This book is a part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series which was designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of different regions and to add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems. The comprehensive coverage assists the reader gaining a thorough understanding of sabkha geology, hydrology, geomorphology, zoology, botany, ecology and ecosystem functioning, as well as sabkha conservation, utilization and development. Volume I focused on The Arabian Peninsula and Adjacent Countries, volume II was based on describing saline ecosystems of West and Central Asia, volume...

For example, the increased organic and inorganic pollution in our environment is leading to loss of biodiversity, degradation of environment and thus ultimately causing food insecurity.

Given the severe scarcity of water, ever increasing population and soil salinization out of the box solutions for the provision of food and clean energy is required to spare meager fresh water resources for conventional agriculture.

This book covers studies on the systematics of plant taxa and will include general vegetational aspects and ecological characteristics of plant life at altitudes above 1000 m. from different parts of the world. This volume also addresses how upcoming climate change scenarios will impact high altitude plant life. It presents case studies from the most important mountainous areas like the Himalayas, Caucasus and South America covering the countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kirghizia, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Americas. The book will serve as...

In traditional medicine licorice roots have been used against treating many ailments including lung diseases, arthritis, kidney diseases, eczema, heart diseases, gastric ulcer, low blood pressure, allergies, liver toxicity, and certain microbial infections.

Underutilized crops have a great potential to alleviate hunger directly, through increasing food production in challenging environments where major crops are severely limited."Global Perspectives on Underutilized Crops" is therefore topical and highlights the unmet agricultural challenges that we face today.

Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West.

Countless species from the approximately 20 ecosystems and 6000 plant taxa are now rare and endangered.Traditional vegetation studies in this region are far from adequate to handle complex issues such as soil mass movement, soil sodicity and salinity, biodiversity conservation, and grazing management.