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Elsevier

Books in Ecosystem management

  • Integrating Climate and Nature for a Sustainable Future

    • 1st Edition
    • Nathalie Pettorelli
    • English
    Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the greatest environmental challenges of our time, yet they are frequently addressed in isolation. Integrating Climate and Nature for a Sustainable Future examines how these interconnected crises influence one another and why siloed responses can limit the effectiveness of both climate action and nature conservation. Bringing together perspectives from science, policy, and practice, Integrating Climate and Nature for a Sustainable Future explores the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, the influence of biodiversity loss on climate, and the common drivers underlying both crises. It examines integrated approaches including nature-based solutions, climate–nature actions, global and national policy responses, and strategies for coordinated implementation. It also considers wider connections with the seas, land, infectious diseases, health, equity, and broader planetary challenges.Featuring practical case studies, key takeaways, and reflections on future needs, this book provides an interdisciplinary resource for postgraduate students, researchers, policymakers, and environmental professionals seeking evidence-based approaches to address climate and biodiversity challenges together.

  • Ecology, Research, Management and Biodiversity of Wadden Sea Salt Marshes

    • 1st Edition
    • Jan Bakker + 4 more
    • English
    Ecology, Research, Management and Biodiversity of Wadden Sea Salt Marshes assesses the transition of the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Site from agricultural land to protected nature reserve from the 1970s to present day. Bordered by Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, the Wadden Sea is home to barrier island marshes, man-made foreland salt marshes, and estuarine marshes. This book explores the important question of how to prioritize the biodiversity of man-made and natural ecosystems during such a transition and how to effectively manage it.Written by leading experts in coastal marsh ecology, this book collates half a century of research along the Wadden Sea. It is systematically organized for effective delivery of its major themes. The first section of the book discusses the crucial mechanisms of differing salt-marsh ecosystems. The second section examines how various management regimes, including livestock grazing, drainage, cutting, and restoration, affect these mechanisms. The third section concludes the book by summarizing the results of unintentional and deliberate management efforts to maintain salt marsh biodiversity.Ecology... Research, Management and Biodiversity of Wadden Sea Salt Marshes comprehensively summarizes the multi-decadal collaboration between conservation agencies and universities from the Wadden Sea's bordering countries to examine the effectiveness and utility of various marsh management regimes. This book is an indispensable resource for researchers, land managers, and policy makers tasked with maintaining natural and man-made biodiversity and effectively ushering coastal marsh communities through land use changes.

  • Degradation of Alpine Grasslands on Tibetan Plateau

    Assessment, Causes, Consequences, and Restoration
    • 1st Edition
    • Shibin Liu + 3 more
    • English
    Degradation of Alpine Grasslands on Tibetan Plateau: Assessment, Causes, Consequences, and Restoration summarizes the approaches for assessing the degradation of alpine grasslands, highlighting its effects on vegetation, soil characteristics, water cycles, and ecosystem services. It examines soil carbon and nutrient distribution on the Tibetan Plateau, discusses how degradation impacts nutrient and water cycling, and explores the effects of climate change. The influence of varying moisture conditions on vegetation distribution is also analyzed, along with a quantitative summary of restoration strategies for degraded grasslands.This book serves as a valuable reference for researchers seeking to understand the current state of research in the field of alpine grassland degradation.

  • Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

    • 1st Edition
    • Daniel C.W. Tsang + 1 more
    • English
    Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals introduces the state-of-the-art of biochar for agricultural applications to actualize sustainable development goals and highlight current challenges and the way forward. The book focuses on scientific knowledge and biochar technologies for agricultural soil improvement and plant growth. Sections provide state-of-the-art knowledge on biochar production and characterization, focus on biochar for agricultural application and soil improvement, discuss the roles of biochar for environmental improvement in farmland to relieve water and waste management as well as climate change, highlight biochar used for boosting bioeconomy and clean energy, and discuss future prospects. This book will be important to agricultural engineers and researchers as well as those seeking to improve overall soil and environmental conditions through the use of biochar.

  • Functional Assessment of Wetlands

    Towards Evaluation of Ecosystem Services
    • 1st Edition
    • E. Maltby
    • English
    Wetlands perform functions that deliver benefits to society, often referred to as ecosystem services. These ecosystem services include water supply, flood regulation, water purification, climate regulation, biodiversity, agriculture (e.g. grazing land), and amenity. A functional approach to wetland assessment enables a holistic view to be taken of the wide range of services wetlands can provide. The functional assessment procedures (FAPs) in this volume translate best available scientific knowledge into reasonable predictions of how component parts of wetlands function in different landscape contexts. They can be used to indicate the potential and priorities for management options in such areas as flood control, pollution reduction and biodiversity conservation.Functio... assessment enables the user to predict the functioning of a wetland area without the need for comprehensive and expensive empirical research The FAPs therefore provide a methodology that can be used by both experts and non-experts to assess wetland functioning relatively rapidly. The volume includes an electronic version of the FAPs on CD which automates aspects of the assessment once the initial recording stage is completed. It is anticipated that the FAPs will be used by a range of individuals or organisations concerned with wetland management who wish to gain a better understanding of the processes, functions, services or benefits and potential of the wetlands for which they have responsibility.

  • Ecosystem Engineers

    Plants to Protists
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • English
    The first book entirely devoted to this topic, Ecosystem Engineers begins with the history of the concept, presenting opposing definitions of ecosystem engineeing. These varied definitions advance the debate and move past trivial difficulties to crystallize key issues such as the value of process-based vs. outcome-based. Authors include case studies spanning a wide spectrum of species and habitats, including above and below-ground, aquatic and terrestrial, and extant and paleontological examples. These studies enable readers to understand how the categorization of species as ecosystem engineers allows scientists to forge new explanatory generalizations. Key for all ecologists and environmentalists, this book ultimately illustrates how to inform and manage natural resources.

  • Plant Disturbance Ecology

    The Process and the Response
    • 1st Edition
    • Edward A. Johnson + 1 more
    • English
    The media coverage of natural disasters (hurricanes, fires, floods, ice storms, etc.) indicates the prevalence of natural disasters in most, if not all, ecosystems. In order for scientists to study, understand, and ultimately predict how these disturbances affect ecosystems, it is necessary for them to know more about the physical processes involved in these disturbances and to learn how to couple these processes to the ecological systems. Essential for all ecologists, forest researchers, and conservation biologists, this book includes chapters on the disturbance processes, how the disturbance causes necrosis or death to individuals, and their effects on population or community processes. In Plant Disturbance Ecology, physical scientists who study disturbances provide an introduction to the physical disturbance processes, while ecologists relate this information to the way the vegetation responds to the disturbances. This reference is also key for all researchers hydrology, geomorphology, and environmental management.

  • Sustaining Large Marine Ecosystems: The Human Dimension

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 13
    • Timothy M. Hennessey + 1 more
    • English
    The shift away from the management of individual resources to the broader perspective of ecosystems is no longer confined to academia and think tanks where it first began; the ecosystem paradigm also is beginning to take root in government policy and programs.This volume provides innovative and timely approaches for improving and sustaining socioeconomic benefits from LMEs. The authors describe methodologies and actions for moving forward in halting the downward resource sustainability spiral and advancing toward the recovery of depleted fish stocks, restoration of degraded habitats, and reduction and control of pollution within the framework of an ecosystem-based approach for the governance of LMEs.