota."

This volume brings together papers from geotechnical and civil engineers, biologists, ecologists and foresters. They discuss current problems in slope stability research and how to address them using ground bio- and eco-engineering techniques. Coverage presents studies by scientists and practitioners on slope instability, erosion, soil hydrology, mountain ecology, land use and restoration and how to mitigate these problems using vegetation.

Climate variability has major impacts in many parts of the world, including Australia. Developments in understanding of the El Nino - Southern Oscillation Phenomenon have introduced some skill in seasonal to inter-annual climate forecasting. Can this skill be harnessed to advantage? Or do we just continue to observe these impacts? How does a decision-maker managing an agricultural or natural ecosystem modify decisions in response to a skillful, but imprecise, seasonal climate forecast? Using Australian experience as a basis, this book focuses on these questions in pursuing means to better manage climate risks. The state of the science in climate forecasting is reviewed before considering detailed examples of applications to: farm scale agricultural decisions (such as management of cropping and grazing systems); regional and national scale agricultural decisions (such as commodity trading and government policy); and natural systems (such as water resources, pests and diseases, and natural fauna). Many of the examples highlight the participatory and inter-disciplinary approach required among decision-makers, resource systems scientists/analysts, and climate scientists to bring about the effective applications. The experiences discussed provide valuable insights beyond the geographical and disciplinary focus of this book. The book is ideally suited to professionals and postgraduate students in ecology, agricultural climatology, environmental planning, and climate science."

The findings presented in this volume represent a concerted effort to develop a more inclusive form of reindeer management for northernmost Europe. Our guiding principle has been to foster a new paradigm of participatory research. We wish to move beyond the historical reliance on western approaches to basic and applied science. These have been concerned prim- ily with interactions between herded animals and the various components of their biophysical environment, e. g., plants, insects, predators, climate, and others. In our view, sociocultural and economic drivers, along with herders' experience-based knowledge, gain equal currency in the effort to understand how management may mitigate against the negative aspects of the challenges modern herding faces, while also exploring concepts of sustainability from different perspectives (see also Jernsletten and Klokov 2002; Kankaanpaa et al. 2002; Ulvevadet and Klokov 2004). This broadening of the pool of disciplines and local, national, and int- national stakeholders in policy-relevant research invariably complicates v- tually all aspects of the research process. Multidisciplinary or, in our sense, transdisciplinary approaches also require extraordinary effort from all p- ticipants if they are to succeed. As such, those approaches should not be undertaken lightly, nor without personnel who possess appropriate expe- ence in cooperating with those of different disciplines and, preferably, also with relevant practitioners and public social and administrative institutions. In such settings the potential for misunderstandings is quite high."

Dendrochronologists have long estimated the impact of climate on tree-ring growth by empirical-statistical methods. The use of the model is illustrated with examples from widely differing environments, and possible future directions for model development and application are discussed. As forests are the main carbon sink on land, the results are of great importance for all global change studies.

This book consists of papers presented at a symposium "PLANT-INDUCED SOIL CHANGES: PROCESSES AND FEEDBACKS" that was held during the American Society of Agronomy-Soil Science Society of America Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, November 4-8, 1996. The papers were also pub of Biogeochemistry (Vol. 42, nos. 1 and 2, 1998). The lished in a special issue symposium was built on the growing realisation that plant-induced changes in soil feed back in various ways to natural vegetations, giving rise to a plethora of plant-soil interactions beyond the classical one-way cause-and-effect pathways plant-to-soil and soil-to-plant. The aim of this special issue is not in the first place to present new research findings, but to review and discuss the more holistic aspects of plant-soil interactions, providing more room for speculation than do most collections of research papers. After a general introduction which emphasises ecological and evolutionary aspects of plant-soil interac ions (van Breemen and Finzi), three papers deal with particular effects of plants on soil properties: mineralogy (Kelly et al. ), soil structure (Angers and Caron) and soil fertility (Berendse). Next, five papers take up plant-soil interactions in specific biomes: forests (Binkley and Giardina; Gobran et al. ), grasslands (Burke et al.; Epstein et al. ) and deserts (Schlesinger and Pilmanis). Two papers discuss plant-soil interactions via effects of differences in litter quality in specific ecosystems: California's pygmy forest (Northup et al. ) and the Alaskan Taiga (Schimel et al. )."

Desertification has occurred worldwide. The biophysical and socio-economic complexity of this phenomenon has challenged our ability to categorize, inventory, monitor and repair the condition of degraded lands. One of the most important distinctions to be made in relation to land degradation is between cultivated land used for annual crop production and rangelands'. Grazing by free-roaming livestock is the traditional primary use of the world's rangelands. However, there is growing recognition of the importance of these vast acreages for wildlife habitat, hydrology and ground water recharge, recreation and aesthetics. This text focuses on the desertification of rangelands and explores processes, problems and solutions. Chapters in the first section evaluate interactions between natural' and human-induced disturbance regimes, thresholds, and non-linear change with respect to vegetation, hydrology, nutrients and erosion. Chapters in the second section examine socio-economic constraints and approaches for preventing and reversing degradation. The book provides a contemporary, process-oriented perspective on rangeland degradation of value to students, policy-makers and professionals alike.

With one volume published each year, this series keeps scientists and students current with the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. This present volume includes insightful reviews covering genetics, cell biology, physiology, comparative morphology, systematics, ecology, and vegetation science.

This book describes an integrated approach to using remotely sensed data in conjunction with geographic information systems for landscape analysis. Remotely sensed data are compressed into an analytical image-map that is compatible with the most popular geographic information systems as well as freeware viewers. The approach is most effective for landscapes that exhibit a pronounced mosaic pattern of land cover.

This book presents a wide range of contributions addressing diverse aspects of biodiversity exploitation and conservation. These collectively provide a snapshot of ongoing action and state-of-the-art research, rather than a series of necessarily more superficial overviews. Examples presented here derive from studies in 17 countries including Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. These reports will stimulate future work toward attaining a sustainable balance between the conservation and exploitation of biodiversity.

Seasonality is so obvious that we very often forget about it when doing landscape research. Seasonality is the interface where humans and nature really interact. Seasonality is expressed both in the natural rhythms of the landscape as well as in human lifestyles. Seasonality creates varying patterns of use and appears in spatial practices, paintings, human behaviour. Also, seasonality itself changes together with societal changes in agricultural societies, summer used to be the working season and winter the resting one; now we are more and more used to summer holidays

Landscapes are seasonal both in terms of time and space, the boundaries between seasons are celebrated do different seasonalities influence also our mindsets? In most cases we talk about (and paint and study) summer landscapes, but there are more than that. There are times with less light, less leaves on the trees to influence visibility, times when moist or snow make places inaccessible. Should seasonality be taken into account in planning, and if yes, then how?

This book studies seasonal landscape in Scandinavia and Brazil, on the Aegean islands and in European mountains, in agriculture tourism, in cities and in the countryside. "