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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Physical geography > Wetlands, swamps, fens
A Major Revision of the Previous Edition Wetland Soils: Genesis, Hydrology, Landscapes, and Classification, Second Edition contains 11 new chapters and additional updates written by new authors with a broad range of related field and academic experience. This revised work augments the previous material on wetland functions and restorations, while maintaining the field-oriented focus of the first book. The reworked text includes current coverage of hydric soil field indicators, wetland soils, chemistry of wetland soils, and wetland hydrology. This book explains how wetland soils are formed, described, and identified, defines the functions they perform, and serves to assist decision-making in the field. A specialized book specifically geared toward environmental consultants and governmental wetland regulators, the text: Reviews general properties of wetland soils, including hydrology, redox chemistry, organic matter dynamics and biology. Provides examples of major types of wetlands across the United States Highlights USDA Hydric Soil Field Indicators, the most current and universal indicators of wetlands soils Summarizes technical standards Evaluates wetland functions, methods of assessment, and restoration techniques Wetland Soils: Genesis, Hydrology, Landscapes, and Classification, Second Edition explains how wetland soils form, are described and can be identified in the field, and is an ideal resource for professionals, students, or anyone dedicated to the understanding and conservation of wetlands.
This book contains papers presented at the International Workshop on Tropical Wetlands, held in Banjarmasin, Indonesia. This workshop discussed wetland mapping and characterization as well as wetland management for sustainable agriculture. This volume contains selected papers on tropical wetlands, more specifically, peatland, tidal land, and acid sulphate soils. This book presents an international overview of wetland and peatland mapping experiences from Indonesia, Congo, Brazil, Australia, and Scotland. Several innovative techniques are discussed, including integrated digital soil mapping and remote sensing techniques, as well as geodatabase processing and field surveying. This book further discussed tropical wetland management for agriculture as practiced in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. The contents of this book are suitable and should be a good reference for those who are involved in research, development, and management of tropical wetland, including academics, soil scientists, environmentalists, researchers, agriculturists, students, agri-businessmen, policy makers, land managers and farmers.
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week ‘Magnificent’ Guardian ‘Remarkable … A compact classic!’ Bill McKibben ‘I learned something new – and found something amazing – on every page’ Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth’s most desirable and dependable resources. Here, Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment, and their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit. Travelling from the fens of sixteenth-century England to America’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Fen, Bog and Swamp is both a revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation, from one of our greatest prose stylists. ‘A rousing call to action’ Esquire ‘Sparklingly furious … it has a profoundly positive message’ Richard Mabey, Telegraph ‘This haunting tribute … is a pleasure to read’ Financial Times
Wetlands serve many important functions and provide numerous ecological services such as clean water, wildlife habitat, nutrient reduction, and flood control. Wetland science is a relatively young discipline but is a rapidly growing field due to an enhanced understanding of the importance of wetlands and the numerous laws and policies that have been developed to protect these areas. This growth is demonstrated by the creation and growth of the Society of Wetland Scientists which was formed in 1980 and now has a membership of 3,500 people. It is also illustrated by the existence of 2 journals ("Wetlands" and "Wetlands Ecology and Management") devoted entirely to wetlands. To date there has been no practical, comprehensive techniques book centered on wetlands, and written for wetland researchers, students, and managers. This techniques book aims to fill that gap. It is designed to provide an overview of the various methods that have been used or developed by researchers and practitioners to study, monitor, manage, or create wetlands. Including many methods usually found only in the peer-reviewed or gray literature, this 3-volume set fills a major niche for all professionals dealing with wetlands."
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week 'A subject that could not be more important. A compact classic!' Bill McKibben 'I learned something new - and found something amazing - on every page' Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See From Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx - whose novels are infused with her knowledge and deep concern for the earth - comes an urgent and riveting history of wetlands, their ecological role and how the loss of them threatens the planet. Fens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth's most desirable and dependable resources, and in four illuminating parts Proulx documents the emergence of their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit and the consequent release of their stored carbon. Wide-ranging and idiosyncratic, Proulx's explanation of wetlands takes readers to the fens of sixteenth-century England, Canada's Hudson Bay Lowlands, Russia's Great Vasyugan Mire and America's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and introduces the nineteenth-century explorers who launched the ravaging of the Amazon rainforest. Proulx was born in the 1930s, a time, as she says, when 'in the ever-continuing name of progress, Western countries busily raped their own and other countries of minerals, timber, fish and wildlife.' Fen, Bog & Swamp is both a revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation from a writer whose passionate devotion to observing and preserving the environment is on glorious display. 'Magnificent, bringing to life hitherto overlooked habitats' Guardian 'Proulx's sparkling book will open your eyes to humanity's reckless trashing of wetlands' Telegraph 'A haunting tribute ... Proulx's poetic description of these places, and peat itself, is a pleasure to read' Financial Times
Facing droughts, floods, and water security challenges, society is increasingly forced to develop new policies and practices to cope with the impacts of climate change. From taken-for-granted values and perceptions to embodied, existential modes of engaging our world, human perspectives impact decision-making and behaviour. The Wonder of Water explores how human experience - including our cultural paradigms, value systems, and personal biases - impacts decisions around water. In many ways, the volume expands on the growing field of water ethics to include questions around environmental aesthetics, psychology, and ontology. And yet this book is not simply for philosophers. On the contrary, a specific aim is to explore how more informed philosophical dialogue will lead to more insightful public policies and practices. Case studies describe specific architectural and planning decisions, fisheries policies, urban ecological restorations, and more. The overarching phenomenological perspective, however, means that these discussions emerge within a sensibility that recognizes the foundational significance of human embodiment, culture, language, worldviews, and, ultimately, moral attunement to place.
Peatlands form important landscape elements in many parts of the world and play significant roles for biodiversity and global carbon balance. This new edition has been fully revised and updated, documenting the latest advances in areas such as microbial processes and relations between biological processes and hydrology. As well as thoroughly referencing the latest research, the authors expose a rich older literature where an immense repository of natural history has accumulated. The Biology of Peatlands starts with an overview of the main peatland types (marsh, swamp, fen, and bog), before examining the entire range of biota present (microbes, invertebrates, plants, and vertebrates), together with their specific adaptations to peatland habitats. Detailed coverage is devoted to the genus Sphagnum, the most important functional plant group in northern peatlands, although tropical and southern hemisphere peatlands are also covered. Throughout the book the interactions between organisms and environmental conditions (especially wetness, availability of oxygen, and pH) are emphasized, with chapters on the physical and chemical characteristics of peat, the role of peat as an archive of past vegetation and climate, and peatland succession and development. Several other key factors and processes are then examined, including hydrology and nutrient cycling. The fascinating peatland landforms in different parts of the world are described, together with theories on how they have developed. Human interactions with peatlands are considered in terms of management, conservation, and restoration. A final chapter, new to this edition, focuses on the role of peatlands as sources or sinks for the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, and the influences of climate change on peatlands. This timely and accessible text is suitable for students and researchers of peatland ecology, as well as providing an authoritative overview for professional ecologists and conservation biologists.
This book chronicles and explains the role of suburbs in North American cities since the mid-twentieth century. Examining fifteen case studies from New York to Vancouver, Atlanta to Chicago, Montreal to Phoenix, The Life of North American Suburbs traces the insightful connection between the evolution of suburbs and the cultural dynamics of modern society. Suburbs are uniquely significant spaces: their creation and evolution reflect the shifting demographics, race relations, modes of production, cultural fabric, and class structures of society at large. The case studies investigate the place of suburbs within their wider metropolitan constellations: the crucial role they play in the cultural, economic, political, and spatial organization of the city. Together, the chapters paint a compelling portrait of North American cities and their dynamic suburban landscapes.
Phytoremediation with wetland plants is an eco-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, cost-effective, solar-driven, passive technique that is useful for cleaning up environmental pollutants with low to moderate levels of contamination.
Wetlands - swamp, marsh, bayou, tundra and bog - are places that are rarely visited and often misunderstood but they have, in fact, conspicuous roles in the physical, biological and cultural geography of the world.? They are intrinsically beautiful environments where one may see the natural and essential values in the interaction of water, soil, vegetation, wildlife, and humans.? Wetlands occur at the confluence of unique terrestrial, hydrological and climatic conditions that give rise to some of the most biodiverse regions of the world.? They also play vital roles in the cycling and storage of key nutrients, materials and energy through the Earth's system. A complete study of wetland environments requires the assessment of their physical and biological attributes, properties and functions of these ecosystems, and the economic, political and social aspects that mediate their use globally.? A systems approach is taken throughout this book which emphasizes the interactions between these elements of wetland ecosystems.? Moreover, selected case studies from across the world are used to illustrate wetland characteristics and circumstances.? This book is intended to foster a greater awareness and appreciation of wetlands, promote a culture of conservation and wise management, and spread the knowledge that wetlands are important, indeed crucial, elements of the global environment.? Our attempts to understand, manage and enhance wetlands in the twenty-first century are part of the larger effort to maintain a sustainable Earth. "Readership: " Introductory or intermediate level undergraduates taking courses on wetland environments Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/aber/wetland.
In the name of agriculture, urban growth, and disease control, humans have drained, filled, or otherwise destroyed nearly 87 percent of the world's wetlands over the past three centuries. Unintended consequences include biodiversity loss, poor water quality, and the erosion of cultural sites, and only in the past few decades have wetlands been widely recognized as worth preserving. Emily O'Gorman asks, What has counted as a wetland, for whom, and with what consequences? Using the Murray-Darling Basin-a massive river system in eastern Australia that includes over 30,000 wetland areas-as a case study and drawing on archival research and original interviews, O'Gorman examines how people and animals have shaped wetlands from the late nineteenth century to today. She illuminates deeper dynamics by relating how Aboriginal peoples acted then and now as custodians of the landscape, despite the policies of the Australian government; how the movements of water birds affected farmers; and how mosquitoes have defied efforts to fully understand, let alone control, them. Situating the region's history within global environmental humanities conversations, O'Gorman argues that we need to understand wetlands as socioecological landscapes in order to create new kinds of relationships with and futures for these places.
The draining of the Fens in eastern England was one of the largest engineering projects in seventeenth-century Europe. A series of Dutch and English "projectors," working over several decades and with the full support of the Crown, transformed hundreds of thousands of acres of putatively barren wetlands into dry, arable farmland. The drainage project was also supposed to reform the sickly, backward fenlanders into civilized, healthy farmers, to the benefit of the entire commonwealth. As projectors reconstructed entire river systems, these new, artificial channels profoundly altered both the landscape and the lives of those who lived on it. In this definitive account, historian Eric H. Ash provides a detailed history of this ambitious undertaking. Ash traces the endeavor from the 1570s, when draining the whole of the Fens became an imaginable goal for the Crown, through several failed efforts in the early 1600s. The book closes in the 1650s, when, in spite of the project's enormous difficulty and expense, the draining of the Great Level of the Fens was finally completed. Ash ultimately concludes that the transformation of the Fens into fertile farmland had unintended ecological consequences that created at least as many problems as it solved. Drawing on painstaking archival research, Ash explores the drainage from the perspectives of political, social, and environmental history. He argues that the efficient management and exploitation of fenland natural resources in the rising nation-state of early modern England was a crucial problem for the Crown, one that provoked violent confrontations with fenland inhabitants, who viewed the drainage (and accompanying land seizure) as a grave threat to their local landscape, economy, and way of life. The drainage also reveals much about the political flashpoints that roiled England during the mid-seventeenth century leading up to the violence of the English Civil War. This is compelling reading for British historians, environmental scholars, historians of technology, and anyone interested in state formation in early modern Europe.
When looking at old pictures of Toronto, it is clear that the city’s urban, economic, and social geography has changed dramatically over the generations. Historic photos of Toronto’s streetcar network offer a unique opportunity to examine how the city has been transformed from a provincial, industrial city into one of North America’s largest and most diverse regions. Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto studies the city’s urban transformations through an analysis of photographs taken by streetcar enthusiasts, beginning in the 1960s. These photographers did not intend to record the urban form, function, or social geographies of Toronto; they were "accidental archivists" whose main goal was to photograph the streetcars themselves. But today, their images render visible the ordinary, day-to-day life in the city in a way that no others did. These historic photographs show a Toronto before gentrification, globalization, and deindustrialization. Each image has been re-photographed to provide fresh insights into a city that is in a constant state of flux. With gorgeous illustrations, this unique book offers an understanding of how Toronto has changed, and the reasons behind these urban shifts. The visual exploration of historic and contemporary images from different parts of the city helps to explain how the major forces shaping the city affect its form, functions, neighbourhoods, and public spaces.
This book explains how with careful planning and design, the functions and performance of constructed wetlands can provide a huge range of benefits to humans and the environment. It documents the current designs and specifications for free water surface wetlands, horizontal and vertical subsurface flow wetlands, hybrid wetlands and bio retention basins; and explores how to plan, engineer, design and monitor these natural systems. Sections address resource management (landscape planning), technical issues (environmental engineering and botany), recreation and physical design (landscape architecture), and biological systems (ecology). Site and municipal scale strategies for flood management, storm-water treatment and green infrastructure are illustrated with case studies from the USA, Europe and China, which show how these principles have been put into practice. Written for upper level students and practitioners, this highly illustrated book provides designers with the tools they need to ensure constructed wetlands are sustainably created and well manage
This volume explores major wetland ecosystem services, such as climate cooling and water quality improvement, and discusses the recent wetland conservation and restoration activities in China and neighboring countries. The role of wetlands in either cooling or warming the climate is analyzed as the net balance between carbon sequestration and emissions of methane and nitrous oxide. Wetlands start off having a net warming effect on the climate but in time switch to net cooling. Further, they remove 40% of the N and P from run-off and groundwater flow in agricultural areas, but wetlands need to amount to 10% of the total catchment area to make a difference. Reflecting on the recent large investment in wetland ecological studies in China and neighboring countries, the book addresses invasive species in coastal wetlands as well as the protection and wise use of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea. It also presents promising regional case studies on wetland restoration. The book is intended for academics, students and practitioners in the field of wetland ecology, management and restoration, as well as consultants and professionals working in conservation, wise use and environmental policy.
Wetlands - swamp, marsh, bayou, tundra and bog - are places that are rarely visited and often misunderstood but they have, in fact, conspicuous roles in the physical, biological and cultural geography of the world.? They are intrinsically beautiful environments where one may see the natural and essential values in the interaction of water, soil, vegetation, wildlife, and humans.? Wetlands occur at the confluence of unique terrestrial, hydrological and climatic conditions that give rise to some of the most biodiverse regions of the world.? They also play vital roles in the cycling and storage of key nutrients, materials and energy through the Earth's system. A complete study of wetland environments requires the assessment of their physical and biological attributes, properties and functions of these ecosystems, and the economic, political and social aspects that mediate their use globally.? A systems approach is taken throughout this book which emphasizes the interactions between these elements of wetland ecosystems.? Moreover, selected case studies from across the world are used to illustrate wetland characteristics and circumstances.? This book is intended to foster a greater awareness and appreciation of wetlands, promote a culture of conservation and wise management, and spread the knowledge that wetlands are important, indeed crucial, elements of the global environment.? Our attempts to understand, manage and enhance wetlands in the twenty-first century are part of the larger effort to maintain a sustainable Earth. "Readership: " Introductory or intermediate level undergraduates taking courses on wetland environments Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/aber/wetland.
Not Good Enough for Canada investigates the development of Canadian immigration policy with respect to persons with a disease or disability throughout the twentieth century. With an emphasis on social history, this book examines the way the state operates through legislation to achieve its goals of self-preservation even when such legislation contradicts state commitments to equality rights. Looking at the ways federal politicians, mainstream media, and the judicial system have perceived persons with disabilities, specifically immigrant applicants with disabilities, this book reveals how Canadian immigration policy has systematically omitted any reference to this group, rendering them socially invisible.
Facing droughts, floods, and water security challenges, society is increasingly forced to develop new policies and practices to cope with the impacts of climate change. From taken-for-granted values and perceptions to embodied, existential modes of engaging our world, human perspectives impact decision-making and behaviour. The Wonder of Water explores how human experience - including our cultural paradigms, value systems, and personal biases - impacts decisions around water. In many ways, the volume expands on the growing field of water ethics to include questions around environmental aesthetics, psychology, and ontology. And yet this book is not simply for philosophers. On the contrary, a specific aim is to explore how more informed philosophical dialogue will lead to more insightful public policies and practices. Case studies describe specific architectural and planning decisions, fisheries policies, urban ecological restorations, and more. The overarching phenomenological perspective, however, means that these discussions emerge within a sensibility that recognizes the foundational significance of human embodiment, culture, language, worldviews, and, ultimately, moral attunement to place.
Universities across North America and beyond are experiencing growing demand for off-campus, experiential learning. Exploring the foundations of what it means to learn "out there," Out There Learning is an informed, critical investigation of the pedagogical philosophies and practices involved in short-term, off-campus programs or field courses. Bringing together contributors' individual research and experience teaching or administering off-campus study programs, Out There Learning examines and challenges common assumptions about pedagogy, place, and personal transformation, while also providing experience-based insights and advice for getting the most out of faculty-led field courses. Divided into three sections that investigate aspects of pedagogy, ethics of place, and course and program assessment, this collection offers "voices from the field" highlighting the experiences of faculty members, students, teaching assistants, and community members engaged in every aspect of an off-campus study programs. Several chapters examine study programs in the traditional territories of Indigenous communities and in the Global South. Containing an appendix highlighting some examples of off-campus study programs, Out There Learning offers new pathways for faculty, staff, and college and university administrators interested in enriching the experience of non-traditional avenues of study.
Many historians and political scientists argue that ties between Canada and Latin America have been weak and intermittent because of lack of mutual interest and common objectives. Has this record of diverging paths changed as Canada has attempted to expand its economic and diplomatic ties with the region? Has Canada become an imperialist power? Canada's Past and Future in Latin America investigates the historical origins of and more recent developments in Canadian foreign policy in the region. It offers a detailed evaluation of the Harper and Trudeau governments' approaches to Latin America, touching on political diplomacy, bilateral development cooperation, and civil society initiatives. Leading scholars of Canada-Latin America relations offer insights from unique perspectives on a range of issues, such as the impact of Canadian mining investment, security relations, democracy promotion, and the changing nature of Latin American migration to Canada. Drawing on archival research, field interviews, and primary sources, Canada's Past and Future in Latin America advances our understanding of Canadian engagement with the region and evaluates options for building stronger ties in the future.
Wetlands are very sensitive and valuable ecosystems that are subject to much stress from human activities. The study presented here has developed an innovative triple layer framework for analysis of wetland management. This approach provides support for spatial matching between physical planning, hydrological and ecological processes, and economic activities. The authors describe how integrated modelling at the regional scale can be achieved in practice. Following an introduction to wetlands, theoretical aspects of the contributing disciplines are discussed, as well as various aspects of integrated and spatial modelling. An applied integrated assessment of spatial wetland management for the Vecht area between Amsterdam and Utrecht is then presented. This assessment has resulted in a set of linked hydrological, ecological and economic models, formulated at the level of grids and polders, and various types of evaluations and rankings of scenarios. The results indicate the value of maintaining spatial detail for as long as possible.
Inconstant and forbidding, the arctic has lured misguided voyagers into the cold for centuries-pushing them beyond the limits of their knowledge, technology, and endurance. A Fabulous Kingdom charts these quests and the eventual race for the North Pole, chronicling the lives and adventures that would eventually throw light on this "magical realm" of sunless winters. They follow the explorers from the early journeys of Viking Ottar to the daring exploits of Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson, Frederick Cook, Robert Peary, and Richard Bird. The second edition features a section entitled "The New Arctic" that illuminates current scientific and environmental issues that threaten the region. Officer and Page discuss such topics as the science behind the melting of the polar ice; the endangered species that now depend on the ice, including polar bears, narwhals, walruses, and ringed seals; commerce in mining and natural resources, especially petroleum and natural gas; and predictions for the economic and environmental future of the region. Library Journal called the first edition a "winning fusion of adventure, suspense, and history."
During the past century approximately fifty percent of the world's wetlands have been destroyed, largely due to human activities. Increased human population has lead to shrinkage of wetland areas, and data show that as they shrink, their important functions decline. Reduced wetland area causes more flooding in Spring, less available water during drought, greater risk of water pollution, and less food production and reduced carbon storage. Much of the remaining pristine wetland systems are found in the world's largest wetlands, and yet these areas have received surprisingly little scientific research or attention. This volume presents the views of leading experts on each of the world's largest wetland systems. Here, this international team of authors share their understanding of the ecological dynamics of large wetlands and their significance, and emphasise their need of conservation.
This is a detailed study of how the Somerset Levels, originally a large tract of marsh, were drained and reclaimed to becomes one of the most agriculturally productive areas of south-west England. The story of the draining of this region brings to light significant comparisons and contrasts with other reclaimed lowlands and extends our knowledge of one of the processes by which the British landscape has changed. This is an important book, which brings together information on an area that has until now received very little attention; it also shows just how early massive reclamation began. It will be of interest to both geographers and historians.
Urban agriculture offers promising solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, storm water runoff, and unemployment. These objectives connect to many cities' broader goal of "sustainability," but tensions among stakeholders have started to emerge in cities as urban agriculture is incorporated into the policymaking framework. Growing a Sustainable City? offers a critical analysis of the development of urban agriculture policies and their role in making post-industrial cities more sustainable. Christina Rosan and Hamil Pearsall's intriguing and illuminating case study of Philadelphia reveals how growing in the city has become a symbol of urban economic revitalization, sustainability, and - increasingly - gentrification. Their comprehensive research includes interviews with urban farmers, gardeners, and city officials, and reveals that the transition to "sustainability" is marked by a series of tensions along race, class, and generational lines. The book evaluates the role of urban agriculture in sustainability planning and policy by placing it within the context of a large city struggling to manage competing sustainability objectives. They highlight the challenges and opportunities of institutionalizing urban agriculture into formal city policy. Rosan and Pearsall tell the story of change and growing pains as a city attempts to reinvent itself as sustainable, livable, and economically competitive. |
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