The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya

The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya PDF Author: Malcolm James Coe (Botanist, Great Britain)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya

The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya PDF Author: M.J. Coe
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401178313
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
For centuries the peak of Mount Kenya has held a magical and religious significance for the Bantu and Nilohamitic peoples around its base. The Kikuyu live around the Eastern and Southern bound aries and the closely related Uembu and Umeru on the S.E. and N.E. respectively. Early in this century the Masai lived to the N.W. and North, but after continual warfare between them and their neighbours, the European administrators of that time moved them to a special reserve to the South, which accounts at the present day for the retention in the Masai language of many words that refer to Mount Kenya. Kikuyu folk-lore tells how, when the earth was formed, a man named Mogai made a great mountain, Kere-Nyaga. The fine white powder (snow) covering the peak, which they called ira, was said to be the bed of Ngai (God), and during male and female circumcision ceremonies a white powder was placed on the wound, and the ini tiates were told that this material had been brought from the summit of the mountain. In fact all important tribal ceremonies were, and in many cases still are conducted facing the mountain. Such occasions include marriage and sacrifice when, in time of hardship, Ngai's aid is called upon (CAGNOLO 1933, KENYATTA 1938, CRIRA 1959).

The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya

The Ecology of the Alpine Zone of Mount Kenya PDF Author: Malcolm James Coe (Botanist, Great Britain)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Glaciers, Nature, Water, and Local Community in Mount Kenya

Glaciers, Nature, Water, and Local Community in Mount Kenya PDF Author: Kazuharu Mizuno
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811678537
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
This book describes the challenges for the natural environments and local communities in the future. Among the high mountains of Africa, only Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and the Rwenzori Mountains are still capped with glaciers. The retreating rate of these glaciers has accelerated, and they are expected to disappear in the near future. In the area around Mount Kenya, the precipitation is generally low, such that rainfall cannot stably supply water for farmlands and daily life. It has been revealed that the glacial meltwater has produced springs at the foot of the mountain. It is therefore important to characterize the condition of water sources near Mount Kenya for use by local people. This book discusses the relationships between the actual state of the climate and glacier shrinkage around Mount Kenya, the surrounding vegetation, soil, and water environments, and the lives of the foothill region inhabitants confronting the glacier shrinkage. This book is valuable in the contemporary age, when the assurance of a sustainable relationship between nature and mankind is critical.

Tropical Alpine Environments

Tropical Alpine Environments PDF Author: Philip W. Rundel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052142089X
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Plants growing in tropical alpine environments (at altitudes above the closed canopy forest and below the limit of plant life) have evolved distinct forms to cope with a hostile environment characterized by cold, drought and fire. Unlike temperate alpine environments, where there are distinct seasons of favourable and unfavourable conditions for growth, tropical alpine habitats present summer conditions every day and winter conditions every night. Using examples from all over the tropics, this fascinating account reviews, for the first time, the unique form and functional relationships of tropical alpine plants examining both their physiological ecology and population biology. It will appeal to anyone interested in tropical vegetation and plant physiological adaptations to hostile environment, as well as to researchers in biogeography and ecology.

The Ecology of Recently-deglaciated Terrain

The Ecology of Recently-deglaciated Terrain PDF Author: John A. Matthews
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521361095
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
The first comprehensive review of the available information on the ecology of recently-deglaciated terrain, this volume evaluates critically the methodology employed in such studies.

Palaeoecology of Africa, volume 14

Palaeoecology of Africa, volume 14 PDF Author: J.A.K. Coetzee
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351425994
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This reference provides up-to-date information on research in many different disciplines which give an overall insight into the environmental history of Africa.

Lough Neagh

Lough Neagh PDF Author: R.B. Wood
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401721173
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the British Isles. It covers an area of 383 km2 being 30 km along its longest axis. From pre-historic times the lake and its rivers influenced the settlements of man in the role of a fishery and communication link with the interior of Ireland. Ireland's first canal, completed in 1787, linked the small but significant coal deposits of Tyrone to Dublin by way of the lough and later the Lagen Canal became an important commercial route to the new city of Belfast. Today, only sand barge transport persists but the lough supports Europe's largest eel fishery and provides commercial salmon, trout and perch catches, besides acting as an important centre for recreational pursuits. Increasingly it has become the major water resource for Northern Ireland supplying much of the demand for the heavily populated Belfast area. Biologically the lough is rich, sustaining enormous invertebrate populations of, for example, chironomids and gammarids alongside the comparatively exotic glacial relict, Mysis relicta. Its bird life makes the lough an area of very special conservation interest as a Ramsar site. The book describes the basic ecology of the lough with particular emphasis on both the interaction of the physical, chemical and biological components and the role of ecology in resource management. Extensive recent researches are set in geological, geographical and historical context and together with palaeolimnological studies of the sediments are used to trace major changes in the ecology of the lough under man's influence, especially in the past 100 years.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca PDF Author: C. Dejoux
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940112406X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 606

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Book Description
Lake Titicaca, because of its area and volume and its situation at high attitude within the tropics, is a unique hydrological site in the world. It should be noted that it stands at the transition point between two very distinct geographical regions: the desert fringe of the Pacific coast to the west and the great Amazonian forest extending to the Atlantic coast to the east. Many scientists have been attracted to the lake in the past because of its unusual limnological features. In this book the editors have compiled an exhaustive review of current knowledge from the existing literature and from the results of more recent observations. It is certain that this book will become the essential reference work for scientists wanting to make progress in revealing the lake's secrets. It can be stated unequivocally that this work constitutes a complete review of the present state of knowledge on Lake Titicaca and that it provides the latest results of research on this habitat.

The Pantanal of Mato Grosso (Brazil)

The Pantanal of Mato Grosso (Brazil) PDF Author: F.D. Por
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401100314
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
Until now there has never been a monograph devoted to the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland. The subject has received scant attention in the international literature, so a number of scattered Portuguese papers are reviewed for an English-language readership. The book presents a broad treatment of the Pantanal, ranging from geology to flora, fauna, and the human presence. The publication of this book is most timely, and will be of crucial importance in decisions affecting the ambitious project for a second South American inland Waterway.

Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects

Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects PDF Author: M.S. Mani
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401713391
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
In my book Introduction to High Altitude Entomology, published in 1962, I summa rized the results of eight years' studies, mainly on the Himalaya. I have since then had the opportunity of studying the collections of high altitude insects from the Alps, Carpathians, Caucasus, Urals, Alai-Pamirs, Tien Shan, Altai and other im portant mountains of the world in different museums and institutions in Europe. Through the courtesy and generosity of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I was also able to personally collect insects and make valuable field observations on the Caucasus, the Alai-Pamirs, Ala-Tau and the Tien Shan mountains. Through comparative studies I have tried to synthesize the fundamental principles of high altitude entomology. I have described here the distinctive characters of the high altitude environment, the ecological specializations of the high altitude insects, their ecological inter relations and the outstanding peculiarities of their biogeography. I have also pre sented here an outline of the high altitude entomology of the principal mountains of the world, with brief accounts of their orogeny, geology and vegetation. This book differs from all other contributions in the field in its comparative ecological approach and in the fact that the main emphasis is throughout on the evolution of the high altitude ecosystem as an integral part of the orogeny. High mountains are, in all parts of the world, important and independent centres of origin and differ entiation of distinctive and highly specialized ecosystems and faunas.