The large and rapidly expanding body ofliterature related to nitrogen cycling in both managed and native terrestrial ecosystems reflects the importance accorded to the behaviour of this vital and often limiting nutrient. Research at the organism, ecosystem and landscape levels commonly addresses questions concerning nitrogen acquisition, internal cycling and retention. Goals for this research include increased agricultural productivity and a better understanding of human impact on local, regional and global nitrogen cycles. Nitrogen cycle research in tropical regions has a long and distinguished history. Research on different aspects of nitrogen cycling in ecosystems of the tropics has been carried out in many regions. In relatively few instances has there, however, been a focus on the biogeochemical cycles at the ecosystem level. The meeting resulting in this volume was an attempt to bring together existing information on nitrogen cycling in ecosystems of Latin America and the Caribbean and discuss this in an ecosystem context.

New Mexico cultural envoy Juan Estevan Arellano, to whom this work is dedicated, writes that querencia "is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect it as our home." This sentiment is echoed in the foreword by Rudolfo Anaya, in which he writes that "querencia is love of home, love of place." This collection of both deeply personal reflections and carefully researched studies explores the New Mexico homeland through the experiences and perspectives of Chicanx and indigenous/Genizaro writers and scholars from across the state. The importance of querencia for each contributor is apparent in their work and their ongoing studies, which have roots in the culture, history, literature, and popular media of New Mexico. Be inspired and enlightened by these essays and discover the history and belonging that is querencia.

Un lugar sagrado, a sacred place where two or more are gathered in the name of community, can be found almost anywhere and yet it is elusive: a charro arena behind a rock quarry, on the pilgrimage trail to Chimayo, a curandero's shrine in South Texas, or at a binational Mass along the border. Sagrado is neither a search for identity nor a quest for a homeland but an affirmation of an ever-evolving cultural landscape. Embedded at the heart of this remarkable book, in which prose, photographs, and poems complement each other, is a photopoetic journey across the Chicano Southwest.

Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Santa Fe at a time when New Mexico, like Spain's other North American colonies, faced heightened threats from Indians and international rivals. As governor of New Mexico from 1778 to 1788, Anza enacted a series of changes in the colony's governance that helped preserve it as a Spanish territory and strengthen the larger empire to which it belonged. Although Anza is best known for his travels to California as a young man, this book, the first comprehensive biography of Anza, shows his greater historical importance as a soldier and administrator in the history of North America. Historian Carlos R. Herrera argues that Anza's formative years in Sonora, Mexico, contributed to his success as a colonial administrator. Having grown up in New Spain's northern territory, Anza knew the daily challenges that the various ethnic groups encountered in this region of limited resources, and he saw both the advantages and the pitfalls of the region's strong Franciscan presence. Anza's knowledge of frontier terrains and peoples helped make him a more effective military and political leader. When raiding tribes threatened the colony during his tenure as governor, Anza rode into battle, killing the great Comanche war chief Cuerno Verde in 1779 and later engineering a peace treaty formally concluded in 1786. As the colonial overseer of the imperial policies known as the Bourbon Reforms, he also implemented a series of changes in the colony's bureaucratic, judicial, and religious institutions. Charged with militarizing New Mexico so that it could contribute to the maintenance of the empire, Anza curtailed the social, political, and economic power the Franciscans had long enjoyed and increased Spain's authority in the region. By combining administrative history with narrative biography, Herrera shows that Juan Bautista de Anza was more than an explorer. Devoted equally to the Spanish empire and to the North American region he knew intimately, Governor Anza shaped the history of New Mexico at a critical juncture.

Faith is an eighteen year old girl who struggles with who she is. Often depressed and lonely, she decides to move with her mother to Arkansas. There she not only finds friends, but a boyfriend who comforts her. Soon after she starts to have vivid dreams of an attractive man who enchants her. The dreams persist while her emotions and desires for this man become unbearable. She then is compelled to distance herself from her boyfriend when she realizes shes infatuated with someone who doesn't exist. Faith gets an invite from her good friend Kate to embark on a trip to London, England. There she meets the man in her dreams, Daniel. A tall attractive London native who's almost too perfect. The man she couldn't live without is now apart of reality. Astonished, Faith is overwhelmed with desire and confusion. As she tries to inquire more about him, he tells her to be patient. Daniel was holding back a dark secret. And if he told her, she would be bound to him forever.

Los "cirujas" no son una figura nueva dentro del espacio social, sino que se han ido configurando junto con los procesos de transformacion social, economica y politica que se sucedieron en Argentina durante decadas. En los ultimos anos se multiplicaron los estudios en las ciencias sociales que abordan diversos aspectos del fenomeno. Este trabajo describe las practicas colectivas e individuales de recuperacion de residuos en la ciudad de Villa Maria. Esta investigacion destaca la importancia de reconocer la perspectiva social que los propios "cirujas" tienen de su actividad. Son los actores vinculados al negocio del reciclado mas desfavorecidos social y economicamente. Centramos la exposicion en las experiencias significativas de la cotidianidad, y los testimonios de los propios "cirujas y cartoneros." Se analizan distintos sentidos otorgados al cirujeo: "forma de vida"-"cirujas estructurales," y de "estrategia de supervivencia"-"nuevos cirujas." Otra distincion, en funcion de su dedicacion: "exclusiva," "parcial" -u "ocasional." La cooperativizacion de la actividad -informal- constituye una posibilidad de normativizar y mejorar las condiciones laborales para tales trabajadores.

Wetlands are lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the soil and on its surface. Wetlands vary widely because of regional and local differences in soils, topography, climate, hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation, and other factors, including human disturbance. Indeed, wetlands are found from the tundra to the tropics and on every continent except Antarctica. This book focuses on international wetlands.