Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Life Sciences - Ecology

Plants use resources, i.e. carbon, nutrients, water and energy, either for growth or to defend themselves from biotic and abiotic stresses. This volume provides a timely understanding of resource allocation and its regulation in plants, linking the molecular with biochemical and physiological-level processes. Ecological scenarios covered include competitors, pathogens, herbivores, mycorrhizae, soil microorganisms, carbon dioxide/ozone regimes, nitrogen and light availabilities. The validity of the "Growth-Differentiation Balance Hypothesis" is examined and novel theoretical concepts and...

An accessible account of the ways in which the world's plant life affects the climate. It covers everything from tiny local microclimates created by plants to their effect on a global scale. If you've ever wondered how vegetation can create clouds, haze and rain, or how plants have an impact on the composition of greenhouse gases, then this book is required reading.

Outside Russia very little is known about the terrestrial ecology, vegetation, biogeographical patterns, and biodiversity of the enormously extensive ecosystems of Yakutia, Siberia. These systems are very special in that they function on top of huge layers of permafrost and are exposed to very severe and extreme weather conditions, the range between winter and summer temperatures being more than 100 degrees C. The soils are generally poor, and human use of the vegetation is usually extensive. Main vegetation zones are taiga and tundra, but Yakutia also supports a special land and...

This book summarises the newest information on seasonal adaptation in animals. Topics include animal hibernation, daily torpor, thermoregulation, heat production, metabolic depression, biochemical adaptations, neurophysiology and energy balance. The contributors to this book present interdisciplinary research at multiple levels ranging from the molecular to the ecophysiological, as well as evolutionary approaches. The chapters of this book provide original data not published elsewhere, which makes it the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of information on these fields.

The...

The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today's urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world's population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental...

The U.S. Ocean Commission Report identified the need for regional ecosystem assessments to support coastal and ocean management. These assessments must provide greater understanding of physical and biological dynamics than assessments at global and national scales can provide but transcend state and local interests. This need and timeliness is apparent for Long Island Sound, where a multi-state regional restoration program is underway for America's most urbanized estuary. Synthesis of the Long Island Sound ecosystem is needed to integrate knowledge across disciplines and provide insight...

This volume deals with many aspects of the physical and chemical limnology of the Salton Sea, California's largest lake and a lake that may soon to be the object of a multi-billion dollar restoration project. Formed in 1905 by an accidental breaching of outtake structures on the Colorado River, and maintained since then by large and steady inflows of agricultural wastewaters, it has long served as an important habitat for fish and waterbirds and as a major recreational area for people. Highlly eutrophic and with a salinity that is steadily rising and now nearly 50 g/L, it is a lake in...