Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Books
  4. Ebooks in ecology and environment

Refine listing

Refine listing

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2285 results in Ebooks in ecology and environment

Page 35 of 115

  • 9 - Future Environments in the Polar Regions

  • Roger G. Barry, University of Colorado Boulder, Eileen A. Hall-McKim, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Book:
    Polar Environments and Global Change
    Published online:
    27 July 2018
    Print publication:
    09 August 2018, pp 378-400

  • Summary

    Projections of future polar environments by 2050-2100 are described. The roles of greenhouse gases and four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) are discussed. Half of the 1985-2012 warming was anthropogenically-caused. Aerosols led to significant cooling. The Antarctic ozone hole will persist until the 2050s The Arctic Ocean will be ice-free in September before 2050 leading to increased shipping. Sea ice loss leads to less severe winter cold air outbreaks. Winter snowfall will increase over much of the northern hemisphere in the late 21st century. Near-surface permafrost will shrink considerably and thermokarst landscapes will expand. Extensive greening of the tundra has already occurred with positive and negative consequences. Few glaciers will remain in 2100 if warming is 4.8 °C and the Antarctic ice sheet can cause a 1m sea level rise. Impacts include Arctic coastal erosion. Arctic precipitation and runoff to the Arctic Ocean will increase. Arctic Observing Networks have been organized, the Year of Polar Prediction is underway and future Arctic research includes a planned icebreaker drift in the Arctic in 2019.

Polar Environments and Global Change
  • Roger G. Barry, Eileen A. Hall-McKim
  • Published online:
    27 July 2018
    Print publication:
    09 August 2018
  • The polar regions are the 'canary in the coal mine' of climate change: they are likely to be hit the hardest and fastest. This comprehensive textbook provides an accessible introduction to the scientific study of polar environments against a backdrop of climate change and the wider global environment. The book assembles diverse information on polar environmental characteristics in terrestrial and oceanic domains, and describes the ongoing changes in climate, the oceans, and components of the cryosphere. Recent significant changes in the polar region caused by global warming are explored: shrinking Arctic sea ice, thawing permafrost, accelerating loss of mass from glaciers and ice sheets, and rising ocean temperatures. These rapidly changing conditions are discussed in the context of the paleoclimatic history of the polar regions from the Eocene to the Anthropocene. Future projections for these regions during the twenty-first century are discussed. The text is illustrated with many color figures and tables, and includes further reading lists, review questions for each chapter, and a glossary.

Global Resources and the Environment
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018
  • In the past few decades, sustainability of natural resources and the social and environmental issues that surround them have become increasingly topical. This multidisciplinary book discusses the complex relationships between society, natural resources and the environment. Major resources including water, agriculture, energy, minerals and forests are considered, as well as different facets of the environment including climate, landforms and biodiversity. Each resource is discussed in the context of both environmental and socio-economic factors affecting their present and future distribution and demand. Presenting a balanced, comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding natural resources and sustainability, this accessible volume will be of interest to policy makers, resource managers, graduate students and researchers in the natural and social sciences.

  • 13 - Biodiversity: Individual Species

  • from Part V - Biodiversity
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 193-210

  • Summary

    Biodiversity is the genetic diversity of life and its environment—ecosystems. Numbers of species and their threat of extinction are being catalogued. Life began billions of years ago and developed through evolution. Biodiversity is a critical building block for people and human societies. About twelve million species exist in the world, mostly arthropods (insects and others) and bacteria, fungi, and similar organisms. Species evolve differences in their abilities to utilize things necessary for life to outcompete others or survive where others cannot—in different niches. There is a limit to the amount of animal and plant life an area can support, depending on the nutrients, moisture, climate and other factors—the “growing space.” Animals also eat each other and/or plants, which adds greater complexity to animal populations—as do their behavior and mobility. Some species are constantly going extinct, but large extinction episodes occur, after which the surviving and evolving life forms may change dramatically. Many species are presently becoming extinct because of human actions. Species invading a new area can become excluded, eliminate native species, or become a benign member.

  • 23 - Energy Sources, the Energy Cycle, Exergy

  • from Part VIII - Energy
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 365-374

  • Summary

    Energy exists in many forms, such as solar radiation, gravity, and chemical energy. Its total amount is constant, but can change among forms. Energy such as heat from wood burning is insufficiently concentrated (insufficient exergy) to do some work, such as power a laser. Energy reaching the Earth comes in many forms, primarily solar radiation. The total energy to the earth is one thousand times as much as people currently use. The challenge is to find ways to harness desired types of this energy. Solar energy is reflected, radiated and convected and so recycled many times before it returns to space; it circulates through many pools: geologic/solar, atmospheric, hydrologic, and biologic. People presently obtain most energy from fossil fuels. Energy can move by many mechanisms: conduction, transport and convection, radiation, transmission, reflection, absorption, and reradiation.

  • 18 - Annual Hydrographs and Water Use

  • from Part VI - Water
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 283-297

  • Summary

    Water usually flows much more in some seasons, creating periods of drought and floods at extremes. The pattern of water flow in a river is the “annual hydrograph.” Its shape depends on the rainfall and snowmelt patterns and shape of the above-stream catchment. Water flow management is often done with dams, straightening some river sections, snow surveys, retreatment of waste water, and desalinization of salt water if necessary. Water transboundary issues either in rivers or aquifers leads to questions of who owns the water and who is responsible for its purity; these have generally been resolved peacefully. Most water is used for irrigation or industry. Water is used industrially for thermal and hydroelectric power generation. It is often used in manufacture processing and cooling and recycled or released after use—increasingly after being purified before release. Recently, it is used in “fracking” oil shale. It is used in canal transportation, households and commercial enterprises, recreation, and ecosystem protection—where irrigation dams keep water flowing continuously in the stream for aquatic species. Water also is managed to avoid floods and avalanches.

  • 11 - Bedrock Landforms

  • from Part IV - Landforms
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 157-169

  • Summary

    Landforms not covered with transported material have bedrocks of different ages that have weathered to produce the surface soils and underlying drainage and possibly cave patterns. Shield landforms can have bedrock over 500 million years old, while some bedrocks are newly formed. The different bedrock chemistries and amounts of weathering create different advantages for different uses. Oldest (shield) bedrocks have extremely weathered soils with most nutrients missing, while the youngest have little soil developed, with nutrients tied up in the bedrock. Large basalt flows can be found scattered throughout the world. Metamorphic and sedimentary bedrock created from past sediments can have layers of different drainage patterns, and can include karst (limestone) and coal seams. Karst landforms are metamorphic limestone and contain caves, cisterns, and sinkholes. Mountains contain many geomorphologic types but have unique features for many uses.

  • 10 - Landforms and Soils

  • from Part IV - Landforms
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 137-156
    • Chapter
      • You have access
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • Export citation

  • Summary

    Landforms are large, contiguous area of similar geomorphologic history and chemical and physical properties. Their chemical and physical properties strongly influence their soil structure, texture, and chemical properties, and the area’s uses—agriculture, dangers, building potential, mineral availability, and others. Soils are rocks decomposed through weathering, and the rock determines the size of soil particles (texture) and their chemical composition. The texture and structure help determine the soil’ and landform’s uses. Landforms appear stable because they usually change slowly or infrequently, but they can change abruptly and dangerously. The changes have benefits and drawbacks. Specific landform types can be modified in different ways through infrastructures such as levees, dams, tunnels, bridges, and terraces to make them more useful. Such infrastructures have benefits and losses. Some landform properties are based on underlying bedrock, while others are based on materials from elsewhere covering the bedrock.

  • 4 - How People Communicate and Interact

  • from Part II - People
  • Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Yale University, Connecticut, Fatma Arf Oliver
  • Book:
    Global Resources and the Environment
    Published online:
    05 July 2018
    Print publication:
    21 June 2018, pp 35-46

  • Summary

    The seven and a half million people on the Earth are unevenly clustered in favorable climates and soils, favorable governments, traditional places. Of the 70 percent of the world that is inhabitable, people have dramatically altered 3% with urban areas and 10% with agriculture. Most of the world’s people have cellular telephones and already one third have internet access. People travel and transport cargo by a variety of means, based partly on historical infrastructures and accessibility. Navigable rivers are used in relatively level areas and dominant in the Amazon where the landforms do not favor highways or railroads. Ports and shipping lanes also occur. Railroads reflect historical colonial, “extractive” economies in Africa and centrally planned economies in central Asia. Roads exist throughout the inhabitable world except deserts and the Amazon. Pipelines create networks in Europe and parts of North America, but appear more extractive elsewhere. Critical numbers of people are needed for different retail amenities, and people aggregate in populated areas for these amenities. People live in single- or multiple-family dwellings, which take up different land covers.

Page 35 of 115