The aim of this comprehensively written volume is to provide a baseline of information on the normal microflora at various sites in the body. It focuses on the mouth, upper digestive tract, large intestine, skin, and urinogenital tract. Written in an easy-to-read format, this book highlights the level of detail available. For example, it explains that in the mouth and colon the data are extremely detailed and good quantitative information is available on large numbers of bacterial species. This work analyzes the similarities and differences between the microfloras of the various "internal" surfaces, and discusses the clear value of good taxonomy. It focuses on problems and extended research in the progress at other sites. Because this work researches the advances and discoveries made in specific areas of human microbial ecology, it is an ideal source for all who are involved in microbiology, bacteriology, and infectious diseases.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, and environmental modelling are increasingly being used to address land use and land use management issues although much of the development in these applications is based in specific case studies that are not readily accessible to a wide audience. Spatial Information for Land Use Management is designed as a reference that provides a description and discussion of the issues involved in the use of spatial information for land use management. The chapters include detailed examples of the use of spatial information in land use management. The book begins with the technological methods, examines applications in a variety of environments, and describes the ways in which issues of scale, uncertainty, linkage of models and GIS, and problem solution have been addressed.

Changes in the use of land reflect a variety of environmental and social factors, necessitating an equally varied suite of data to be used for effective analysis. While remote sensing, both from satellites and air photos, provides a central resource for study, socio-economic surveys, censuses, and map sources also supply a wealth of valid information. Land Use Change: Science, Policy, and Management presents spatial theories and methodologies that support an integrated approach to the analysis of land use change. Focusing on spatial representation and modeling, this book addresses such important scientific issues as the dynamics of change, integration and feedback between system elements, and scale issues in space and time.

Fascinating and diverse, savanna ecosystems support a combination of pastoral and agropastoral communities alongside wild and domestic herbivores that can be found nowhere else. This diversity has made the study of these areas problematic. Ecosystem Function in Savannas: Measurement and Modeling at Landscape to Global Scales addresses some of the discontinuities in the treatment of savannas by the scientific community and documents a range of measurements, methods, technologies, applications, and modeling approaches. Based on contributions from leading authorities and experts on savanna systems worldwide, the book describes the global savanna biome in terms of its broad ecological properties, temporal dynamics, disturbance levels, and human dimensions. The text examines carbon, water, energy, and trace gas fluxes for major global savanna regions. It looks at quantitative surface properties of savannas that can be retrieved using remote sensing and numerical approaches used to explore savanna dynamics. The authors also discuss how savanna modeling and measurement approaches might be unified. By presenting this confluence of information in a single resource, the book provides a platform for examining synergies, connections, integrative opportunities, and complementarities among approaches and data sources. This information can then be used to harmonize measurement and modeling methods among scales and across disciplinary boundaries. The book builds a bridge across the markedly different perspectives on savannas by which ecologists, biogeochemists, remote sensors, geographers, anthropologists, and modelers approach their science.

Fascinating and diverse, savanna ecosystems support a combination of pastoral and agropastoral communities alongside wild and domestic herbivores that can be found nowhere else. This diversity has made the study of these areas problematic. Ecosystem Function in Savannas: Measurement and Modeling at Landscape to Global Scales addresses some of the discontinuities in the treatment of savannas by the scientific community and documents a range of measurements, methods, technologies, applications, and modeling approaches. Based on contributions from leading authorities and experts on savanna systems worldwide, the book describes the global savanna biome in terms of its broad ecological properties, temporal dynamics, disturbance levels, and human dimensions. The text examines carbon, water, energy, and trace gas fluxes for major global savanna regions. It looks at quantitative surface properties of savannas that can be retrieved using remote sensing and numerical approaches used to explore savanna dynamics. The authors also discuss how savanna modeling and measurement approaches might be unified. By presenting this confluence of information in a single resource, the book provides a platform for examining synergies, connections, integrative opportunities, and complementarities among approaches and data sources. This information can then be used to harmonize measurement and modeling methods among scales and across disciplinary boundaries. The book builds a bridge across the markedly different perspectives on savannas by which ecologists, biogeochemists, remote sensors, geographers, anthropologists, and modelers approach their science.

Changes in the use of land reflect a variety of environmental and social factors, necessitating an equally varied suite of data to be used for effective analysis. While remote sensing, both from satellites and air photos, provides a central resource for study, socio-economic surveys, censuses, and map sources also supply a wealth of valid information. Land Use Change: Science, Policy, and Management presents spatial theories and methodologies that support an integrated approach to the analysis of land use change. Focusing on spatial representation and modeling, this book addresses such important scientific issues as the dynamics of change, integration and feedback between system elements, and scale issues in space and time.