الصفحة 30
الصفحة 30
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.
Artery guidebook : Artery - transforming riversides for the future
"Artery" is an initiative on a European scale, funded by the INTERREG IIIB NWE programme, which puts riverside restoration and regeneration at the heart of regional strategies, helping communities across Europe ‘turn back to face the water’. In this book the implemented strategies will be discussed, including public-private-partnership, public participation, awareness programs and regional development strategies. The book functions as a guide to facilitate similar future projects in other regions. The valuable experience and methods of trans-national cooperation should be made available to other developers, regional planners, project managers and politicians.
Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Fluxes : Defining the Role of the Northern Seas in Climate
The two-way oceanic exchanges that connect the Arctic and Atlantic oceans through subarctic seas are of fundamental importance to climate. Change may certainly be imposed on the Arctic Ocean from subarctic seas, including a changing poleward ocean heat flux that is central to determining the present state and future fate of the perennial sea-ice. And the signal of Arctic change is expected to have its major climatic impact by reaching south through subarctic seas, either side of Greenland, to modulate the Atlantic thermohaline ‘conveyor’. Developing the predictive skills of climate models is seen to be the most direct way of extending the ability of society to mitigate for or adapt to 'global change' and is the main justification for continuing an intense observational effort in these waters. As records have lengthened, they have shown that important aspects of oceanic exchange through subarctic seas are currently at a long-term extreme state, providing further motivation for their study.
Arctic Alpine ecosystems and people in a changing environment
This book addresses the significant environmental changes experienced by high latitude and high altitude ecosystems at the beginning of the 21st c- tury. Increased temperatures and precipitation, reduction in sea ice and glacier ice, the increased levels of UV-radiation and the long-range tra- ported contaminants in arctic and alpine regions are stress factors that challenge terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The large natural variation in the physical parameters of these extreme environments is a key factor in structuring the biodiversity and biotic productivity, and the effect of the new stress factors can be critical for the population structures and the - teraction between species. These changes may also have socio-economic effects if the changes affect the bio-production, which form the basis for the marine and terrestrial food chains. The book is uniquely multidisciplinary and provides examples of va- ous aspects of contemporary environmental change in arctic and alpine - gions. The 21 chapters of the book are organised under the fields of •Climate change and ecosystem response, •Long range transport of poll- ants and ecological impacts, and •UV radiation and biological effects, each also including aspects of the •Socio-economic effects of environmental change. The introductory chapter presents and explains the internal c- nection and integration of all chapters.
Arabian Deserts : Nature, origin and evolution
This is the first comprehensive survey of all the deserts of Arabia, based largely on the author's 50 years of experience there. The text deals with every kind of desert in the region, from vast sand seas to clay pans and stony plains to volcanic flows.
Applied Stratigraphy
This book aims to incorporate major aspects and essential elements underpinning the modern applications and perspectives of stratigraphy. It focuses on traditional and innovative techniques and how these can be utilized in reconstructing the geological history of sedimentary basins and in solving manifold geological problems and phenomena. Each chapter summarizes contributions by leading researchers in the field. It is hoped that this book will provide the reader with key insights into all these aspects and applications.
Applied Statistics Using SPSS, STATISTICA, MATLAB and R
The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the main statistical analysis topics important for practical applications such as data description, statistical inference, classification and regression, factor analysis, survival data and directional statistics.
Applied Remote Sensing for Urban Planning, Governance and Sustainability
Despite the promising and exciting possibilities presented by new and fast-developing remote sensing technologies applied to urban areas, there is still a gap perceived between the generally academic and research-focused spectrum of results offered by the “urban remote sensing” community and the application of these data and products by the local governmental bodies of urban cities and regions. While there is no end of interesting science questions that we can ask about cities, sometimes these questions don't match well with what the operational problems and concerns of a given city are. The authors present data from six urban regions from all over the world. They explain what the important questions are, and how one can use data and scientific skills to help answer them.
Applied Partial Differential Equations : A Visual Approach
This book presents selected topics in science and engineering from an applied-mathematics point of view. The described natural, socioeconomic, and engineering phenomena are modeled by partial differential equations that relate state variables.
Applied Hydrogeophysics
This book focuses on how hydrogeophysical methods can be applied to solve problems facing environmental engineers, geophysicists, agronomists, hydrologists, soil scientists and hydrogeologists. We present applications of hydrogeophysical methods to the understanding of hydrological processes and environmental problems dealing with the flow of water and the transport of solutes and contaminants. The majority of the book is organized as a series of process-driven chapters, each authored by leading experts. Areas covered include: infiltration and solute transport processes, biogeochemical functioning of soil-water systems, coastal groundwater interactions, cold region hydrology, engineered barriers and landfill processes. In addition, the book offers insight into the development of new data fusion methodologies, of value to many hydrogeophysical investigations, and provides an account how the rapidly developing self-potential technique can give valuable information about water fluxes and hydrochemical states within the subsurface.
Antifouling Paint Biocides
This volume describes the state-of-the-art advances regarding antifouling paint biocides and provides thorough evaluation of research and information on major topics such as occurrence and levels, environmental fate, analytical techniques and methods for the monitoring and control, environmental modeling, ecotoxicological effects and risk assessment placing emphasis on the knowledge acquired over the last 10 years. The contamination of the aquatic environment by antifouling compounds has been a topic of increasing importance during the last few years. The major classes of antifouling active biocides are discussed including the old-fashioned organotin compounds, the modern organic booster biocides and the promising naturally occurring antifoulant products. Therefore, the reader will get a balanced view of this developing field. Chapters were written by leading experts in their field who critically surveyed all the major areas of progress. This volume is an important resource and can constitute a good grounding in the field of antifouling paint biocides.
Antarctica : Contributions to Global Earth Sciences
Sixty articles arranged in eight thematic sections refer to most recent geological and geophysical results of Antarctic research. The Precambrian of the East Antarctic shield and its geological history is considered as well as sub-ice topography, geophysics and stratigraphy, sedimentology and geophysics of the surrounding Southern Ocean. Particular emphasis is given to the connection of the Antarctic and the surrounding continents when forming part of Gondwana.
An Introduction to the Theory of Point Processes ; Vol. II : General Theory and Structure
Point processes and random measures find wide applicability in telecommunications, earthquakes, image analysis, spatial point patterns and stereology, to name but a few areas. The authors have made a major reshaping of their work in their first edition of 1988 and now present An Introduction to the Theory of Point Processes in two volumes with subtitles Volume I: Elementary Theory and Methods and Volume II: General Theory and Structure.
An Introduction to Soil Mechanics
Offers a superb introduction to theoretical and practical soil mechanics. Special attention is given to the risks of failure in civil engineering, and themes covered include stresses in soils, groundwater flow, consolidation, testing of soils, and stability of slopes. The basic principles of applied mechanics, that are frequently used, are offered in the appendices. The author’s considerable experience of teaching soil mechanics is evident in the many features of the book: it is packed with supportive color illustrations, helpful examples and references.
An Introduction to Global Spectral Modeling
Numerical weather prediction is receiving increased attention as weather forecasters aim to improve the numerical models used to forecast the weather. This is a textbook on global spectral modeling, which is an important component for global weather forecasts at numerous operational centers. This book covers all areas of model development including numerical analysis, treatment of clouds, mountains, radiation, precipitation processes, and the surface layers over land and the ocean. The objectives of this book are to provide a systematic and sequential background for students, researchers, and operational weather forecasters in order to develop comprehensive weather forecast models. This is designed for a one semester introductory graduate level course on weather prediction methodologies. As a prerequisite it requires a basic background in meteorology, applied mathematics, and numerical analysis.
An introduction to cable roof structures ; 2nd ed.
Provides structural engineers with a concise introduction to the architectural, structural and technological aspects of cable roofs, and supplies sufficient information for engineers to carry out their own designs. The improved methods for generating wind and earthquake histories have been included as the trend in modern design codes seem increasingly to require that dynamic response of other forms of non-linear structures such as guyed masts is considered at the design stage.
Amino acids and the asymmetry of life : Caught in the act of formation
This book describes how the basic building blocks of life, the amino acids, formed. After a comprehensible introduction into stereochemistry, the author addresses the inherent property of amino acids in living organisms, namely the preference for left-handedness. What was the cause for violation of parity of amino acids in the emergence of life on Earth? All the fascinating models proposed by physicists, chemists and biologist are vividly presented including the scientific conflicts.
Algorithms for Sensor and Ad Hoc Networks : Advanced Lectures
Thousands of mini computers (comparable to a stick of chewing gum in size), equipped with sensors, are deployed in some terrain or other. After activation the sensors form a self-organized network and provide data, for example about a forthcoming earthquake. The trend towards wireless communication increasingly affects electronic devices in almost every sphere of life. Conventional wireless networks rely on infrastructure such as base stations; mobile devices interact with these base stations in a client/server fashion. In contrast, current research is focusing on networks that are completely unstructured, but are nevertheless able to communicate (via several hops) with each other, despite the low coverage of their antennas. Such systems are called sensor or ad hoc networks, depending on the point of view and the application. Wireless ad hoc and sensor networks have gained an incredible research momentum. Computer scientists and engineers of all flavors are embracing the area. Sensor networks have been adopted by researchers in many fields: from hardware technology to operating systems, from antenna design to databases, from information theory to networking, from graph theory to computational geometry.
Algae and Cyanobacteria in Extreme Environments
ALGAE AND CYANOBACTRIA IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS is a unique collection of essays, contributed by leading scientists from around the world, devoted to algae – and some related microbes – observed in unexpected harsh habits, which it seems are an oasis or Garden of Eden for these organisms. This timely book on Extremophilic alga, including its especially impressive micrographs, may provide clues about the edges of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the universe. This volume is a must for students of the field of biodiversity, as well as those in Phycology, ecology and general biological research.
Air-Ice-Ocean Interaction : Turbulent Ocean Boundary Layer Exchange Processes
At a time when the polar regions are undergoing rapid and unprecedented change, understanding exchanges of momentum, heat and salt at the ice-ocean interface is critical for realistically predicting the future state of sea ice. By offering a measurement platform largely unaffected by surface waves, drifting sea ice provides a unique laboratory for studying aspects of geophysical boundary layer flows that are extremely difficult to measure elsewhere. This book draws on both extensive observations and theoretical principles to develop a concise description of the impact of stress, rotation, and buoyancy on the turbulence scales that control exchanges between the atmosphere and underlying ocean when sea ice is present. Several interesting and unique observational data sets are used to illustrate different aspects of ice-ocean interaction ranging from the impact of salt on melting in the Greenland Sea marginal ice zone, to how nonlinearities in the equation of state for seawater affect mixing in the Weddell Sea.
