Mass Extinction
The present book combines three main aspects: five major mass extinctions; contributions on some other minor extinctions; and more importantly contributions on the current mass extinction.
Marine Eutrophication in Perspective : On the Relevance of Ecology for Environmental Policy
Is ecological knowledge relevant for environmental policy and if so, to what extent and in what way? These are some of the basic questions addressed in this book. Triggered by a series of oxygen depletion events in German, Danish and Swedish coastal waters at the beginning of the 1980s, international policies to reduce inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to the North Sea were agreed upon by the North Sea states. The book provides a critical analysis of the role, scientists and scientific information, as well as civil servants, have played in the formulation and implementation of these decisions.
Marine carbon biogeochemistry : A primer for earth system scientists
This book discusses biogeochemical processes relevant to carbon and aims to provide with insight into the functioning of marine ecosystems. A carbon centric approach has been adopted, but other elements are included where relevant or needed. The book focuses on concepts and quantitative understanding of primary production, organic matter mineralization and sediment biogeochemistry. The impact of biogeochemical processes on inorganic carbon dynamics and organic matter transformation are also discussed.
Managing Protected Areas in Central and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change
Addresses the need for sharing knowledge and experience in the field of biodiversity conservation and climate change. There is an urgent need to build capacity in protected areas to monitor, assess, manage and report the effects of climate change and their interaction with other pressures. The contributors identify barriers to the adaptation of conservation management, such as the mismatch between planning reality and the decision context at site level. Short and vivid descriptions of case studies, drawn from investigation areas all over Central and Eastern Europe, illustrate both the local impacts of climate change and their consequences for future management.
Managing Forest Ecosystems : The Challenge of Climate Change
With climate change now charging up the political agenda, there are three issues commonly making the headlines: carbon budgets, renewable energy, and the anticipated impacts of climate change. Equally important, though currently less well covered, is the issue how these effects might be mitigated. Given the significant role that forests play in the climate system – as sources, sinks, and through carbon trading – this book discusses the current scientific evidence on the relationships between climate, forest resources and forest management practices around the world. Drawing on expertise from forest scientists from several continents, the book presents both in depth analysis of the current knowledge, and a series of case studies which assess the biological and the economic impacts of climate change. It includes sections on forest responses to climate change, monitoring and modeling changes, economic and management implications, and carbon sequestration under specific management systems.
Making Fisheries Management Work : Implementation of Policies for Sustainable Fishing
This book seeks to widen the perspective taken on implementation in fisheries management. The cases presented in this volume addresses legal, administrative, and political challenges regarding implementation of resource conservation policies. The book addresses problems relating to goal achievement, but also causes of deliberate change of political goals during implementation. Fisheries management systems are embedded in inert social structures and natural conditions that vary among different states. Consequently, the book takes a historical and comparative approach, describing the historical developments of national implementation systems and the conditions that shaped their development. It thus seeks to explain why national fisheries management systems have evolved differently, focusing on Norwegian, Faeroese, and EU/Danish management systems. The descriptive and explanatory outlines are accompanied by qualitative assessments of the systems effectiveness as tools for collective action.
Macro-Engineering : A Challenge for the Future
Macro-engineering involves the large-scale modification and manipulation of natural systems for the benefit of mankind. The primary goals of some Earth-based macroprojects described in this book are power production, land reclamation, food production, climate change, environment, water, transport and coastal protection. Other Earth or space projects considered here have a more futuristic ring, but our present-day technical skill makes their realization possible. Earth-based macroprojects usually combine different aspects and aims. They have a major impact on the ecology of a region and the inhabitants' means of living (like tourism, fishing, shipping). Its effects may be felt worldwide, like the rise in global sea level after the damming and evaporation of large ocean gulfs for power production, or the change in climate following the regional reduction of solar insolation.
Links between geological processes, microbial activities & evolution of life : Microbes and geology
Microbial activities influence water-rock interaction processes and chemical transport between the major geochemical reservoirs and the formation/transformation of minerals and rocks, whereas geological processes and geochemical controls influence the microbial ecology in extreme environments. How biological activity influences geological processes and what role these processes played in the geological evolution of the Earth are fundamental questions.
Light Scattering Reviews 3 : Light Scattering and Reflection
Ddevoted to modern knowledge and milestones in both experimental and theoretical techniques related to light scattering and radiative transport problems. It will consist of 3 parts comprising 11 contributions written by world leading experts in their respective fields. The general focus of the book will be on remote sensing of geophysical media. The first part will be devoted exclusively to studies of single light scattering by particles of different shapes and chemical compositions. The first chapter will review in situ measurements of cloud optical characteristics like cloud extinction and phase function, with the emphasis on ice clouds. Chapter 2 will cover opitcally soft particles common in marine environments and bio-suspensions while Chapter 3 will describe numerical techniques applicable not only to isotropic but also to chiral and anisotropic mdia. The final chapter in this part will deal with spatial symmetries in light scattering problems.
Landscapes Under Pressure : Theory and Practice of Cultural Heritage Research and Preservation
This book investigates the newly emerging scope of interests and project agendas to investigate and preserve cultural landscapes. It presents the historic, archaeological, ethnographic, and environmental traditions of cultural landscape study and the attempts to reconstruct and analyze the complex processes of cultural changes through prehistoric and historic times.The "guiding light" of the book is that the fullest understanding of a cultural landscape will materialize through interdisciplinary cooperation, which should involve an ecological approach with historical ecology as the guiding tool, applied archaeology, and environmental planning.
Landscape Analysis and Visualisation : Spatial Models for Natural Resource Management and Planning
This book presents a collection and synthesis of many of these perspectives — perhaps it could only be produced in a land urb- ised in the tiniest of pockets, and yet so daunting with respect to the way non-populated landscapes dwarf its cities. Many travel to Australia to its cities and never see the landscapes — but it is these that give the country its power and imagery. It is the landscapes that so impress on us the need to consider how our intervention, through activities ranging from resource exploitation and settled agriculture to climate change, poses one of the greatest crises facing the modern world. In this sense, Australia and its landscape provide a mirror through which we can glimpse the extent to which our intervention in the world threatens its very existence.
Land-Change Science in the Tropics : Changing Agricultural Landscapes
Land use and land-cover change research over the past decade has focused mainly on contemporary primary land-cover conversions in the tropics and sub-tropics, with considerable resources dedicated to the explanation and prediction of tropical deforestation and often ignoring the dynamism in the world’s agro-pastoral landscapes. This collection integrates cutting-edge research in the social, biogeophysical, and geographical information sciences to understand the human and environmental dynamics that change the type, magnitude and location of land uses and land covers in the changing countryside.This book describes the monitoring of land-cover changes, explains the processes through which land is altered, and describes the development of spatially-explicit models to predict land change. This book illustrates how practitioners have integrated knowledge from the three scientific realms - social, biophysical, and GIScience - that underpin land-change science.
Lake Victoria : Ecology, Resources, Environment
Recently, there has been, and continues to be, a tremendous interest on Lake Victoria and its environs, both locally and internationally. A casual browsing on the Internet indicates that the entries on the Lake have been rising phenomenally. At the same time, the issues discussed are as diverse as they are varied in their treatment of the subject, both in terms of depth and comprehensiveness. The information on Lake Victoria and its environ is scattered, isolated, and sometimes confusing even though documentation on the subject are available. Despite this situation, the fact remains that various people (e. g. , secondary and universitystudents,researchers,practitioners,etc. ,)wouldliketoaccess and know more about the Lake and its environs. Aware of the existing information gap about this world’s second largest fresh water Lake, this book is intended to provide readers with up-to-date information pertaining the Lake. The book gives an in-depth coverage of environmental issues, - source endowment, poverty amidst plenty, development opportunities, challenges and other related issues facing the Lake and its environs. It aims at providing information on the above variables, which hopefully will address the needs of various users.
Lagrangian Probability Distributions
Lagrangian expansions can be used to obtain numerous useful probability models, which have been applied to real life situations including, but not limited to: branching processes, queuing processes, stochastic processes, environmental toxicology, diffusion of information, ecology, strikes in industries, sales of new products, and production targets for optimum profits. This book presents a comprehensive, systematic treatment of the class of Lagrangian probability distributions, along with some of its families, their properties, and important applications.
Killer Cell Dynamics : Mathematical and Computational Approaches to Immunology
Reviews how mathematics can be used in combination with biological data in order to improve understanding of how the immune system works. This is illustrated largely in the context of viral infections. Mathematical models allow scientists to capture complex biological interactions in a clear mathematical language and to follow them to their precise logical conclusions. This can give rise to counter-intuitive insights which would not be attained by experiments alone, and can be used for the design of further experiments in order to address the mathematical results.
Complexity in chemistry, biology, and ecology
This book, written by an international team of experts, introduces the reader to various aspects of complexity theory and its applications. It illustrates the latest trends in science to go beyond the mechanistic Newtonian view of the world by shifting the focus to self-organization, adaptation, and emergent phenomena. The authors discuss these properties of complex systems in biology, ecology and chemistry along with the structure and interconnectedness of the "layers" of complexity. The qualitative description is complemented by a discussion of methods for complexity quantification. Networks are covered in detail as a universal language of the complex world.
Climate Change and Technological Options : Basic facts, Evaluation and Practical Solutions
climate change focussing on technical solutions for the most important and climate relevant economic sectors is presented. It is intended for key decision makers, and administrators within industry, agricultural and energy sectors, as well as masters students and post graduates. The first of three sections covers the scientific basis of climate change and the instruments to prevent or reduce negative climate effects. It includes a survey covering current practices at different levels.It discusses evaluation methods for climate impacts from industrial processes. Climate relevant processes and measures to reduce their impact such as sequestration are defined in the final section, with the main focus being on renewable resources. Details are given on climate impacts of waste prevention, recycling and waste management as well as are proposals for every day solutions.
Climate Change and Community Resilience : Insights from South Asia
Documents myriads of ways community-based climate change adaptation and resilience programs are being implemented in South Asian countries. The narrative style of writing in this volume makes it accessible to a diverse audience from academics and researchers to practitioners in various governmental, non-governmental and international agencies. At a time when climate change presents humanity with a gloomy future, the stories of innovation, creativity, grassroots engagement and locally applicable solutions highlighted in this book provides insights into hopeful ways of approaching climate solutions.
Climate change : Environment and history of the Near East
When the ?rst edition of this book was published in 2004, the following year 2005 has happened to have been the warmest year since 1880, when the ?rst reliable worldwide instrumental records came into existance. Claiming no li- age between the publication of our book and the temperature record, yet this record demonstrates the trend of increase in the global surface temperatures during thepast20years,reinforcedbyevidenceofriseofatmosphere’sand oceans’ temperatures, and increased melting of ice and snow in the arctic and antarctic regions as well as on mountain tops. All these observations are par- leled by the increase in the quantity of heat trapping gases in the atmosphere, causing most probably, the global greenhouse effect. In order to try and predict, what might be the impact of this effect on the on the natural and human environments of the Near East, (Figs. 1–1d) the authors adopted the saying that the past is the key for the future. The practical conclusion of this principle says that the acquiring knowledge of the impact of past climate changes on the nature and human societies, may allow conclusions with regard to future possible impact of climate changes. By correlating proxy data of all types, paleo-sea and lake levels, paleo-hydrology, pollen pro?les, environmental isotopes as well as archaeological and historical documents, the authors tried to collect as much as possible of this knowledge.
Climate Adaptation Modelling
This book focuses on an issue only marginally tackled by this literature: the still existing gap between adaptation science and modelling and the possibility to effectively access and exploit the information produced by policy making at different levels, international, national and local.



















