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Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific: A Conservation Assessment (World Wildlife Fund Ecoregion Assessments)
Eric Wikramanayake , Eric Dinerstein , Colby J. Loucks , and Stuart Pimm Manufacturer: Island Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1559639237 |
Book Description
"This book, along with its companions in this series, takes an ecoregional approach, dividing large regions into small, distinct units, each with its characteristic species, ecosystems, natural history, and threats. As such, it has no peers. It is the sourcebook for anyone who must look for where and how to act to save the variety of life on Earth." - from the foreword by Stuart L. Pim.
A number of conservation groups, including World Wildlife Fund, have in recent years adopted an approach to conservation that uses ecoregions to identify biological and conservation priority areas. Ecoregions define distinct ecosystems that share broadly similar environmental conditions and natural communities; as such, they make more sense for priority-setting efforts than do political units such as countries or provinces.
Terrestrial Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific offers a comprehensive examination of the state of the Indo-Pacific's biodiversity and habitats, moving beyond endangered or charismatic species to quantify for the first time the number of mammal and bird species, including endemics, in each ecoregion.
The book begins with a discussion of the background and basis for ecoregion delineation and definition of the objectives and approach used. Following that, chapters describe the biological distinctiveness and conservation status of ecoregions, quantifying the amount of habitat remaining, how it is distributed, and how much is protected. The analysis concludes with a set of ecoregions that deserve immediate attention and also highlights ecoregions that are still in relatively pristine condition. Substantial appendixes offer detailed descriptions of each ecoregion, including information on:
Short essays by regional experts - including Derek Holmes, Tony Whitten, Indraneil Das, Walter Erdelen, John Seidensticker, Joyotee Smith, Kathy MacKinnon, and others - address special topics relating to finer-scale conservation issues or ecological processes that are typically overlooked in a regional-scale analysis.
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Land-Use and Land-Cover Change: Local Processes and Global Impacts (Global Change - The IGBP Series)
Manufacturer: Springer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: Accessories:
ASIN: 3540322019 |
Book Description
The book presents recent estimates of the rates in changes of major land classes such as forest, cropland and pasture. Among the causative mechanisms behind land change, synergetic factor combinations are found to be more common than single key factor explanations. Aggregated globally, multiple impacts of local land changes are shown to significantly affect central aspects of Earth System functioning. Innovative developments and applications in the fields of modeling and scenario construction are presented. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the most pressing implications for the design of appropriate intervention policies, and on new directions and frontiers of research.
The edited book synthesizes research achievements by dozens of scientists related to the Land-Use/Cover Change (LUCC) project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). It summarizes relevant findings on global land-use change which arose from value-adding activities of the LUCC project, starting in 1995 and extending until its termination in October 2005. The main intention is to describe how human modification of land cover became a major driving force of Earth System changes over the past 300 years, a period of most rapid transformations, with fundamental implications for current landscape configurations. In writing this book, current knowledge and understanding is reported on the rates, causes/pathways, impacts, future scenarios/models, policy implications and new research directions in the field of land-use/cover change.
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Hotspots Revisited: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions
Russell A. Mittermeier , Patricio Robles Gil , Michael Hoffman , John Pilgrim , Thomas Brooks , Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier , John Lamoreux , and Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca Manufacturer: Conservation International ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 9686397779 |
Book Description
Customer Reviews:
First Rate Summary of Planetary Biodiversity and How to Go About Saving It.......2005-08-07
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Assessing the Hazard of Metals and Inorganic Metal Substances in Aquatic and Terrestrial Systems
William J. Adams Manufacturer: CRC Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1420044400 |
Book Description
Current procedures used for hazard identification and classification are based on persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity measurements. Assessing the Hazard of Metals and Inorganic Metal Substances in Aquatic and Terrestrial Systems provides the basis for improvements to the current model for hazard assessment. The book reviews the scientific underpinnings of the use of persistence as applied to metals, including bioavailability, and the use of bioaccumulation to evaluate aquatic species and aquatic-linked food chains. It also examines toxicity procedures as used within PBT approaches and measurements for metals in terrestrial ecosystems. The book brings together a multidisciplinary and international group of scientists, managers, and policy makers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States to discuss various means for assessing the environmental hazard posed by metals and inorganic metal substances. The contributors include representatives from regulatory and nonregulatory government agencies, academia, industry, environmental groups, and consulting firms involved in assessment, management, and basic research of metals and metal substances. They provide a focused discussion of the fate and effects of metals in the environment, incorporating important advances developed over the past decade.
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Radioactivity in the Terrestrial Environment, Volume 10 (Radioactivity in the Environment) (Radioactivity in the Environment)
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0080438725 Release Date: 2007-04-13 |
Book Description
The Radioactivity in the Environment Series addresses the key aspects of this socially important and complex interdisciplinary subject. Presented objectively and with the ultimate authority gained from the many contributions by the world's leading experts, the negative and positive consequences of having a radioactive world around us is documented and given perspective. In a world in which nuclear science is not only less popular than in the past, but also less extensively taught in universities and colleges, this book series will fill a significant educational gap.
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Space Weather: The Physics Behind a Slogan (Lecture Notes in Physics)
Manufacturer: Springer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
Accessories:
ASIN: 3540229078 |
Book Description
The various processes that connect the physics of the Sun with that of the Earth`s environment has become known as "Space Weather" during recent years, a slogan that has emerged in connection with many other expressions adapted from meteorology, such as solar wind, magnetic clouds or polar rain. This volume is intended as a first graduate-level textbook-style account on the physics of these solar-terrestrial relations and their impact on our natural and technological environment.
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Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments - Volume 3: Terrestrial, Algal, and Siliceous Indicators (DEVELOPMENTS IN PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ... in Paleoenvironmental Research)
Manufacturer: Springer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1402006810 |
Book Description
This third volume in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research series deals with the major terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators used in paleolimnology. Other volumes deal with the acquisition and archiving of lake sediment cores, chronological techniques, and large-scale basin analysis methods (Volume 1), physical and geochemical parameters and methods (Volume 2), zoological techniques (Volume 4), and statistical and data handling methods (Volume 5). These monographs will provide sufficient detail and breadth to be useful handbooks for both seasoned practitioners as well as newcomers to the area of paleolimnology. Although the chapters in these volumes target mainly lacustrine settings, many of the techniques described can also be readily applied to fluvial, glacial, marine, estuarine, and peatland environments.
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Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather
Michael Carlowicz , and Ramon Lopez Manufacturer: National Academies Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0309076420 |
Book Description
From the casual conversation starter to the 24-hour cable channels and Web sites devoted exclusively to the subject, everyone talks about weather. There's even weather in spaceand it's causing major upsets to our modern technological world.Space weather is all around us. There are no nightly news reports on space weather (yet), but we're rapidly developing the tools necessary to measure and observe trends in cosmic meteorology. New probes are going on-line that help us monitor the weather taking place miles above the Earth.
But why does space weather matter? It doesn't affect whether we bring an umbrella to work or require us to monitor early school closings. It's far, far away and of little concern to us . . . right? March 13, 1989. The Department of Defense tracking system that keeps tabs on 8,000 objects orbiting Earth suddenly loses track of 1,300 of them. In New Jersey, a $10 million transformer is burned up by a surge of extra current in the power lines. Shocks to a power station in Quebec leave 6 million people without electricity. New England power stations struggle to keep their power grid up. Listeners tuning in to their local stations in Minnesota hear the broadcasts of the California Highway Patrol. Residents of Florida, Mexico, and the Grand Cayman Islands see glowing curtains of light in the sky.
All of these bizarre, and seemingly unconnected, events were caused by a storm on the Sun and a fire in the sky. A series of solar flares and explosions had launched bolts of hot, electrified gas at the Earth and stirred up the second largest magnetic storm in recorded history. Before rockets and radio and the advent of other modern devices, we probably would never have noticed the effects of this space storm. But in today's electrically powered, space-faring world, the greatest space storm of the twenty-second solar maximum rang like a wake-up call.
And we are now in the midst of another solar maximum, the effects of which are expected to be felt all the way through the year 2004. Storms from the Sun explores the emerging physical science of space weather and traces its increasing impact on a society that relies on space-based technologies.
Authors Carlowicz and Lopez explain what space weather really means to us down hereand what it may mean for future explorations and colonization of distant worlds. By translating the findings of NASA and other top scientists into fascinating and accessible descriptions of the latest discoveries, we are privy to some of the most closely held secrets that the solar-terrestrial system has to offer.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Book!.......2004-02-26
The Midwest Book Review, March 2003
"...an electrifying challenge for the mind to decipher the seemingly unfathomable secrets of the sun."
And I meant every word I said. It is a great book and a lot of fun to read, and it isn't necessary to be a rocket scientist to understand the material. Homeschoolers will find this a wonderful addition to their educational reference library.
If you would like to read my full review, feel free to visit the March 2003 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/mar_03.htm
The space weather story.......2002-06-12
It explains the technology, the science,and the politics of space weather and is filled with anecdotes. I enjoyed the color prints in it as well. For anyone who wants to learn about this cutting edge topic, this is the place to go. We are becoming more dependent on satellites and technology, but space weather can really mess things up. The book tells you why and how.
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Valuing Ecosystem Services: Toward Better Environmental Decision-Making
Committee on Assessing and Valuing the the Services of Aquatic and Related Terrestrial Ecosystems , and National Research Council Manufacturer: National Academies Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 030909318X |
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Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar: A Conservation Assessment (World Wildlife Fund Ecoregion Assessments)
Neil Burgess , Jennifer D'Amico Hales , Emma Underwood , and Eric Dinerstein Manufacturer: Island Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1559633646 |
Book Description
As part of a global effort to identify those areas where conservation measures are needed most urgently, World Wildlife Fund has assembled teams of scientists to conduct ecological assessments of all five continents. Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar is the latest contribution, presenting in a single volume the first comprehensive assessment of biodiversity patterns, threats to biodiversity, and resulting conservation priorities across the African continent and its islands. Looking at biodiversity and threats in terms of biological units rather than political units, the book offers a comprehensive examination of African biodiversity across all biomes and multiple taxonomic groups.
In addition to the seven main chapters, the book includes twenty essays by regional experts that provide more depth on key issues, as well as nine detailed appendixes that present summary data used in the analyses, specific analytical methodologies, and a thorough text description for each of Africa's 119 terrestrial ecoregions.
Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar provides a blueprint for conservation action and represents an unparalleled guide for investments and activities of conservation agencies and donor organizations.
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