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The term biodiversity has become a mainstream concept that can be found in any newspaper at any given time. Concerns on biodiversity protection are usually linked to species protection and extinction risks for iconic species, such as whales, pandas and so on. However, conserving biodiversity has much deeper implications than preserving a few (although important) species. Biodiversity in ecosystems is tightly linked to ecosystem functions such as biomass production, organic matter decomposition, ecosystem resilience, and others. Many of these ecological processes are also directly implied in services that the humankind obtains from ecosystems. The first part of this book will introduce different concepts and theories important to understand the links between ecosystem function and ecosystem biodiversity. The second part of the book provides a wide range of different studies showcasing the evidence and practical implications of such relationships.
Forests grow and their biomass increases; they absorb carbon from the atmosphere and store it in plant tissue. Understanding the biomass of forest vegetation is essential for determining the storage of carbon in the dominant tree component and computing carbon cycling at a regional as well as global level. This book consisting of five chapters will give a comprehensive understanding of biomass production vis-à-vis carbon storage in relation to litter and nutrient dynamics of the forest by analyzing the mode and magnitude of biomass production and carbon storage as a function of various silvicultural factors.
Hardwood-dominated temperate forests (mostly in Eastern North America, Europe, North East Asia) provide valuable renewable timber and numerous ecosystem services. Many of these forests have been subjected to harvesting or conversion to agriculture, sometimes over centuries, that have greatly reduced their former extent and diversity. Natural regeneration following harvesting or during post-agricultural succession has often failed to restore these forests adequately. Past harvesting practices and the valuable timber of some species have led to a reduction in their abundance. The loss of apex predators has caused herbivore populations to increase and exert intense browsing pressure on hardwood...
Organic farming is a progressive method of farming and food production it does not mean going back to traditional (old) methods of farming. Many of the traditional farming methods used in the past are still useful today. Organic farming takes the best of these and combines them with modern scientific knowledge. Authors' task was to write a book where many different existing studies could be presented in a single volume, making it easy for the reader to compare methods, results and conclusions. As a result, studies from different countries have been compiled into one book. I believe that the opportunity to compare results and conclusions from different authors will create a new perspective in organic farming and food production. I hope that our book will help researchers and students from all over the world to attain new and interesting results in the field of organic farming and food production.
Sustainable Forest Management provides the necessary material to educate students about forestry and the contemporary role of forests in ecosystems and society. This comprehensive textbook on the concept and practice of sustainable forest management sets the standard for practice worldwide. Early chapters concentrate on conceptual aspects, relating sustainable forestry management to international policy. In particular, they consider the concept of criteria and indicators and how this has determined the practice of forest management, taken here to be the management of forested lands and of all ecosystems present on such lands. Later chapters are more practical in focus, concentrating on the management of the many values associated with forests. Overall the book provides a major new synthesis which will serve as a textbook for undergraduates of forestry as well as those from related disciplines such as ecology or geography who are taking a course in forests or natural resource management.
Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales. The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and valu...
This book provides an interdisciplinary view of how to prepare the ecological and socio-economic systems to the reality of climate change. Scientifically sound tools are needed to predict its effects on regional, rather than global, scales, as it is the level at which socio-economic plans are designed and natural ecosystem reacts. The first section of this book describes a series of methods and models to downscale the global predictions of climate change, estimate its effects on biophysical systems and monitor the changes as they occur. To reduce the magnitude of these changes, new ways of economic activity must be implemented. The second section of this book explores different options to reduce greenhouse emissions from activities such as forestry, industry and urban development. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that climate change can be minimized, but not avoided, and therefore the socio-economic systems around the world will have to adapt to the new conditions to reduce the adverse impacts to the minimum. The last section of this book explores some options for adaptation.
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The existential environmental crisis prompted the United Nations to formulate the Millennium Development Goals at the turn of the 21st century in order to embark on an era of sustainable development. The progress and deficiencies in achieving the Millennium Development Goals provided impetus to the intelligentsia and policymakers to map out the pertinent goals for a sustainable growth trajectory for humanity and the planet. The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in September 2015, took the shape of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. In effect, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals focus on protecting the earth's life support syst...
Una pubblicazione che descrive obiettivi e tecnica del trattamento selvicolturale proposto per le pinete artificiali di pino nero dell’Appennino. Si tratta di un diradamento di tipo selettivo finalizzato ad accrescere: la stabilità meccanica complessiva (funzione protettiva), la capacità di crescita delle piante (funzione produttiva), la differenziazione strutturale (funzione di aumento di biodiversità). Il manuale descrive le tecniche adottate che prevedono la scelta di piante candidate ed il taglio delle dirette concorrenti sul piano dominante. L’obiettivo è quello di aprire la copertura dando più spazio alle chiome per incrementarne sviluppo e la capacità fotosintetica e, contem...