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      • Trusted Partner
        December 2024

        Soils for Landscape Development

        Selection, Specification and Validation

        by Simon Leake, Elke Haege

        This second edition of Soils for Landscape Development provides a clear, practical and systematic template for specifying landscape soils based on scientific criteria. The soil specifications provide essential information and a universally applicable method for landscape architects and designers, specification writers, landscape contractors and soil supply companies to ensure quality and fit-for-purpose soils. A strong emphasis is placed on reducing environmental impacts by reuse of on-site soil, promoting appropriate minimal soil intervention, and using recycled products. The first edition won the Award of Excellence for Research and Communication in Landscape Architecture at the AILA NSW (Australian Institute of Landscape Architects) Awards in 2014. The authors won a 2nd award for this book through The Australian Institute of Horticulture (AIH) in 2015).

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        March 2022

        Plants for Soil Regeneration

        An Illustrated Guide

        by Sally Pinhey, Margaret Tebbs

        This book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land. There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed illustration, in full colour. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilisers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees and the final chapter, contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin implementation of soil regeneration.

      • Trusted Partner
        April 2025

        Soil Health and Nutrition Management

        by Naveen Chandra Joshi, Thomas Leustek, Prashant Kumar Singh, Arti Mishra, Vijayta Deepak Singh, Shalini Love, Shalini Porwal, Jaagiriti Tyagi, Mukul Joshi, Swati Mohapatra, Seema Pradhan, Priyanka Das, Deepanker Yadav, Charu Khosla Gupta, Kamlesh Choure, Manish Kumar Dubey, Sakshi Arora, Debananda S Ningthoujam

        A major challenge for agriculture and future crop production is the deterioration in soil health and fertility. We have large areas of barren land across the globe with degraded soil which can only be made fertile by applying proper nutrition and soil health management practices. It is crucial to protect soil health in order to feed the world's ever-growing population. Healthy soil is a dynamic ecosystem containing microbes that aid in the breakdown of organic materials and minerals, increasing the availability of plant nutrients (nutrient recycling) and enhancing soil quality and crop output. Healthy soil also helps mitigate the impact of climate change by maintaining nutrients and sequestering atmospheric carbon. This book summarizes the numerous components of soil health management including cutting-edge technologies such as genome editing and rhizospheric engineering, together with conventional techniques for preserving soil nutrients.

      • Trusted Partner
        Science & Mathematics
        November 2020

        Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes

        by Roland N Perry, David J Hunt, Sergei A Subbotin

        Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes is an up-to-date, comprehensive book covering the practicalities of working with and studying soil and plant nematodes. Written by an international team of experts, this book is highly illustrated and provides thorough coverage of methods whilst allowing for relevant information to be located quickly. It includes the fundamental traditional techniques and new methodologies, covering: sampling; extraction; estimating numbers; handling, fixing, staining, mounting; culturing techniques; figure preparation, measurement and image processing; electron microscopy techniques; behavioural and physiological assays; and cytogenetic, biochemical and molecular biology techniques. This book is an essential resource for anyone involved in plant nematology needing to refer to a readily available methodology standard, including students of nematology and parasitology, university lecturers and researchers, diagnostic laboratories, and quarantine and advisory service personnel. It provides a much needed compendium of the spectrum of information needed to work with these microscopic organisms.

      • Trusted Partner
        Agriculture & related industries
        December 1994

        Conserving Soil Resources

        European Perspectives

        by Edited by R J Rickson

        Environmental degradation in Europe is attracting increasing concern, especially from farmers, scientists and policy makers. This book, a collection of refereed papers from the First International Congress of the European Society for Soil Conservation, covers the assessment, prediction and modelling of soil degradation, and the strategies used to combat the problem. The current status of soil degradation is reported at both national and local levels, and is related to natural processes such as desertification or to mismanagement of the environment through agricultural or industrial activities. The consequences of soil degradation include loss of soil, fertility and nutrients, declining land productivity and the detrimental effects of sediment and associated contaminants on water quality. There are critiques of the traditional methodologies used in soil erosion research, including the use of erodibility and erosivity indices, rainfall simulation and experimental erosion plots. Other technologies such as geographical information systems and remote sensing are also applied to the study of degradation processes. As well as chapters concerned with existing soil erosion models, a new European Soil Erosion Model (EUROSEM) is described and tested. The diverse nature of conservation measures currently used in Europe is presented, ranging from evaluation of traditional methods such as bench terracing and the use of vegetation, through to novel products such as soil conditioners and geotextiles. The book includes contributions from many European soil scientists, geographers and environmental scientists, and will interest readers in these disciplines.

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        August 2022

        Key Questions in Environmental Toxicology

        A Study and Revision Guide

        by J P F D'Mello

        Key Questions in Environmental Toxicology is designed as a self-study tool for undergraduate students. Questions review the origin, characterization and environmental distribution of major pollutants, followed by their absorption and metabolic disposition in living organisms. They address implications for the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary dysfunction and neurological conditions in relation to gaseous pollutants, particulates, persistent organic compounds and radioactive emissions, then cover the impact of pollutants on biodiversity, food safety, and water contamination. This book: - Covers toxicology from human morbidity, ecological impact and biodiversity perspectives, and emphasises the impact of diverse organic pollutants in worsening these interconnected phenomena, leading to wider environmental emergencies; - Provides a selection of fill-in-the-gap, multiple choice and short answer question types for students to vary their learning and enhance motivation; - Includes full answer rationales, allowing students to gain true insight into the subject. Providing support to programmes across environmental science, ecology and human health, and covering all the major biological toxins and pollutants as well as unintended consequences of actions designed to improve outcomes, this book may be used in conjunction with the companion volume Introduction to Environmental Toxicology.

      • Trusted Partner
        Medicine
        January 2025

        Nursing the English from plague to Peterloo, 1665-1820

        by Alannah Tomkins

        This book studies the negative stereotypes around the women who worked as sick nurses in this period and contrasts them with the lived experience of both domestic and institutional nursing staff. Furthermore, it integrates nursing by men into the broader history of care as a constant if little-recognised presence. It finds that women and men undertook caring work to the best of their ability, and often performed well, despite multiple threats to nurse reputations on the grounds of gender norms and social status. Chapters consider nursing in the home, in general hospitals, in specialist institutions like the Royal Chelsea Hospital and asylums, plus during wartime, illuminated by multiple accounts of individual nurses. In these settings, it employs the sociological concept of 'dirty work' to contextualise the challenges to nurses and nursing identities.

      • Trusted Partner
        The environment
        May 1997

        Phosphorus Loss from Soil to Water

        by Edited by H Tunney, P C Brookes, A E Johnston

        Phosphorus is an essential element for plant growth and its input has long been recognised as necessary to maintain profitable crop production. However, phosphorus inputs can also increase the biological activity of surface waters and this can lead to the destruction of such aquatic ecosystems. Advanced eutrophication of surface water leads to problems with its use for fisheries, recreation, industry and drinking, due to the increased growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds, and oxygen shortages caused by their death and decomposition. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of the causes and mode of phosphorus loss from soil to water, to enable the problems to be controlled and managed. This book has been developed from an international workshop held in Ireland in late 1995. It is the first comprehensive consideration of the topic, and many leading researchers in the area have contributed to it. It is essential reading for all soil scientists and freshwater biologists, as well as for environmentalists, ecologists and agriculturalists concerned with sustainable land management and pollution. The book is also recommended to fisheries managers, fertilizer manufacturers and biologists working for water utilities.

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        September 2019

        Soil Carbon

        Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits

        by Steven A Banwart, Elke Noellemeyer, Eleanor Milne

        This book brings together the essential evidence and policy opportunities regarding the global importance of soil carbon for sustaining Earth's life support system for humanity. Covering the science and policy background for this important natural resource, it describes land management options that improve soil carbon status and therefore increase the benefits that humans derive from the environment. Written by renowned global experts, it is the principal output from a SCOPE rapid assessment process project.

      • Trusted Partner
        Technology, Engineering & Agriculture
        December 2018

        Air Pollution

        Sources, Impacts and Controls

        by Pallavi Saxena, Naik Vaishali, Amit Awasthi, Sangeeta Bansal, Monojit Chakraborty, Naveen Chandra, Arti Choudhary, Manisha Gaur, Vineet Goswami, Tarun Kumar Gupta, Harpreet Kaur, Priyanka Kulshrestha, Amit Kumar, Ruchi Kumari, Chinmay Mallick, Renu Masiwal, Vandana Maurya, Neha Mishra, Naik Vaishali, Prashant Rajput, Anuradha Shukla, Gyanesh Kumar Singh, Ravi Prakash Singh, Ruchi Singh, Saumya Singh, Saurabh Sonwani, Shani Tiwari

        Air pollution has become a major global issue due to rapid industrialization, human population growth and increasing urbanization. The various sources of atmospheric pollutants, both those created by human activity and those from natural physical and biological processes, have become the focus of much scientific research and analysis. An understanding of how these many pollutants are affecting air quality is essential in order to design strategies to mitigate them. Written by a team of international experts, this book aims to provide a broad overview of the issues surrounding air pollution and how to control and monitor pollution levels. Beginning with a brief background on the subject, the book moves on to discuss global emissions, with an emphasis on megacities and their effects. Possible pollution control measures and methods of air pollution measurement and modelling are also explored. The book ends with descriptions of the various indices used for assessing air quality with a focus on human health impacts, and a discussion on policy making to control air pollution. The book will be useful to students of environmental science and atmospheric science, as well as environmental consultants and researchers interested in air quality . Key Features: Comprehensive introduction to the primary causes of air pollution today with an emphasis on growing urban populations and megacities Discusses both anthropogenic and biogenic emissions and their effects on human health and the environment Gives an overview of indices used today for assessing air quality and describes current methods for air pollution monitoring and modelling Discusses new technologies for mitigating the effects of air pollution and policy making for implementation of controls

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2018

        Pollution, Revised Edition

        Treating Environmental Toxins

        by Anne Maczulak, Ph.D.

        One of the most troubling aspects of pollution in this age is its pervasiveness—there are few places left where a person or an animal can live without being exposed to pollution. Toxic substances travel great distances through the air, and many of these substances eventually fall from the atmosphere onto growing crops and open waters. Meat and milk-producing animals ingest pollutants, produce growers spray large amounts of toxic pesticides onto food intended for people's dinner tables, and both animals and humans ingest small amounts of unhealthy compounds in water. Scientists now detect an array of toxic compounds—or compounds that harm the body—in the blood and tissue of almost every person from whom they collect a sample. Pollution, Revised Edition provides up-to-date research in the field of environmental medicine. Focusing on specific toxin categories as well as the health effects of various types of pollution, this full-color guide will come in handy for middle and high school students concerned with issues that affect our environment. Chapters include: The Emergence of Environmental Medicine Epidemiology of Environmental Diseases Environmental Toxins  Hazards in the Air Food and Water Hazards Populations at Risk Veterinary Environmental Medicine.

      • Trusted Partner
        June 2017

        The Yellow Earth against the Blue Sky

        by Jia Xing’an

        The novel has uncovered the far-reaching change in current politics, economy and social life as well as the brutal bureaucratic struggle. Baipo Town, known as “the shabby Town”, is inundated with lawsuits, bully, poverty and outdated thinking. Both the Town secretary of the Party Committee and the township head were caught because of peeping at women peeing and getting caught adultery in the act by his wife, respectively. In order to thoroughly alter the mess, Wang Tiansheng, the legendary rural cadre with both skill and dash, was designated by the county Party committee as both the Town secretary of the Party Committee and the township head of Baipo Town. Appointed under such difficult circumstance, Wang Tiansheng carried out drastic reforms to combat corruption and deal with the chaos. However, local pressure groups and corrupt officials crazily pounced on Wang, and rumors were swirling. The Joint Investigation Group from both the provincial and municipal level came to Baipo Town. Secretary of provincial Party Committee tried to rehabilitate Wang, while the municipal party secretary, together with members from relevant departments from the municipal and county level, came to persuade Wang in person......

      • Trusted Partner
        Technology, Engineering & Agriculture
        September 2019

        Healthy Soils for Healthy Vines

        Soil Management for Productive Vineyards

        by Robert White, Mark Krstic

        Healthy Soils for Healthy Vines provides a clear understanding of vineyard soils and how to manage and improve soil health for best vineyard performance. It covers the inherent and dynamic properties of soil health, how to choose which soil properties to monitor, how to monitor soil and vine performance, and how vineyard management practices affect soil health, fruit composition and wine sensory characters. It also covers the basic tenets of sustainable winegrowing and their significance for business resilience in the face of a changing climate.

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2017

        Asia in Western fiction

        by Robin Winks

        Any reader who has ever visited Asia knows that the great bulk of Western-language fiction about Asian cultures turns on stereotypes. This book, a collection of essays, explores the problem of entering Asian societies through Western fiction, since this is the major port of entry for most school children, university students and most adults. In the thirteenth century, serious attempts were made to understand Asian literature for its own sake. Hau Kioou Choaan, a typical Chinese novel, was quite different from the wild and magical pseudo-Oriental tales. European perceptions of the Muslim world are centuries old, originating in medieval Christendom's encounter with Islam in the age of the Crusades. There is explicit and sustained criticism of medieval mores and values in Scott's novels set in the Middle Ages, and this is to be true of much English-language historical fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even mediocre novels take on momentary importance because of the pervasive power of India. The awesome, remote and inaccessible Himalayas inevitably became for Western writers an idealised setting for novels of magic, romance and high adventure, and for travellers' tales that read like fiction. Chinese fictions flourish in many guises. Most contemporary Hong Kong fiction reinforced corrupt mandarins, barbaric punishments and heathens. Of the novels about Japan published after 1945, two may serve to frame a discussion of Japanese behaviour as it could be observed (or imagined) by prisoners of war: Black Fountains and Three Bamboos.

      • Trusted Partner
        Technology, Engineering & Agriculture
        February 2019

        Pesticide Risk Assessment

        by Sumitra Arora

        We have been witnessing a silent chemical revolution over the past half century. Pesticides bring widespread environmental contamination, with residues detected far from their site of application. These substances are playing havoc with the lives of humans and the environment because of their indiscriminate use. Pesticide Risk Assessment describes the environmental risks associated with the injudicious use of pesticides and their mixtures, their methods of estimation and assessment, and their regulation. It also contains methods to reduce and minimize the risks associated with the use of pesticides. The book: Examines pesticides, their impact on the environment, mode of action, estimation methods, risk assessment, mixture toxicity, alternatives for risk reduction, and regulatory aspects. Includes global case studies detailing cases of pesticide poisoning, and the health effects of exposure to pesticides. Covers risks to human health, aquifers and aquatic organisms, pollinators, soil micro flora and fauna, terrestrial organisms and wildlife. Suitable for anyone involved in pesticide application and integrated pest management, this is essential reading for researchers, scientists, extension workers and policy makers.

      • Trusted Partner
        January 2018

        Fossil Fuels and Pollution, Second Edition

        The Future of Air Quality

        by Julie Kerr, Ph.D.

        Praise for the previous edition: "...valuable..."—School Library Journal Clean air is essential to life and good health. Several important pollutants are produced by fossil fuel combustion and emitted directly into the atmosphere, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and hydrocarbons. In addition, total suspended particulates contribute to air pollution, and nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons combine in the atmosphere to form tropospheric ozone, the major constituent of smog. With an examination of fossil fuels as energy sources and the world population's reliance on them, Fossil Fuels and Pollution, Second Edition outlines the connection between fossil fuels and global warming. Thoroughly updated and featuring new graphs, charts, and illustrations, this full-color eBook explores the properties of greenhouse gases, the nature and causes of their emissions, the largest contributors, and important health issues and considerations associated with them. The concepts of energy efficiency and fuel economy are also examined as well as agricultural greenhouse gases and pollution. Fossil Fuels and Pollution, Second Edition ends with a close look at fuel technology and the "green technology" movement that has been put into place for tomorrow's cars.  Chapters include:  Energy, Fossil Fuels, and Global Warming Greenhouse Gases, Health, and the Environment Evolution Since the Industrial Revolution Global Warming and Pollution: Buildings and Homes Global Warming and Pollution: Green Transportation Global Warming and Pollution: Cities and Industry Global Warming: Agriculture and the Impacts Today Fuel Technology Green Technology: Tomorrow's Cars Today Conclusions: the Future of Air Quality.

      • Trusted Partner
        Technology, Engineering & Agriculture
        November 2018

        Reorienting Indian Agriculture

        Challenges and Opportunities

        by Raj S. Paroda

        The Green Revolution of the mid-1960s and subsequent agricultural revolutions gave unprecedented gains in production, and halved the incidences of poverty and hunger. However, a growing world population, climate change bring new challenges alongside second-generation problems of the Green Revolution such as: decline in factor productivity, soil degradation, imbalanced use of nutrients, costly inputs, depletion of groundwater table, chemical contamination of food and feed as well as decline in farm income. This book sketches a journey from green to an evergreen revolution and India's ability to face those challenges through harnessing the best technologies and blending them with rich traditional knowledge. This book outlines the agricultural scenario in India, and the multiple revolutions, and the reorienting of agricultural research for development, productivity and productions, including potential and possibilities of promoting GM crops. Genetic resources and natural resource management, and the role of seed sector in Indian agriculture are analysed. Chapters consider climate smart agriculture, innovation in extension systems for efficient transfer of technology, empowering women and attracting youth in agriculture and the policy reforms to achieve these goals.

      • Trusted Partner
        Geography & the Environment
        June 2020

        New Land, New Life

        A success story of new land resettlement in Bangladesh

        by Andrew Jenkins, Natasha Haider, Bazlul Karim, Mihir Kumar Chakraborty, Kiran Sankar Sarker, Rezaul Karim, Robiul Islam, Nujulee Begum, Edward Mallorie, Koen de Wilde

        The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta has newly emerged 'char' islands, resulting from the deposition of sediment, which are very vulnerable, socially, institutionally and environmentally. This book explains how the governments of Bangladesh and the Netherlands and the International Fund for Agricultural Development cooperated on a land-based rural development project to give settlers security and purpose. It details how they engaged communities and civil societies, and implemented an infrastructure aimed at reducing flooding, improving drainage, and providing adequate drinking water and sanitation. The book describes the project's application to crop and animal agriculture, and the development of value chains and encouragement of female participation. It considers the financial underpinning and infrastructure, as well as how to ensure the impacts of the scheme are enduring. The scheme serves as a model for support projects to vulnerable groups faced with climate change and other environmental challenges. This book is suitable for students, researchers, specialists and practitioners in rural development, water resources, land management and soil science.

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