Wetland Habitats of North America

Wetland Habitats of North America
Author: Darold P. Batzer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2012-05-22
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0520271645

“Wetland Habitats of North America is essential reading for everyone who studies, manages, or visits North American wetlands. It fills an important void in the wetland literature, providing accessible and succinct descriptions of all of the continent’s major wetland types.” Arnold van der Valk, Iowa State University “Batzer and Baldwin have compiled the most comprehensive compendium of North American wetland habitats and their ecology that is presently available—a must for wetland scientists and managers.” Irving A. Mendelssohn, Louisiana State University "If you want to gain a broad understanding of the ecology of North America’s diverse wetlands, Wetland Habitats of North America is the book for you. Darold Batzer and Andrew Baldwin have assembled an impressive group of regional wetland scientists who have produced a virtual encyclopedia to the continent’s wetlands. Reading the book is like a road trip across the Americas with guided tours of major wetland types by local experts. Your first stop will be to coastal wetlands with eight chapters covering tidal wetlands along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. Then you’ll travel inland where you can visit any or all of 18 types ranging from bottomland swamps of the Southeast to pothole marshes of the Northern Prairies to montane wetlands of the Rockies to tropical swamps of Central America and desert springs wetlands. All in one book—I’m impressed! Every wetlander should add this book to her or his swampland library. Ralph Tiner, University of Massachusetts–Amherst

The Energetics of Mangrove Forests

The Energetics of Mangrove Forests
Author: Daniel Alongi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2009-01-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 140204271X

Despite their importance in sustaining livelihoods for many people living along some of the world’s most populous coastlines, tropical mangrove forests are disappearing at an alarming rate. Occupying a crucial place between land and sea, these tidal ecosystems provide a valuable ecological and economic resource as important nursery grounds and breeding sites for many organisms, and as a renewable source of wood and traditional foods and medicines. Perhaps most importantly, they are accumulation sites for sediment, contaminants, carbon and nutrients, and offer significant protection against coastal erosion. This book presents a functional overview of mangrove forest ecosystems; how they live and grow at the edge of tropical seas, how they play a critical role along most of the world’s tropical coasts, and how their future might look in a world affected by climate change. Such a process-oriented approach is necessary in order to further understand the role of these dynamic forests in ecosystem function, and as a first step towards developing adequate strategies for their conservation and sustainable use and management. The book will provide a valuable resource for researchers in mangrove ecology as well as reference for resource managers.

Mangrove Ecosystems: A Global Biogeographic Perspective

Mangrove Ecosystems: A Global Biogeographic Perspective
Author: Victor H. Rivera-Monroy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2017-11-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319622064

This book presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of mangrove ecological processes, structure, and function at the local, biogeographic, and global scales and how these properties interact to provide key ecosystem services to society. The analysis is based on an international collaborative effort that focuses on regions and countries holding the largest mangrove resources and encompasses the major biogeographic and socio-economic settings of mangrove distribution. Given the economic and ecological importance of mangrove wetlands at the global scale, the chapters aim to integrate ecological and socio-economic perspectives on mangrove function and management using a system-level hierarchical analysis framework. The book explores the nexus between mangrove ecology and the capacity for ecosystem services, with an emphasis on thresholds, multiple stressors, and local conditions that determine this capacity. The interdisciplinary approach and illustrative study cases included in the book will provide valuable resources in data, information, and knowledge about the current status of one of the most productive coastal ecosystem in the world.

Estuarine Ecology

Estuarine Ecology
Author: John W. Day, Jr.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2012-11-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0471755672

Estuaries are among the most biologically productive ecosystems on the planet--critical to the life cycles of fish, other aquatic animals, and the creatures which feed on them. Estuarine Ecology, Second Edition, covers the physical and chemical aspects of estuaries, the biology and ecology of key organisms, the flow of organic matter through estuaries, and human interactions, such as the environmental impact of fisheries on estuaries and the effects of global climate change on these important ecosystems. Authored by a team of world experts from the estuarine science community, this long-awaited, full-color edition includes new chapters covering phytoplankton, seagrasses, coastal marshes, mangroves, benthic algae, Integrated Coastal Zone Management techniques, and the effects of global climate change. It also features an entriely new section on estuarine ecosystem processes, trophic webs, ecosystem metabolism, and the interactions between estuaries and other ecosystems such as wetlands and marshes

The Mosaic-Cycle Concept of Ecosystems

The Mosaic-Cycle Concept of Ecosystems
Author: Hermann Remmert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642756506

The first international congress for ecology took place in 1974 in The Hague, its central theme being "Unifying Concepts in Ecology". In the forefront of discussion at that time were questions of constancy, stability and resilience. Such questions have gone slightly out of fashion and the exceptionally precise and well thought-out concepts of that era are seldom applied nowadays. The present book introduces another unifying concept, the concept of the ecological cycle, or, more precisely, the mosaic-cycle concept of ecology. The following chapters have their origin in lectures which were held and discussed at a symposium of the Werner Reimers Stiftung in Bad Homburg. The purpose of the symposium was the preparation of this book. Our warmest thanks go to the Reimers Stiftung for their assistance and hospitality. We should also like to express our gratitude to all participants, to those who contributed to the discussion, and above all to those colleagues whose lectures provided, from a variety of aspects, a critical approach to the mosaic-cycle concept. Marburg, Winter 1990/91 HERMANN REMMERT Contents H. REMMERT The Mosaic-Cycle Concept of Ecosystems - An Overview ......... .

World Atlas of Seagrasses

World Atlas of Seagrasses
Author: Frederick T. Short
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2003
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780520240476

Seagrasses are a vital and widespread but often overlooked coastal marine habitat. This volume provides a global survey of their distribution and conservation status.

A guide to forest–water management

A guide to forest–water management
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9251348510

Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more water to maintain their health and to thrive. Forests and trees are integral to the global water cycle and therefore vital for water security – they regulate water quantity, quality, and timing and provide protective functions against (for example) soil and coastal erosion, flooding, and avalanches. Forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our freshwater, delivering water to over half the world’s population. The purpose of A Guide to Forest–Water Management is to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. It reviews emerging techniques and methodologies, provides guidance and recommendations on how to manage forests for their water ecosystem services, and offers insights into the business and economic cases for managing forests for water ecosystem services. Intact native forests and well-managed planted forests can be a relatively cheap approach to water management while generating multiple co-benefits. Water security is a significant global challenge, but this paper argues that water-centered forests can provide nature-based solutions to ensuring global water resilience.