You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This multi-contributor, international volume synthesizes contributions from the world's leading soil scientists and ecologists, describing cutting-edge research that provides a basis for the maintenance of soil health and sustainability. The book covers these advances from a unique perspective of examining the ecosystem services produced by soil biota across different scales - from biotic interactions at microscales to communities functioning at regional and global scales. The book leads the user towards an understanding of how the sustainability of soils, biodiversity, and ecosystem services can be maintained and how humans, other animals, and ecosystems are dependent on living soils and ecosystem services. This is a valuable reference book for academic libraries and professional ecologists worldwide as a statement of progress in the broad field of soil ecology. It will also be of interest to both upper level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in soil ecology, as well as academic researchers and professionals in the field requiring an authoritative, balanced, and up-to-date overview of this fast expanding topic.
Soil science has undergone a renaissance with increasing awareness of the importance of soil organisms and below-ground biotic interactions as drivers of community and ecosystem properties.
The largest part of the world's food comes from its soils, either directly from plants, or via animals fed on pastures and crops. Thus, it is necessary to maintain, and if possible, improve the quality-and hence good health-of soils, while enabling them to support the growing world population. The Soil Underfoot: Infinite Possibilities for a Finite
The fundamental concept developed in this book is that in order to achieve security in a complex world, it is essential to ensure that we have sufficient variety available to cope with complexity and its potential dangers. The book develops many facets of this idea, covering all major contemporary world issues, including energy, food and environmental security, climate change, economic transitions, and the role of technology. Encompassing a uniquely diverse collection of viewpoints, this book achieves a highly original contribution to the debate about where our civilization is heading. Airy speculation is however eschewed: arguments are developed on the basis of solid evidence available to all. This book by no means attempts to have the last word: it invites response and debate. Above all, it contributes to deepening understanding of what it means to be human in the face of our ever-growing knowledge about the universe and its nature. And, the ideas developed lead to some surprisingly definite conclusions about the policies to be promulgated in the future.
Drawing especially on insights emerging from studies of the cellular networks formed by fungi, this book describes the fundamental indeterminacy that enables life forms to thrive in and create inconstant circumstances. It explains how indeterminacy arises from counteraction between associative and dissociative processes at the reactive interfaces between living systems and their surroundings. It stresses the relevance of these processes to understanding the dynamic contexts within which living systems of all kinds — including human societies-explore for, use up, conserve and recycle sources of energy.By focusing on dynamic boundaries, the book counterbalances the discretist view that livin...
This Encyclopedia of Agrophysics will provide up-to-date information on the physical properties and processes affecting the quality of the environment and plant production. It will be a "first-up" volume which will nicely complement the recently published Encyclopedia of Soil Science, (November 2007) which was published in the same series. In a single authoritative volume a collection of about 250 informative articles and ca 400 glossary terms covering all aspects of agrophysics will be presented. The authors will be renowned specialists in various aspects in agrophysics from a wide variety of countries. Agrophysics is important both for research and practical use not only in agriculture, bu...
This open access book is the result of an expert panel convened by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and Nature Sustainability. The panel tackled the seventeen UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 head-on, with respect to the global systems that produce and distribute food. The panel’s rigorous synthesis and analysis of existing research leads compellingly to multiple actionable recommendations that, if adopted, would simultaneously lead to healthy and nutritious diets, equitable and inclusive value chains, resilience to shocks and stressors, and climate and environmental sustainability.
This book promotes further understanding of the contribution that fungi make to the biogeochemical cycling of elements, the chemical and biological mechanisms involved, and their environmental and biotechnological significance.
Publishes in-depth articles on labor subjects, current labor statistics, information about current labor contracts, and book reviews.
The mysterious world of fungi is once again unearthed in this expansive second edition. This textbook provides readers with an all-embracing view of the kingdom fungi, ranging in scope from ecology and evolution, diversity and taxonomy, cell biology and biochemistry, to genetics and genomics, biotechnology and bioinformatics. Adopting a unique systems biology approach - and using explanatory figures and colour illustrations - the authors emphasise the diverse interactions between fungi and other organisms. They outline how recent advances in molecular techniques and computational biology have fundamentally changed our understanding of fungal biology, and have updated chapters and references throughout the book in light of this. This is a fascinating and accessible guide, which will appeal to a broad readership - from aspiring mycologists at undergraduate and graduate level to those studying related disciplines. Online resources are hosted on a complementary website.