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Marijuana and the Cannabinoids
Although primarily used today as one of the most prevalent illicit leisure drugs, the use of Cannabis sativa L., commonly referred to as marijuana, for medicinal purposes has been reported for more than 5000 years. Marijuana use has been shown to create numerous health problems, and, consequently, the expanding use beyond medical purposes into recreational use (abuse) resulted in control of the drug through international treaties. Much research has been carried out over the past few decades following the identification of the chemical structure of THC.The purpose of Marijuana and the Cannabinoids is to present in a single volume the comprehensive knowledge and experience of renowned researchers and scientists. Each chapter is written independently by an expert in his/her field of endeavor, ranging from the botany, the constituents, the chemistry and pharmacokinetics, the effects and consequences of illicit use on the human body, to the therapeutic potential of the cannabinoids.
Lamto : Structure, Functioning, and Dynamics of a Savanna Ecosystem
Known as "a dream place for scientists," the Lamto savannas, located on the edge of the Cote d'Ivoire rain forests, are one of the only savannas in the world where ongoing ecological research has endured for more than forty years. Drawing from and synthesizing this abundance of research, the book examines the structure, functioning, and dynamics of the Lamto humid savanna. Beginning with the history of the Lamto ecology station and an overview of the major environmental conditions of the site, this exacting work specifically examines the integrative view of energy and nutrient fluxes relative to the dynamics of the savanna's vegetation.
Lake Verevi, Estonia : A highly stratified hypertrophic lake
The present book summarises investigations on Lake Verevi (surface 12.6 ha, mean depth 3.6 m). The seventeen articles in this issue deal with a wide range of questions, starting with a holistic overview of the ecological status, over assessments of long-term changes in biotic and abiotic conditions and finishing with proposed restoration plans. Abiotic chapters provide calculations on water and mass balance, distribution and fractions of phosphorus in the sediment, optical properties and penetration of radiation in the water column, sedimentation rate during the formation of stratification, and nitrogen circulation characteristics.
Chemical and functional properties of food components
Described the contents of food raw materials and products, the chemistry/biochemistry of food components, as well as the changes occurring during post-harvest storage and processing affecting the quality of foods. Discusses the role of chemical compounds in the structure of raw materials and the formation of different attributes of food quality, including nutritional value, safety, and sensory properties. It contains four new chapters: “Non-Protein Nitrogenous Compounds”; “Prooxidants and Antioxidants in Food”; “Non-Nutritive Bioactive Compounds in Food of Plant Origin”; and “Analytical Methods Used for Assessing the Quality of Food Products.”
Carbon and nitrogen in the terrestrial environment
Carbon and Nitrogen in the Terrestrial Environment is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary description of C and N fluxes between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere; issues related to C and N management in different ecosystems and their implications for the environment and global climate change; and the approaches to mitigate emission of greenhouse gases.Drawing upon the most up-to-date books, journals, bulletins, reports, symposia proceedings and internet sources documenting interrelationships between different aspects of C and N cycling in the terrestrial environment, Carbon and Nitrogen in the Terrestrial Environment fills the gap left by most of the currently available books on C and N cycling. They either deal with a single element of an ecosystem, or are related to one or a few selected aspects like soil organic matter (SOM) and agricultural or forest management, emission of greenhouse gases, global climate change or modeling of SOM dynamics.
Boreal Forest and Climate Change
There are several crucial feedbacks from forests to the climate system. The mechanisms for those feedbacks are elaborated in the book: they involve changes in the carbon cycle, albedo, N2O emissions and the production of aerosols. Much of this work is new and the feedback relationships have not yet been incorporated into models of the climate system. The book will be an important introduction for students and climate modellers alike, providing conceptual tools and ideas that are broadly applicable to terrestrial systems.
Biosaline Agriculture and Salinity Tolerance in Plants
This volume focuses on reclamation, management, and utilization of salt-affected soils, their sustainable use, and evaluation of plants inhabiting naturally occurring saline habitats. It is of interest to scientists and students as well as to agricultural institutions and farmers and will undoubtedly raise the scientific community's awareness of, and interest in salinity issues.
Biological nitrogen fixation, sustainable agriculture and the environment ; Proceedings of the 14th International nitrogen fixation congress
Covers aspects of fundamental and applied nitrogen-fixation research, from biochemistry and chemistry through genetics, regulation and physiology to agricultural practice and environmental impact. This work describes progress on studies of potential catalysts for nitrogen fixation; how the N2-fixing process is regulated in living cells; and more.
Biological Invasions
This new volume on Biological Invasions deals with both plants and animals. It differs from previous books on the subject by extending from the level of individual species to an ecosystem and global level. Topics of highest societal relevance, such as the impact of genetically modified organisms, are interlinked with more conventional ecological aspects, including biodiversity. The combination of these approaches is new and makes compelling reading for researchers and environmentalists. The book’s 22 chapters cover a huge range of subjects relevant to the field. These include pathways of biological invasions (e.g. ballast water, waterways), traits of successful invaders (e.g. chemical weapons, empty niches), and patterns of invasion and invasibility, such as man-induced predisposition by fire, land use and eutrophication, and the role of climate change.
Associative and endophytic nitrogen-fixing bacteria and cyanobacterial associations
Associative and Endophytic Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria and Cyanobacterial Associations This book is part of the seven-volume series that was launched a few years ago with the ambitious objectives of reviewing the field of nitrogen fixation from its earliest beginnings through the millennium change and of consolidating the relevant information - from fundamental to agricultural and environmental aspects – all in one place. Volume 5 covers the biology of bacteria that associate with n- leguminous plants. The subject matter includes a wide range of associations; it covers the bacterial species that associate either with the surface or within the tissues of grasses (often referred as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria) and also the symbiotic associations that cyanobacteria form with fungi, algae, and both lower and higher plants. This volume does not deal with the Frankia-actinorhizal plant associations, which is the topic of Volume 6
Allelopathy in Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry
This book reports on the latest advances in allelopathy through the contributions of leading scientists in the field. The book addresses the history of allelopathy, the science of allelochemicals, and the application of allelopathy in agriculture and forestry. An emphasis on both methodology and application makes Allelopathy a truly practical reference for scientists, researchers and students of plant science, agriculture, forestry, terrestrial ecology and environmental science.
Advances in Integrated Soil Fertility Research in sub-Saharan Africa : Challenges and Opportunities
Food insecurity is a central concern and a fundamental challenge for human welfare and economic growth in Africa. Low agricultural production, results in low incomes, poor nutrition, vulnerability to risks and lack of empowerment. Land degradation and soil fertility depletion are considered the major threats to food security and natural resource conservation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Investments in technology, policy and institutional reforms are needed to increase agricultural productivity to ensure food security and sustained national economies. Past research has generated numerous soil fertility management technologies which if adopted could propel the African continent out of the poverty trap. However, these technologies have had little, if any, impact due to low adoption by the smallholder farmers.
Advances in Algal Biology : A Commemoration of the Work of Rex Lowe
Advances in Algal Biology: A Commemoration of the Work of Rex Lowe was written by students and colleagues of Rex Lowe to acknowledge his esteemed career that included exceptional contributions to research and teaching. Papers in the book cover a variety of topics in algal ecology, focusing on benthic algal ecology in freshwater ecosystems. The studies provide an unusual combination of small-scale experiments and large-scale regional surveys that bridge both basic and applied ecology. Ecologists, limnologists, phycologists, and environmental scientists will find valuable contributions to the development and application of algal research.
Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants : Toward the Improvement of Global Environment and Food
Stresses in plants caused by salt, drought, temperature, oxygen, and toxic compounds are the principal reason for reduction in crop yield. For example, high salinity in soils accounts for large decline in the yield of a wide variety of crops world over; ~1000 million ha of land is affected by soil salinity. Increased sunlight leads to the generation of reactive oxygen species, which damage the plant cells. The threat of global environment change makes it increasingly demanding to generate crop plants that could withstand such harsh conditions. Much progress has been made in the identification and characterization of the mechanisms that allow plants to tolerate abiotic stresses.
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.
Chiral Diazaligands for Asymmetric Synthesis
The use of phosphine derivatives has historically induced the tremendous development of catalysis (both non-asymmetric and asymmetric). Although the chemistry of amines is more documented, the use of nitrogen-containing ligands only appeared recently. Nevertheless, during the last ten years, the results describing chiral diamine preparations and their uses in asymmetric catalysis and synthesis are increasing faster than their phosphorus counterparts. The reader will find in this volume the most recent methods for the synthesis of chiral diamines as well as their applications in asymmetric catalysis of CC bond formation. Particular attention will be given to spartein and derivatives of such diamines. Recently, the particular properties and the chemistry of amines allowed to obtain catalysts easy to separate and recycle and new types of ligands such as diaminocarbenes, ureas and thioureas. Finally, the complexing properties of some diamines allowed the formation of complexes with chirality "at the metal " which is of major theoretical interest and presents numerous potential applications.
Carbon in the Geobiosphere : Earth's outer shell
Carbon and carbon dioxide always played an important role in the geobiosphere that is part of the Earth’s outer shell and surface environment. The book’s eleven chapters cover the fundamentals of the biogeochemical behavior of carbon near the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, minerals, waters, air-sea exchange, and inorganic and biological processes fractionating the carbon isotopes, and its role in the evolution of inorganic and biogenic sediments, ocean water, the coupling to nutrient nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and the future of the carbon cycle in the Anthropocene. This book is mainly a reference text for Earth and environmental scientists; it presents an overview of the origins and behavior of the carbon cycle and atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the human effects on them. The book can also be used for a one-semester course at an intermediate to advanced level addressing the behavior of the carbon and related cycles.
Azaheterocycles Based on -, ß-Unsaturated Carbonyls
Devoted to heterocyclizations of aliphatic and aromatic, -unsaturated carbonyls with various binucleophiles leading to three-, five-, six and seven-membered partially hydrogenated nitrogen-containing heterocycles. During the last decade interest in these classes of organic c- pounds has been experiencing a scientific renaissance owing to their significant role in biological processes in living cells and diverse effects on physiological activities. In addition, such compounds are also more prevalent from the vi- point of ''classical'' problems of organic chemistry, among them reactivity, chemo- and regioselectivity, tautomerism, conformational analysis and features of their electronic structure. The character of these problems in the case of partially hydrogenated heterocycles differs sufficiently from that for hetero- omatized and perhydrogenated heterocyclic compounds and investigations in this field very often lead to interesting and unusual results. Extensively characterized cyclocondensations of, -unsaturated carbonyls, their synthetic equivalents and their precursors are the most widespread, facile and generally valid pathway to dihydroazaheterocycles.
Aurora : Observing and Recording Nature's Spectacular Light Show
The uniquely beautiful light display of an aurora is the result of charged particles colliding with tenuous atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen, more than 60 miles above the Earth, when the magnetosphere is disturbed by changes in the solar wind. Often - and incorrectly - regarded as being confined to high northern and southern latitudes, major auroral displays are visible from even the southern USA and the south of England, and occur perhaps twenty times in each eleven-year sunspot cycle. This book describes the aurora from the amateur observational viewpoint, discusses professional studies of auroral and geomagnetic phenomena to put amateur work in context, and explains how practical observers can go about observing and recording auroral displays.
Acid Rain - Deposition to Recovery
Acid rain is still with us. Although it is a problem that people have worked diligently to solve, there are still many problem areas throughout the world. In reality the focus of acid rain research has shifted, and this book adds new vision to the topic. It contains papers, selected from Acid Rain 2005, the 7th International Conference on Acid Deposition, that take a broad perspective of the issues, emphasizing a number of themes: - the emission, concentration and deposition of pollutants / - nitrogen and trace elements in ecosystems and their effects on forests, water and soil / - studies of material damage and recovery - critical loads / The book is aimed at scientists and researchers who are working in the area of acid rain and its effects, and on nutrient cycling. This latest research will be of value to those concerned with the mitigation of acid rain effects.
