Author: Michael A. Mares
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806172290
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 695
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Book Description
Encyclopedia of Deserts represents a milestone: it is the first comprehensive reference to the first comprehensive reference to deserts and semideserts of the world. Approximately seven hundred entries treat subjects ranging from desert survival to the way deserts are formed. Topics include biology (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, invertebrates, plants, bacteria, physiology, evolution), geography, climatology, geology, hydrology, anthropology, and history. The thirty-seven contributors, including volume editor Michael A. Mares, have had extensive careers in deserts research, encompassing all of the world’s arid and semiarid regions. The Encyclopedia opens with a subject list by topic, an organizational guide that helps the reader grasp interrelationships and complexities in desert systems. Each entry concludes with cross-references to other entries in the volume, inviting the reader to embark on a personal expedition into fascinating, previously unknown terrain. In addition a list of important readings facilitates in-depth study of each topic. An exhaustive index permits quick access to places, topics, and taxonomic listings of all plants and animals discussed. More than one hundred photographs, drawings, and maps enhance our appreciation of the remarkable life, landforms, history, and challenges of the world’s arid land.
Author: C. Wiley Hinman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arid regions agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 253
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Book Description
The world's arid and semiarid lands are plagued with serious environmental problems and are deteriorating in their ability to sustain conventional crops. These problems have been long recognized by Drs. C. Wiley Hinman and Jack W. Hinman, experts on the subjects of arid lands and arid-land plant species. In their book the authors discuss the plight of these lands and, more importantly, practical solutions to reverse the present trend. Before, and certainly since, the recent African famines, much publicity in the popular media and at worldwide scientific conferences has been devoted to land degradation and the resultant problem of properly feeding people in the arid lands of the world. The Plight and Promise of Arid Land Agriculture describes the various causes of the problems and the current status of these areas. What's more, the book offers sorely needed guidance and innovative solutions for improved land and water usage and the use of alternative new crops for food, chemicals, and energy production. From a global perspective, the practical scientific and political recommendations suggest unique and attainable solutions not only to avert future tragedies, but to provide the economic boost of industrial raw materials production for many oppressed third world nations trying to enter the modern world. Anyone interested in understanding and altering the future course of the environment and the economy in arid regions of our planet will learn from and find fascinating this unique, concise, jargon-free book.
Author: G. Lysenko,
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
ISBN: 1848263333
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 458
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Book Description
Interactions: Food, Agriculture And Environment is a component of Encyclopedia of Environmental and Ecological Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The Theme on Interactions: Food, Agriculture and Environment focuses on methods to ensure the development of agriculture and food production to be in dialectic unity with the surrounding natural environment. In every country of the world agriculture always faces complex problems: how to significantly increase production of agricultural products to supply the population with sufficient food, and industry with sufficient raw materials, and how to satisfy the permanently growing demand. The acuteness of this task has always been linked with the demographic factor and the need to guarantee the population with a high living standard free of starvation and poverty. These two volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.
Author: Muhammad Farooq
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319479288
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 574
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Book Description
This book is a ready reference on recent innovations in dryland agriculture and reinforces the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. It covers the basic concepts and history, components and elements, breeding and modelling efforts, and potential benefits, experiences, challenges and innovations relevant to agriculture in dryland areas around world.
Author: Willy H. Verheye
Publisher: EOLSS Publications
ISBN: 1848262388
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 446
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Book Description
This Encyclopedia of Land Use, Land Cover and Soil Sciences is a component of the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Land is one of our most precious assets. It represents space, provides food and shelter, stores and filters water, and it is a base for urban and industrial development, road construction, leisure and many other social activities. Land is, however not unlimited in extent, and even when it is physically available its use is not necessarily free, either because of natural limitations (too cold, too steep, too wet or too dry, etc.) or because of constraints of access or land tenure. This 7-volume set contains several chapters, each of size 5000-30000 words, with perspectives, applications and extensive illustrations. It carries state-of-the-art knowledge in the fields of Land Use, Land Cover and Soil Sciences and is aimed, by virtue of the several applications, at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.
Author: Klaus Goebel
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814543640
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 462
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Book Description
In the opening session the Chairman of the Seminar underlined the important role of the permanent monitoring panels with respect to the 15 planetary emergencies. A special session of the Seminar was devoted to reporting on the activity of these panels. Short papers, abstracts and transparencies in the opening session introduced the subjects of the contributions: 'Climatology and El Nino' (Nadia Pinardi, Neville Nicholls, Congbin Fu, Akimasa Sumi, William Sprigg and Llowell Wood) and 'Desertification' (Douglas Johnson, Xinmin Liu, Lennart Olsson and Norman Rosenberg). Contributions on 'Medicine & Biotechnologies' were presented by Paul Brown, Robert Will, Benardino Ghetti and Guy de The. The Theme 'Defence Against Cosmic Objects' was covered by Walter Huebner, John Remo and William Bottke; 'Water and Pollution' by Herman Bouwer, Gennady Palshin, David Rice and Paolo Ricci; and problems centered upon 'Food' by Carlo Lerici and Silvia Franceschi, 'Proliferation and Weapons of Mass Destruction' was discussed by Henning Wegener, Andrei Piontkovski, Reiner Huber, Tony Mason, Willis Stanley, Gregory Canavan and Povl Olgaard; 'Limits of Development' by Hilmar Schubert and Leonardas Kairiukstis; and 'Energy' by Stanislav Subbotin, Andrei Gagarinski and Eugeni Velikhov. T D Lee closed the Seminar by emphasizing the link between basic science and planetary emergencies.
Author: Stanley A Rice
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813546532
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 315
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Book Description
Plants are not just a pretty part of the landscape; they keep the entire planet, with all of its human and nonhuman inhabitants, alive. Stanley Rice documents the many ways in which plants do this by making oxygen, regulating the greenhouse effect, controlling floods, and producing all the food in the world. Plants also create natural habitats for all organisms in the world. With illustrations and clear writing for non-specialists, Green Planet helps general readers realize that if we are to rescue the Earth from environmental disaster, we must protect wild plants. Beginning with an overview of how human civilization has altered the face of the Earth, particularly by the destruction of forests, the book details the startling consequences of these actions. Rice provides compelling reasons for government officials, economic leaders, and the public to support efforts to save threatened and endangered plants. Global campaigns to solve environmental problems with plants, such as the development of green roofs and the Green Belt Movement—a women's organization in Kenya that empowers communities worldwide to protect the environment—show readers that efforts to save wild plants can be successful and beneficial to the economic well-being of nations. Through current scientific evidence, readers see that plants are vital to the ecological health of our planet and understand what can be done to lead to a better—and greener—future Benefits of plants: Help modulate greenhouse gases Produce almost all oxygen in the air Create cool shade that reduces energy costs Prevent floods, droughts, and soil erosion Produce all of the food in the world Create and preserve soil Create natural habitats Heal the landscape after natural and human disasters
Author: U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309174252
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242
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Book Description
This book is the result of a joint research effort led by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and involving the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Palestine Health Council. It discusses opportunities for enhancement of water supplies and avoidance of overexploitation of water resources in the Middle East. Based on the concept that ecosystem goods and services are essential to maintaining water quality and quantity, the book emphasizes conservation, improved use of current technologies, and water management approaches that are compatible with environmental quality.
Author: José Luis Araus
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1845936809
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
Agriculture has shaped our planet into the world we know, but its continued success is threatened by changing weather patterns. Climate change is a diverse, multifactorial phenomenon and the agronomic strategies we employ to combat its effects need to be case-specific, with significant regional differences. With two major sections, the first explaining the challenges posed by climate change and the second reviewing the current research avenues employed, this book combines detailed discussion of physiological plant responses with practical experience on crop stress management and breeding. Using a number of illustrative case studies, it discusses how the stresses resulting from climate change could be overcome by assessing, measuring and predicting environmental changes and stresses, and identifying opportunities for adapting to multifactorial change. A global effort to combine climate change science with policy is desperately needed. Climate change will continue to pose many challenges to agriculture in the future but by taking an integrative approach to predicting and adapting to change, this book will inspire researchers to turn those challenges into opportunities.
Author: Mannava V.K. Sivakumar
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940076751X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 417
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Book Description
The countries of West Asia and North Africa (WANA) have long had the challenge of providing sustainable livelihoods for their populations in the fragile ecosystems of semi-arid and arid areas. Climate change is already a reality in WANA and it places additional constraints on the already fragile ecosystems of dry areas and limited natural resources in WANA. A comprehensive and integrated approach to planning and implementing the climate change adaptation strategies across the wide range of agro-ecosystems in different countries in WANA could help both the planners and the local communities to deal effectively with the projected impacts and also contribute to overall sustainability of agricultural production systems. This book addresses the important issue of climate change and food security in West Asia and North Africa and presents the appropriate strategies which could help in the development of new policies to better adapt agriculture production systems and enhance food security in WANA.
