You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This gripping and chillingly realistic novel from "New York Times" bestselling author Sharon Draper shows that all it takes is one bad decision for everything to change. Diamond knows not to get into a car with a stranger. But what if the stranger is well-dressed and handsome? On his way to meet his wife and daughter? And casting a movie that very night--a movie in need of a star dancer? What then? Then Diamond might make the wrong decision. It's a nightmare come true: Diamond Landers has been kidnapped. She was at the mall with a friend, alone for only a few brief minutes--and now she's being held captive, forced to endure horrors beyond what she ever could have dreamed, while her family and friends experience their own torments and wait desperately for any bit of news. From "New York Times "bestselling author Sharon Draper, this is a riveting exploration of power: how quickly we can lose it--and how we can take it back.
In the face of ever-declining biodiversity, zoos have a major role to play in species conservation. Written by professionals involved in in situ conservation and restoration projects internationally, this is a critical assessment of the contribution of zoos to species conservation through evidence amassed from a wide range of sources. The first part outlines the biodiversity context within which zoos should operate, introducing the origins and global spread of zoos and exploring animal collection composition. The second part focuses on the basic elements of keeping viable captive animal populations. It considers the consequences of captivity on animals, the genetics of captive populations and the performance of zoos in captive breeding. The final part examines ways in which zoos can make a significant difference to conservation now and in the future. Bridging the gap between pure science and applied conservation, this is an ideal resource for both conservation biologists and zoo professionals.
One of iconic Africa's Big Five, the African buffalo is the largest African bovine or antelope that occurs throughout most of sub-Sahara and in a wide range of ecosystems from savanna to rainforest. The African buffalo is also one of the most successful large African mammals in terms of abundance and biomass. This species thus represents a powerful model to enhance our understanding of African biogeography and wildlife conservation, ecology and management. Edited by four researchers experienced in different aspects of the African buffalo's biology, this volume provides an exhaustive compilation of knowledge on an emblematic species that stands out as an important component of African natural and human ecosystems. It delivers a global view of the African buffalo and all known aspects of its ecology and management. This book will appeal to students, scholars, scientists and wildlife managers as well as those enthusiastic about the charismatic species. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Landslides are dangerous, fascinating phenomena: understanding their biological and ecological aspects is essential for achieving slope stability and habitat restoration.
Presents new evidence from more than twenty countries on the role of ecosystems in supporting the livelihoods of the poor.
There is growing concern over the conservation and management of European wet grasslands. The maintenance of the European wet grassland landscape, including floodplain meadows and coastal grazing marshes or pastures, through traditional low-intensity farming has conserved a habit supporting internationally important plant and animal communities, including many rare species. However,land use changes such as flood defence, land drainage, agricultural intensification and neglect have caused a considerable reduction in the extent and biodiversity of European wet grasslands. The international importance of the habitat for biodiversity conservation has recently been recognised with its inclusion i...
This book introduces the key stages of niche-based habitat suitability model building, evaluation and prediction required for understanding and predicting future patterns of species and biodiversity. Beginning with the main theory behind ecological niches and species distributions, the book proceeds through all major steps of model building, from conceptualization and model training to model evaluation and spatio-temporal predictions. Extensive examples using R support graduate students and researchers in quantifying ecological niches and predicting species distributions with their own data, and help to address key environmental and conservation problems. Reflecting this highly active field of research, the book incorporates the latest developments from informatics and statistics, as well as using data from remote sources such as satellite imagery. A website at www.unil.ch/hsdm contains the codes and supporting material required to run the examples and teach courses.
An overview of relationships between landscape change, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity conservation, using key lessons from the Tumut Fragmentation Study.
This volume, Paul Grice’s first book, includes the long-delayed publication of his enormously influential 1967 William James Lectures. But there is much, much more in this work. Grice himself has carefully arranged and framed the sequence of essays to emphasize not a certain set of ideas but a habit of mind, a style of philosophizing. Grice has, to be sure, provided philosophy with crucial ideas. His account of speaker-meaning is the standard that others use to define their own minor divergences or future elaborations. His discussion of conversational implicatures has given philosophers an important tool for the investigation of all sorts of problems; it has also laid the foundation for a great deal of work by other philosophers and linguists about presupposition. His metaphysical defense of absolute values is starting to be considered the beginning of a new phase in philosophy. This is a vital book for all who are interested in Anglo-American philosophy.
Native only to the California Channel Islands, the island fox is the smallest canid in North America. Populations on four of the islands were threatened to extinction in the 1990s due to human-mediated predation and disease. This is the first account of the natural history and ecology of the island fox, illustrating both the vulnerability of island ecosystems and the efficacy of cooperative conservation measures. It explains in detail the intense conservation actions required to recover fox populations, such as captive breeding and reintroduction, and large-scale ecosystem manipulation. These actions were successful due in large part to extraordinary collaboration among the scientists, managers and public advocates involved in the recovery effort. The book also examines the role of some aspects of island fox biology, characteristic of the 'island syndrome', in facilitating their recovery, including high productivity and an apparent adaptation to periodic genetic bottlenecks.