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55 results

Page 1 of 3

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
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  • 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.

  • 17 - Hydrologic Cycle

  • 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 265-282

  • Summary

    Water has thermal, chemical, and physical properties that make it versatile and necessary for nearly all life. Its high specific heat, high latent heat, and turbulent and conductive thermal properties make it capable of stabilizing temperatures and transporting energy efficiently. Its polarized nature allows many ionic substances to dissolve in it. It’s physical expansion when freezing enables it to weather rocks and float as ice, so it melts faster when weather warms. Water circulates among oceans, the atmosphere, land, plants and animals, soil, aquifers, rivers, and glaciers in a “hydrologic cycle.” Over 96% of the water is salty in oceans, and another 2% is ice. The remaining 2% is fresh water. A concern is the cleanliness and volume of water. Aquifers can be drawn down, polluted, or made salty and usable without care. Surface water travels between countries and agreements are needed on who uses the water. Forests help prevent flash floods by maintaining soil infiltration with their roots, and may reduce or increase total stream flow, depending on many factors. When water doesn’t infiltrate soils, it flows rapidly overland, scours stream channels, and lowers the water table.

  • 27 - Rocks and Minerals: Production, Use, Distribution

  • from Part IX - Minerals
  • 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 424-442

  • Summary

    Annual volumes of minerals produced vary by mineral from billions of tons for iron ore to less than 100 tons for diamonds. Cement and quarry stone are found throughout the world, and many others are found in few places. Some elements are being defined as “critical raw materials” that are both needed and limited in availability for technical, economic, or political reasons. Minerals are used in many ways-gases, liquids, metals, crystals, raw materials for chemicals, bulk rocks, quarry stone, ornaments, energy, and currency. The kinds of elements used have increased with technologies. The mining of some minerals has increased; however, mining of other minerals have not because recycling satisfies the increasing demand. Cement production has risen sharply in China as it develops its infrastructure; in contrast, the United States uses relatively little because its infrastructure is already in place. Minerals commonly accumulate so slow that we will be unable to rely on natural cycling systems. Consequently, we will need a combination of ways to avoid shortages, including recycling, substitution, synthesis of molecules and compounds, and forecasting and adjusting various productions.

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