This book summarizes a long-term research project addressing land and water use in the irrigated areas of the Aral Sea basin. In an interdisciplinary approach, natural and human sciences are combined to elucidate the challenges of economic transition that affect the use of land, water and biological resources, ecological sustainability, economic efficiency and the livelihoods of the local population. The research focuses on Khorezm, a region in Uzbekistan, located on the Amudarya river, in...

Soil organic matter is a reservoir for plant nutrients, provides water-holding capacity, stabilizes soil structure against compaction and erosion, and thus determines soil productivity. All agriculture to some degree depends on soil organic matter. It has long been known that soil organic matter declines when land is taken into cultivation, and that the productivity of new agricultural land is governed by fertility contributions from decomposing natural organic matter. The expansion of agr...

How does nature work? When one looks closely at the enormously complex web of life, it is impossible not to be caught by the wonder of how all living things – including rocks and crystals – are interconnected. Just as there is thought behind action, so there is energy behind matter. The Fertile Earth, the third volume of the Eco-Technology series which presents the original, passionate and convincing research of Viktor Schauberger in translation for the first time, contains his groundbreak...

Rice is the staple food for half of the world’s population. Consumption of rice is the major exposure route globally to the class one, non-threshold carcinogen inorganic arsenic. This book explains the sources of arsenic to paddy soils and the biogeochemical processes and plant physiological attributes of paddy soil-rice ecosystems that lead to high concentrations of arsenic in rice grain. It presents the global pattern of arsenic concentration and speciation in rice, discusses human expos...

After UNCED (United Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, July 1992), a second edition of Desertification was necessary. About 150 corrections, amendments and additions take scientific progress into account. The author also presents an updated chapter in which the results of UNCED are analyzed.This book aims at an understanding of what is commonly called "desertification" - a term which is proposed to be replaced by "land degradation". Each leve...

The Tree Faller’s Manual is an essential handbook for forest operators and others who need to fell trees manually using a hand-held chainsaw. This manual builds on the information provided by the Chainsaw Operator’s Manual.Tree felling is a high risk activity. Many fatalities and serious injuries have occurred as a result of being struck by falling trees, dislodged tree limbs or other dangers in the area. Most of these accidents are caused by using unsafe felling ...

Kids find that their imagination starts to grow when they learn about new things and rocks and minerals are a natural aspect of the outdoors but kids tend to not take time to really look closely at each one. Learning about the big and little details of both helps kids imagine where rocks have been, how they got to where they were found and what caused minerals to form and take shape; all of these things help children think in new and exciting ways.

This fully revised and expanded edition of Fundamentals of Soil Ecology continues its holistic approach to soil biology and ecosystem function. Students and ecosystem researchers will gain a greater understanding of the central roles that soils play in ecosystem development and function. The authors emphasize the increasing importance of soils as the organizing center for all terrestrial ecosystems and provide an overview of theory and practice of soil ecology, both from an ecosystem and e...

Conceptual separation of humans and natural ecosystems is reflected in the thinking of most natural resource management professions, including for estry, wildlife management, fisheries, range management, and watershed management (Burch 1971). Such thinking can deny the reality of the human element in local, regional, and global ecosystems (Bonnicksen and Lee 1982, Klausner 1971, Vayda 1977). As complex organisms with highly developed cultural abilities to modify their environment, humans d...

This book comprehensively describes the major ecosystem services in dryland environments that are provided by typical land use, including forestland, grassland and farmland, using the Loess Plateau, Northwest China as an example. It offers extensive information on land policy, implementation and scientific evidence, and discusses the restoration of the degraded Loess Plateau environment, which that brings new challenges in the sustainable use of natural resources, in particular soil and wa...

Environmental Soil Physics is a completely updated and modified edition of the Daniel Hillels previous, successful books, Introduction to Soil Physics and Fundamentals of Soil Physics. Hillel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, one of the true leaders in the field of environmental sciences. The new version includes a chapter and problems on computational techniques, addresses current environmental concerns and trends. - Updates and expands the scope of Hillel's prior works, Fundamentals of...

After the 1998 flood of the Yangtze River, one of the world’s most important rivers, environmental experts realized that, to control flooding, much more attention must be paid to vegetation cover on bare lands, thin forest land, and shrub-covered land in mountain areas. In 1999, an environmental monitoring project of the forests in 11 provinces of the Yangtze River basin was undertaken. This book reports on soil loss prediction and the successful practices of soil loss control in eastern C...