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      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        September 2016

        Forest Hydrology

        Processes, Management and Assessment

        by Devendra Amatya, Thomas Williams, Leon Bren, Carmen de Jong

        Forests cover approximately 26% of the world's land surface area and represent a distinct biotic community. They interact with water and soil in a variety of ways, providing canopy surfaces which trap precipitation and allow evaporation back into the atmosphere, thus regulating how much water reaches the forest floor as through fall, as well as pull water from the soil for transpiration. The discipline "forest hydrology" has been developed throughout the 20th century. During that time human intervention in natural landscapes has increased, and land use and management practices have intensified. This book: - Presents cutting edge thinking and assessments in forest hydrology across all latitudes and terrains, including state-of-the-art modelling techniques and methodologies - Describes the latest challenges facing forest hydrology, such as increased occurrence of disturbance, due to extreme floods, drought, disease, and fire, potentially caused by climate change - Is written by an internationally renowned team of scientists, engineers, and managers to give a well-rounded review of the subject The book will be useful for graduate students, professionals, land managers, practitioners, and researchers with a good understanding of the basic principles of hydrology and hydrologic processes. ; This book presents cutting edge thinking and assessments in forest hydrology across all latitudes and terrains, including state-of-the-art modelling techniques and methodologies. It describes challenges facing forest hydrology such as extreme floods, drought, disease, and fire, and is written by an internationally renowned team. ; 1: An Introduction to Forest Hydrology 2: Forest Runoff Processes 3: Forest Evapotranspiration: Measurement and Modelling at Multiple Scales 4: Forest Hydrology of Mountainous and Snow Dominated Watersheds 5: European Perspectives on Forest Hydrology 6: Tropical Forest Hydrology 7: Hydrology of Flooded and Wetland Forests 8: Forest Drainage 9: Hydrological Modeling in Forested Systems 10: Geospatial Technology Applications in Forest Hydrology 11: Forests Cover Changes and Hydrology in Large Watersheds 12: Hydrologic Effects of Forest Management 13: Hydrology of Forests after Wildfire 14: Hydrologic Processes of Reference Watersheds in Experimental Forests, USA 15: Applications of Forest Hydrologic Science to Watershed Management in the 21st Century 16: Hydrology of Taiga Forests in High Northern Latitudes 17: Future Directions in Forest Hydrology

      • Trusted Partner
        Aquaculture & fish-farming: practice & techniques
        December 2005

        Fishery Co-Management

        A Practical Handbook

        by Robert S Pomeroy, Rebecca Rivera-Guieb

        During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance and management of fisheries to a broader approach that recognizes the participation of fishers, local stewardship, and shared decision-making. Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the management team, balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership with government. This approach is called co-management. This handbook describes the process of community-based co-management from its beginning, through implementation, to turnover to the community. It provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists, examples, questions and indicators for the planning and implementing of a process of community-based co-management. It focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine, or marine) in developing countries, but is also relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries and to the management of other coastal resources (such as coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, and wetlands). This handbook will be of significant interest to resource managers, practitioners, academics and students of small-scale fisheries.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2018

        Plant Diversity, Second Edition

        by J. Phil Gibson and Terri R. Gibson, Series Editor: William G. Hopkins

        Plants feed us, clothe us, provide us with the oxygen we breathe, and buffer our environment against change. In short, plants make life possible. Yet scientists estimate that more than 10 percent of the world's approximately 300,000 plant species are at risk of extinction, and huge swaths of tropical forests and other plant communities are being decimated daily. Plant Diversity, Second Edition surveys the world's plant diversity, from green algae through flowering plants, and presents the fascinating natural history and diversity of green plants in a taxonomic and evolutionary context. This title also asks and answers the questions: Why are there so many plant species in the world? And how can so many plants grow together in a given patch of prairie, forest, or wetland? Through the study of plant diversity, students will gain an appreciation of the natural world far beyond the classroom and the study of botany, to an understanding of how our actions impact the world around us. Plant Diversity, Second Edition is suitable as a supplementary text for a biology course or as recreational reading for the interested student.

      • Trusted Partner
        Agronomy & crop production
        April 1997

        Sustainability of Rice Farming

        by Edited by D J Greenland

        Rice has supported a greater number of people for a longer period of time than any other crop. Nearly half of the global population is dependent on rice as its major staple food. While Asia remains the main centre of production and consumption of rice, the importance of rice is increasing rapidly in Africa and Latin America, and exports of rice from the United States and Australia are of major importance to the world rice trade. This book explores the factors which have contributed to the sustainability of rice production over the eight or nine thousand years for which rice has been produced. Sustainability is defined as the maintenance or improvement of production levels and protection of natural resources, within the context of economic viability and social acceptability. The author covers a wide range of issues, including soil fertility, plant breeding, pest management, irrigation, land degradation and social and economic factors. Greatest emphasis is placed on the special features of wetland rice production, and the importance of the nutrient balance. It is also shown that without the Green Revolution there would have been a period of mass starvation in Asia, a problem which continues to threaten and which will be unavoidable unless the successes of the Green Revolution can be sustained. The book provides a unique review of the sustainability of the production of the world’s most important crop, and should be of interest to students, research workers and policy makers in agriculture, soil science, and agricultural economics and food policies, as well as all interested in development in the third world.

      • The environment
        September 1995

        Wetlands

        Characteristics and Boundaries

        by Committee on Characterization of Wetlands, National Research Council

        "Wetlands" has become a hot word in the current environmental debate. But what does it signify? In 1991, proposed changes in the legal definities of wetlands stirred controversy and focused attention on the scientific and economic aspects of their management. This volume explores how to define wetlands. The committee--whose members were drawn from academia, government, business, and the environmental community--builds a rational, scientific basis for delineating wetlands in the landscape and offers recommendations for further action. Wetlands also discusses the diverse hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands, and makes recommendations concerning so-called controversial areas such as permafrost wetlands, riparian ecosystems, irregularly flooded sites, and agricultural wetlands. It presents criteria for identifying wetlands and explores the problems of applying those criteria when there are seasonal changes in water levels. This comprehensive and practical volume will be of interest to environmental scientists and advocates, hydrologists, policymakers, regulators, faculty, researchers, and students of environmental studies.

      • November 2001

        Compensating for Wetland Losses Under the Clean Water Act

        by Committee on Mitigating Wetland Losses, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council

        Recognizing the importance of wetland protection, the Bush administration in 1988 endorsed the goal of “no net loss†of wetlands. Specifically, it directed that filling of wetlands should be avoided, and minimized when it cannot be avoided. When filling is permitted, compensatory mitigation must be undertaken; that is, wetlands must be restored, created, enhanced, and, in exceptional cases, preserved, to replace the permitted loss of wetland area and function, such as water quality improvement within the watershed. After more than a dozen years, the national commitment to “no net loss†of wetlands has been evaluated. This new book explores the adequacy of science and technology for replacing wetland function and the effectiveness of the federal program of compensatory mitigation in accomplishing the nation’s goal of clean water. It examines the regulatory framework for permitting wetland filling and requiring mitigation, compares the mitigation institutions that are in use, and addresses the problems that agencies face in ensuring sustainability of mitigated wetlands over the long term. Gleaning lessons from the mixed results of mitigation efforts to date, the book offers 10 practical guidelines for establishing and monitoring mitigated wetlands. It also recommends that federal, state, and local agencies undertake specific institutional reforms. This book will be important to anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of the “no net loss†issue: policy makers, regulators, environmental scientists, educators, and wetland advocates.

      • Geography & the Environment
        August 2020

        PANTANAL WETLANDS

        by João Farkas

        Rich in biodiversity, the Pantanal is one of the largest floodplains on the planet, a region of encounter and transition between different natural profiles in South America. The Pantanal flood regime determines a monumental natural beauty, and the rhythm of heterogeneous wildlife. Water, land, native vegetation and animals. Minerals, fire and dust, crops and grazing. All of this is in the very current portrait that João Farkas makes of the Pantanal. The biome, which has been suffering from the escalation of human aggressions to the environment, appears here in all its majesty, in panoramic images that blend with portraits of locals (“pantaneiros”), trees and animals.

      • Zoology & animal sciences
        January 2010

        Community Ecology of Tropical Birds

        by C. Sivaperruman & E.A.Jayson

        Community Ecology of Tropical Birds, the tropical ecosystems is one of the most biological diverse habitats on the earth. Seventy six per cent of all centers of avian endemism occur in tropical regions and the same is true for many plant and animal communities. Birds are important component of biological diversity and their ecological, cultural, recreational and economic benefits are recognized universally. They act as vital links in many food webs and often serve as highly visible biological indicators of ecosystem health. Many bird populations are declining all over the world due to habitat loss and fragmentation, predation, pesticide use, invasive exotic species and other factors. This book is about the ecology of tropical bird community, all together 12 chapters are described and divided into two parts. The first part of this book looks at the forest bird community including status and distribution, species-abundance relationship, seasonal changes, vertical distribution and habitat utilisation. The second part provides detailed ecology of wetland bird community. This book will be an invaluable resource for field scientist, researchers, students, and naturalists in the field of Ornithology.

      • Agriculture & farming
        May 2016

        Climate Change and Plantations in The Humid Tropics

        by GSHLV Prasada Rao & C.S.Gopakumar

        Weather and climate play an important role in plantation crops production. While climate determines the adaptability of a particular crop in a region, weather determines the yield attributes of the crop. The global warming and climate change impacts on plantation crops are evident in the form of extreme weather events like floods, droughts, cold and heat waves and strong cyclonic winds, the frequency of which is likely to be more and more in the ensuing decades as noticed year after year around the globe in 1998, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015. It is now a topic of concern and the plantations economy is in a threat in the ensuing decades due to climate variability. Decline in monsoon rainfall with number of rainy days, increasing ambient air temperatures (both day maximum and night minimum), decline in groundwater table, decline in wetland area and surface water resources, increasing number of forest fires and decline in forest area, increasing events of landslides during both the monsoon seasons, indiscriminate sand mining from river beds and unscientific land filling are the important climate change related issues in the Humid Tropics.

      • Limnology (freshwater)
        September 2002

        Riparian Areas

        Functions and Strategies for Management

        by Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning and Strategies for Management, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council

        The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America’s waterbodies should be a national goal.

      • Conservation of the environment
        January 2017

        Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico

        by Committee on Effective Approaches for Monitoring and Assessing Gulf of Mexico Restoration Activities; Ocean Studies Board; Water Science and Technology Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

        Gulf Coast communities and natural resources suffered extensive direct and indirect damage as a result of the largest accidental oil spill in US history, referred to as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill. Notably, natural resources affected by this major spill include wetlands, coastal beaches and barrier islands, coastal and marine wildlife, seagrass beds, oyster reefs, commercial fisheries, deep benthos, and coral reefs, among other habitats and species. Losses include an estimated 20% reduction in commercial fishery landings across the Gulf of Mexico and damage to as much as 1,100 linear miles of coastal salt marsh wetlands. This historic spill is being followed by a restoration effort unparalleled in complexity and magnitude in U.S. history. Legal settlements in the wake of DWH led to the establishment of a set of programs tasked with administering and supporting DWH-related restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to ensure that restoration goals are met and money is well spent, restoration monitoring and evaluation should be an integral part of those programs. However, evaluations of past restoration efforts have shown that monitoring is often inadequate or even absent. Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico identifies best practices for monitoring and evaluating restoration activities to improve the performance of restoration programs and increase the effectiveness and longevity of restoration projects. This report provides general guidance for restoration monitoring, assessment, and synthesis that can be applied to most ecological restoration supported by these major programs given their similarities in restoration goals. It also offers specific guidance for a subset of habitats and taxa to be restored in the Gulf including oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and seagrass habitats, as well as a variety of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals.

      • Travel & holiday guides
        August 2012

        Bangladesh

        by Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggit

        This updated guidebook, with a focus on responsible tourism, offers greater coverage than any other to the Chittagong Hill Tracts where 13 different ethnic groups live, and to the world's largest mangrove forest at the Sundarbans. Personal insights and anecdotes guide trailblazing travellers to those aspects of the country that are almost unknown to visitors - dolphin and whale watching, winter bird-watching in the northern wetlands and golden Bengal's silk and archaeological highlights. _x000D_ _x000D_

      • Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2021

        Of Sea

        by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

        A remarkable new book in praise of marine fauna. Of Sea takes the form of a poetic bestiary of creatures living beneath, beside and above the water: in wetlands, salt marshes and the intertidal zone. In a sequence of 46 poems, Burnett captures the world of cockles and clams, rare moths and the humble earwig (to name a few) with a precise and dynamic lyric that seems always on the verge of music.

      • Limnology (freshwater)
        May 2006

        Review of the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Studies

        by Committee to Review the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Studies, National Research Council

        Since the 1950s,the International Joint Commission (IJC) of Canada and the United States has issued water regulation and management plans for Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Changes in recreational, environmental, navigational and other uses of the water system have prompted the IJC to consider replacing the current water regulation plan in operation for more than 40 years. IJC’s goals for a replacement plan include sound scientific foundations, public participation, transparency in plan development and evaluation, and inclusion of environmental considerations. To help develop and select the new plan, the IJC supported a 5-year, $20 million Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Study (LOSLR Study). The LOSLR Study uses models to compile and integrate data gathered from a series of commissioned studies of wetlands, species at risk, recreational boating, fisheries, coastal erosion and flooding, commercial navigation, hydropower, industrial, municipal and domestic water intakes, public information and education, and hydrologic modeling. This report reviews a portion of the study that focused on wetlands and species at risk and three of the models that were used. The report finds that the overall breadth of the LOSLR study is impressive, and commends the scale and inclusiveness of the studies and models. In terms of informing decision making, however, the reviewed studies and models show deficiencies when evaluated against ten evaluation criteria, including treatment of uncertainty, quality control/quality assurance, thorough documentation, and empirical foundations. Among the report’s recommendations is a need for more thorough documentation of study methods and findings, stronger and more consistent quality control, and more attention to how uncertainty should be addressed to better inform decision making. This NRC study was conducted in collaboration with the Royal Society of Canada.

      • October 2017

        EUROPA - Continent der Vielfalt

        by Markus Eisl, Gerald Mansberger

        The satellite image book EUROPA - Kontinent der Vielfalt shows the fascinating variability of the continent from a perspective of a viewer in an Earth orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometers above the surface of Earth.  Again and again spectacular satellite images make unexpected and unknown aspects of Europe visible. Ancient and modern cultural landscapes, historical heritage sites, and images of European cities on the move into future change with beautiful natural landscapes with mountains, rivers, forests and wetlands. In the satellite images, all of them present in a wide variety of colors and structures.

      • Travel & holiday guides
        November 2014

        Paraguay

        by Margaret Hebblethwaite

        At the heart of South America, Paraguay is a bewildering blend of contrasts. The colonial capital, Asunción, now has a burgeoning bar and café scene, while its eastern counterpart, Ciudad del Este, is a neon-swathed boomtown. Yet dig a little deeper and a different picture emerges: Jesuit ruins echo with centuries of history, rural families keep craft traditions alive and everything stops as people share a leisurely drink of tereré. And beyond lies the country's inimitable natural beauty, from butterfly-thronged tropical forests to the rolling fields of the campo and the wild wetlands of the Chaco._x000D_ _x000D_ With background sections covering the rich history and culture of this hospitable country as well as all the practical information you will need, Margaret Hebblethwaite's Paraguay remains the essential choice for the curious visitor._x000D_

      • Travel & holiday guides
        October 2013

        South Sudan

        by Sophie & Max Lovell-Hoare

        Separated from the north in 2011, South Sudan is the world's newest country and has emerged from decades of inaccessibility as a vibrant and diverse destination. Nature lovers are drawn to the region to experience one of the world's largest wetlands, the many tropical forests and the second-largest wildlife migration on earth. The tribal peoples such as the Dinka, Bari and Zande preserve unique cultures thousands of years in the making. _x000D_ _x000D_ Authors Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare provide practical information on getting around this new country where the travelling is rugged but the rewards are immense. This stand-alone guide outlines tour operators, hotels, restaurants, suggested itineraries, and how you can give back to the community. The chapter on Sudanese culture provides in-depth coverage of its languages, people and culture. Divided into geographical regions with photographs and maps, South Sudan enables the intrepid traveller to explore the length and breadth of the country. _x000D_ _x000D_

      • Aquaculture & fish-farming: practice & techniques
        February 1992

        Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems

        Science, Technology, and Public Policy

        by Committee on Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science, Technology, and Public Policy; National Research Council

        Aldo Leopold, father of the "land ethic," once said, "The time has come for science to busy itself with the earth itself. The first step is to reconstruct a sample of what we had to begin with." The concept he expressed--restoration--is defined in this comprehensive new volume that examines the prospects for repairing the damage society has done to the nation's aquatic resources: lakes, rivers and streams, and wetlands. Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems outlines a national strategy for aquatic restoration, with practical recommendations, and features case studies of aquatic restoration activities around the country. The committee examines Key concepts and techniques used in restoration. Common factors in successful restoration efforts. Threats to the health of the nation's aquatic ecosystems. Approaches to evaluation before, during, and after a restoration project. The emerging specialties of restoration and landscape ecology.

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