Dokuchaev carried out most of his research in Ukraine. His student and friend, Volodymyr Vernadsky, went on to create trans-disciplinary environmental sciences and the concept of Earth as a living organism, famously taken up by James Lovelock. That spring of ideas still flows and the researches captured in this volume are relevant to present-day problems, and not only in Ukraine. Soils have always been under stress but, in the Anthropocene, mankind is in the driving seat. As a sequel to Soil Science Working for a Living: Applications of soil science to present-day problems, we consider issues of policy as well as soil genesis, attributes and functions in various environments, natural and man-made. We consider human impacts on the soil cover through its use and misuse, highlight methods of research and assessment of soil quality, and the threats of soil degradation. The distinguished contributors also describe and propose various options for evaluation and remediation of degraded soils, drawing on the latest methods of modelling and cartography as well as long-term field experiments and long experience. The book will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners in soil science including graduate and post-graduate education, academics and professionals.

"Soil as World Heritage" celebrates a half century of field experiments on the Balti Steppe, in Moldova - where Dokuchaev first described the Typical Chernozem in 1877, protected from the elements by a unique system of shelter belts designed by the great man, and now provisionally listed as the first World Heritage Site for soil. The book presents contributions to the 2012 international symposium attended by researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the European Commission and countries as diverse as Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA and, of course, Moldova itself.

The experimental data demonstrate the damage caused by human activity to the productivity and integrity of the black earth and, also, ways to restore its fertility. Results from even longer-established trials worldwide also demonstrate that agricultural practices are driving global warming, leaching of nutrients, pollution of water resources, diversion of rainfall away from replenishment of soil and groundwater to destructive runoff, and destroying soil organic matter and biodiversity. These are pressing issues for our generation and will press harder on future generations. Long-term field experiments, and the scientific skills and experience that they nurture, will be more and more valuable as a foundation and focus for interdisciplinary teams studying the effects of farming practices on the soil and soil life so as to devise a sustainable alternative.

Europe-wide and worldwide contributions also discuss economic incentives - carbon and green water credits - which themselves require robust supporting data, and legislative aspects of promoting more sustainable farming systems. The outcomes of the conference include recommendations for institutional support for sustainable farming and a draft of the law on land and soil management for the Parliament of Moldova."

This book provides over 260 entries on U.S. presidents, Latin American politicians, covert operations, policies, and major events since the early 1800s that define the contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region.

From the Monroe Doctrine to NAFTA, the tone of U.S.-Latin America relations has been set by the United States, and largely to its benefit. Dent compiles more than 260 A-to-Z entries that detail the key people, events, treaties, wars, and concepts that have gone into the making of the often contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region. Entries conclude with suggested readings and are thoroughly cross-referenced. A thematic index guides users to related entries, and an extensive bibliography includes a list of key works central to the study of U.S.-Latin American relations. There is also a separate list of relevant online resources. The entire work is also thoroughly indexed.

Useful for students and researchers of international politics within the Western hemisphere, Dent's historical dictionary covers items ranging from pro-slavery filibusterers adventuring in Central America, Dollar Diplomacy, Anti-Americanism, Banana Wars, the Reagan Doctrine, Sandinistas, friendly Dictators, Che Guevara, to the impact of the events of September 11, 2001 on Latin America, among many others.

From border crime in Mexico to Chavez's revolution in Venezuela, this volume presents up-to-the-minute coverage of the key conflicts, corruption, and revolutionary movements simmering or raging in every region of Latin America. In-depth, comprehensive chapters explore drug wars, immigration issues, terrorism, youth gangs, government corruption, controversy over oil, and political instability, including: The Zapatista Rebellion, the Darien Gap controversy, Evo Morales, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and Tupac Amaru, the Falklands, and Guantanamo Bay. From border crime in Mexico to Chavez's revolution in Venezuela, this volume presents up-to-the-minute coverage of the key conflicts, corruption, and revolutionary movements simmering or raging in every region of Latin America. In-depth, comprehensive chapters explore drug wars, imigration issues, terrorism, youth gangs, government corruption, controversy over oil, and political instability. This is a must-have source for current coverage of trouble spots in Latin America, their origins, and subsequent development. Over 30 security-based hot spots are analyzed within these geographical regions. They vary in severity, background, and degree of threat to the United States, the nation itself, or its regional neighbors. Hot spots covered include: Zapatista Rebellion Darien Gap controversy Evo Morales Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and Tupac Amaru Falklands Guantanamo Bay

The food system is our last coal-fired power station, our last diesel engine. This book is a trans-disciplinary approach to what needs to be done to make our food system sustainable and to regenerate soil and water resources, habitat, economy and society. The book brings back classical principles of agronomy and integrates economic, agro-ecological and social perspectives, drawing on a wealth of expertise on the political economy of the food system, Conservation Agriculture, and long-term field experiments. Regenerative agriculture builds on known knowns - like crop rotation, water and nutrient requirements, soil and water conservation, farm-gate prices, international trade and supply chains. It grapples with known unknowns - like weed, pest and disease control without agrochemicals, cover crops for profit as well as protection, mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, resilience and tipping points in ecosystems, farming systems and societies, and how we can pay for imperative changes. Lastly, it acknowledges unknown unknowns - the things we are oblivious to but which we really must know - like how to liberate the ghettos of the mind inhabited by farmers, agronomists, politicians and societies.

Dokuchaev carried out most of his research in Ukraine. His student and friend, Volodymyr Vernadsky, went on to create trans-disciplinary environmental sciences and the concept of Earth as a living organism, famously taken up by James Lovelock. That spring of ideas still flows and the researches captured in this volume are relevant to present-day problems, and not only in Ukraine. Soils have always been under stress but, in the Anthropocene, mankind is in the driving seat. As a sequel to Soil Science Working for a Living: Applications of soil science to present-day problems, we consider issues of policy as well as soil genesis, attributes and functions in various environments, natural and man-made. We consider human impacts on the soil cover through its use and misuse, highlight methods of research and assessment of soil quality, and the threats of soil degradation. The distinguished contributors also describe and propose various options for evaluation and remediation of degraded soils, drawing on the latest methods of modelling and cartography as well as long-term field experiments and long experience. The book will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners in soil science including graduate and post-graduate education, academics and professionals.

This book provides an international perspective on rural planning, focused on developing countries. It examines conventional development planning and innovative local planning approaches, drawing together lessons from recent experience of rural planning and land use. The authors examine past and current practice and ways that land use planning and management of natural resources can underpin sustainable local livelihoods. They draw on case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America to present findings relevant throughout the developing world.

Biological pesticides based on pathogenic micro-organisms specific to a target pest offer an ecologically-sound and effective solution to pest problems. They pose less threat to the environment and to human health than do chemical pesticides. However, despite the enormous potential for biopesticides, their development, commercialization and use has been slow. The information reported in this book is based on a survey of more than 100 biopesticide research workers in developing countries. The results demonstrate that the main difficulties and constraints facing researchers relate to a lack of expertise in the crucial later stages of development. Biopesticide research is receiving mostly low investments, mainly from the public sector, and requires more multidisciplinary expertise. It is concluded that targeted assistance on a multinational and multi-disciplinary basis is required in developing countries in order to remove the constraints.

Ideal for student research and debate, this is the first single-volume reference work to examine, country by country, the history of U.S. involvement in 24 Latin American and Caribbean nations. It will help students to understand and debate the role of the United States in Latin America since the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and whether in the long run U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Latin American governments has been counterproductive. Each country and its relations with the United States is analyzed succinctly in an individual chapter. Dent, a noted expert on inter-American relations, organizes each chapter around major themes that illuminate both historical and contemporary issues, and shows how in recent years U.S. concerns have been transformed from issues of security and economic interests to drug trafficking, immigration, and trade pacts. Discussion of key events--wars, revolutions, and dictatorships--and lively accounts of the role of powerful individuals illustrate the causes and consequences of U.S. involvement. Each chapter features a timeline of events in the history of U.S. involvement in that country and a list of suggested readings on the country and its relationship with the United States. A glossary explains key terms used throughout the book. A number of comparative tables and charts put inter-American relations in perspective. A selection of editorial cartoons from the 1980's offer biting commentary on U.S. relations with its Latin American neighbors. Designed to meet the information needs of high school and college students and the general public, this reference work will guide the user to an understanding of the richness and complexity of the inter-Americanrelationship over the last two centuries and provide both historical perspective and timely analysis of current problems confronting the United States and its neighbors to the south.

Soil as World Heritage celebrates a half century of field experiments on the Balti Steppe, in Moldova - where Dokuchaev first described the Typical Chernozem in 1877, protected from the elements by a unique system of shelter belts designed by the great man, and now provisionally listed as the first World Heritage Site for soil. The book presents contributions to the 2012 international symposium attended by researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the European Commission and countries as diverse as Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy , the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA and, of course, Moldova itself. The experimental data demonstrate the damage caused by human activity to the productivity and integrity of the black earth and, also, ways to restore its fertility. Results from even longer-established trials worldwide also demonstrate that agricultural practices are driving global warming, leaching of nutrients, pollution of water resources, diversion of rainfall away from replenishment of soil and groundwater to destructive runoff, and destroying soil organic matter and biodiversity. These are pressing issues for our generation and will press harder on future generations. Long-term field experiments, and the scientific skills and experience that they nurture, will be more and more valuable as a foundation and focus for interdisciplinary teams studying the effects of farming practices on the soil and soil life so as to devise a sustainable alternative. Europe-wide and worldwide contributions also discuss economic incentives - carbon and green water credits - which themselves require robust supporting data, and legislative aspects of promoting more sustainable farming systems. The outcomes of the conference include recommendations for institutional support for sustainable farming and a draft of the law on land and soil management for the Parliament of Moldova.

An undergraduate and postgraduate textbook covering the key principles, methodologies, approaches and practical examples of insect pest management in agricultural, post harvest systems, horticulture, insect vectors and medical and veterinary entomology. The book covers the underpinning monitoring and forecasting of pest outbreaks, yield loss and impact assessments and all of the latest methods of control and management of insects from insecticides, host manipulation, plant resistance, biological control, use of interference, agronomic and precision control methods as well as socio-economic and research management aspects of developing integrated approaches to pest management. The new edition also reflects the key advances made in the disciplines of molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics related to insects and their management, as well as the importance and role of biodiversity, climate change, precision agriculture, data management and sustainability of production and supply in delivering integrated management solutions.

This new, third edition has been thoroughly updated to include all the key principles, methodologies, approaches and practical examples of insect pest management in agriculture, horticulture, medical and veterinary entomology. The book covers monitoring and forecasting of pest outbreaks, yield loss and impact assessments and all of the latest methods involved in the control and management of insects. It includes coverage of host manipulation, plant resistance, biological control, use of interference, agronomic precision control methods and insecticides as well as socio-economic and research management aspects of developing integrated approaches to pest management. The new edition also reflects the key advances made in the disciplines of molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics related to insects and their management. It also considers the importance and role of biodiversity, climate change, precision agriculture, data management and sustainability of production and supply in delivering integrated management solutions. This important text continues to be essential reading for students, researchers and industry scientists involved in all aspects of insect pest management, applied entomology, crop protection and medical and veterinary entomology.

Entomology as a branch of biological science has undergone rapid expansion and development in recent decades. There have been major advances in the technologies associated with pest management and the ecological studies that underpin much of this work. Greater emphasis is now placed on topics such as modelling and biochemical techniques, with new approaches to the study of insect behavior and insecticide efficacy making inroads into traditional approaches. This book aims to integrate the new approaches and technologies with traditional and well-proven methods. It provides a critical analysis and evaluation of methods available, through reference to general principles, but emphasis is also placed on providing detailed descriptions of methods and their application. Written by leading authorities from the UK, USA and Australia, the book is aimed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in entomology and pest management.

This report examines the scientific basis for the use of remotely sensed data, particularly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), primarily for the assessment of land degradation at different scales and for a range of applications, including resilience of agro-ecosystems. Evidence is drawn from a wide range of investigations, primarily from the scientific peer-reviewed literature but also non-journal sources. The literature review has been corroborated by interviews with leading specialists in the field. The report reviews the use of NDVI for a range of themes related to land degradation, including land cover change, drought monitoring and early warning systems, desertification processes, greening trends, soil erosion and salinization, vegetation burning and recovery after fire, biodiversity loss, and soil carbon. This SpringerBrief also discusses the limits of the use of NDVI for land degradation assessment and potential for future directions of use. A substantial body of peer-reviewed research lends unequivocal support for the use of coarse-resolution time series of NDVI data for studying vegetation dynamics at global, continental and sub-continental levels. There is compelling evidence that these data are highly correlated with biophysically meaningful vegetation characteristics such as photosynthetic capacity and primary production that are closely related to land degradation and to agroecosystem resilience.

This is a volume in the new IYPE series commemorating the UN International Year of Planet Earth. It presents the current state-of-the-art in soil sciences, and ways forward for a sustainable future.

The book provides a wealth of information on soils offered by new airborne and space-borne sensors, with unprecedented detail, accuracy, rapid regional and global coverage, and also information from deep below the surface. This new data is used in climate models, agricultural and forest production estimates, assessment of land degradation and improvement, water resources management, and estimation of erosion and sedimentation. The book discusses how good intelligence can support interventions to arrest salinity, identify shallow groundwater resources, design water storages and other engineering works, and assess land suitability for particular uses.