الصفحة 1
الصفحة 1
Human Exploitation and Biodiversity Conservation
The sustainable use of biodiversity is one of the three key objectives of the 1992 "Convention on Biological Diversity". To achieve this, sound conservation practice has to be recognized as beneficial and implemented by all who access, or use it – from subsistence farmers to skiers and pharmaceutical bioprospectors. At the same time, indigenous peoples necessarily utilize enormous numbers of plants, fungi, and fish, particularly for foods and medicines. This book gathers together a wide range of contributions addressing diverse aspects of front-line human involvement in biodiversity exploitation and conservation. Its scope is broad, the organisms explored ranging from birds, invertebrates and mammals – both terrestrial and aquatic – to crops and medicinal plants. Meanwhile, the issues addressed include land use changes, the importance of gardens, hedges and green lanes, housing developments, hunting, invasive species, local community involvement, sacred groves, socioeconomic factors and trade.
Forest Diversity and Management
Natural forests with thousands of years of ecological continuity are unrivalled as the treasure store of terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. And while there is currently no fully comprehensive inventory of the biota associated with any given forest, it is reasonable to assume that in conserving natural forests we can conserve the myriads of unnamed bacteria, fungi, insects, mites and nematodes that forests support. Drawing on diverse research from biodiversity experts around the world, this collection of papers reflects the diversity of forest types and forest issues that concern forest scientists globally. Forest types considered vary from savannah and tropical rainforests to the ancient oak forests of Poland; issues explored include the effects of logging, management practices, forest dynamics and climate change on forest structure and biodiversity.
Marine, Freshwater, and Wetlands Biodiversity
Marine, coastal and wetland habitats are threatened, not only through exploitation, but also by the prospect of climate change – as ocean currents change course, sea levels rise, and rainfall patterns change. Even the once-common cod is now under threat from the combined effects of over-fishing and a dramatic change-induced decrease in the plankton that cod larvae feed on. Meanwhile, coral reefs remain especially vulnerable to rapid sea-level changes exacerbated by the effects of tourism and disease. This book gathers together a wide range of papers reporting on key research into the biodiversity conservation of these critical and increasingly threatened habitats. Collectively these papers provide a snap-shot of the types of problems they are experiencing, and offer a wealth of topical examples which render this volume especially valuable to teachers of courses in marine, freshwater and wetlands ecology, biological conservation and ecological restoration.
Biodiversity and Conservation in Europe
This book brings together a selection of original studies submitted to Biodiversity and Conservation that address biodiversity and conservation in Europe. Europe is certainly the most intensively inventoried region of the world; detailed maps are available for species distributions while action plans are being drawn up for species under threat. At the same time, the wildlife of Europe has been subject to enormous human pressures, with limited ‘wilderness’ sites remaining in most countries. Europe consequently presents a case-study of what the human impact on biodiversity has been, and also what can be done to improve the situation.
Arthropod Diversity and Conservation
Despite their enormous bulk and complexity of architecture, plants make up only around a quarter of a million of the 8 million or so species on Earth. The major components of biodiversity, instead, are the smaller, largely unseen, silent majority of invertebrates – most of which are arthropods. Vertebrates, a mere blip on the biotic horizon, are elevated in importance in the bigger scheme of things only by the human psyche. This collection of more than 30 peer-reviewed papers focuses on the diversity and conservation of arthropods, whose species inhabit virtually every recess and plane – and feature somewhere in virtually every food web – on the planet. Highlighting issues ranging from large-scale disturbance to local management, and from spatial heterogeneity to temporal patterns, these papers reflect some of the most exciting new research taking place today – and in some of the most biodiverse corners of the planet.
