Cryosols occupy a unique part of the earth and have properties greatly different from other soils. They also occur where the greatest impact of global warming is predicted. They have been studied extensively in Russia, Canada and in other regions. This is, however, the first book which brings together experts from all fields in order to focus on these unique soils. It will undoubtedly provide one of the best sources of information available about these soils.

A multidisciplinary study of Bera Lake in Malaysia is presented here, focusing on natural resources throughout the lake’s catchment area and assessing environmental impact. This applied limnology study examines issues relating to land development including soil erosion and nutrient loss in the catchment area, severe pollution of water, sediment resources in open waters and wetlands, and reduction of aquatic and bird populations. The chapters provide a comprehensive view of problems, risks ...

We live in an early stage of an interglacial period, which began some fifteen thousand years ago - a warming trend which, with the extreme ups and downs, is . still gaining momentum. There is little doubt that, sometime in the foreseeable future, the global climate will inexorably become much warmer l and many regions, such as the Near East, will become much drier. We even accelerate this process by recklessly pumping carbon dioxide from fossil fuels into the atmosphere. And if that is not...

This Special Issue of Water, Air, and Soil Pollution offers original contributions from BIOGEOMON, The Third International Symposium on Ecosystem Behavior, which was held on the campus ofVillanova University from June 21-25, 1997. Previous meetings were held in Prague in 1987 and again in 1993. The BIOGEOMON series was initiated in 1987 when a group of researchers from the Czech Geological Survey organized a conference called GEOMON, Geochemical Monitoring in Representative Basins. GEOMON ...

This book focuses on the sedimentology of the Hells Kitchen Member of the Port Sussex Formation in East Falkland (Isla Soledad, Las Malvinas). It closely examines two sediment cores spanning these formations that were recovered from the Falkland Islands in 2008 following a mineral exploration programme. The integrated approach of this research, which combines sedimentological data with geochemistry, makes it a robust insight into this past climatic transition and may help to evaluate and i...

Using full-colour palaeogeographical maps from the Cambrian to the present, this interdisciplinary volume explains how plate motions and surface volcanism are linked to processes in the Earth's mantle, and to climate change and the evolution of the Earth's biota. These new and very detailed maps provide a complete and integrated Phanerozoic story of palaeogeography. They illustrate the development of all the major mountain-building orogenies. Old lands, seas, ice caps, volcanic regions, re...

This book presents a detailed analysis and synthesis of the processes affecting sediments fluxes from watershed to worldwide coastal systems. The volume provides a comprehensive overview and constitutes a systematic description of the response of coastal systems to global and local changes, like climate change, sea level, land use and land cover change. The case studies cover a sequence of coastal environments such as lagoons, bays, estuaries, deltas and beaches.Sediment Fluxes...

This book discusses sea-level and coastline changes. These topics are becoming increasingly important for populations living along the edge of the world’s oceans and seas, especially in areas where eustatic sea-level rise is superimposed on isostatic subsidence and storm-induced coastal erosion. This is the case at the southern and eastern Baltic Sea coast: in the south, glacio-isostatic subsidence enhances the effect of climate-induced sea-level rise and strong storm effects are causing a...

Urbanization drastically alters the ecosystems structure and functions, disrupts cycling of C and other elements along with water. It alters the energy balance and influences climate at local, regional and global scales. In 2008, urban population exceeded the rural population. In 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban centers. The number of megacities (10 million inhabitants) increased from three in 1975 to 19 in 2007, and is projected to be 27 in 2025. Rapid urbanization is ...

This compilation of techniques, methodologies and scientific data arises from a four-year Italian research project, which took place at university research stations in Turin, Piacenza, Naples and Potenza. Soil Organic Matter (SOM) represents an active and essential pool of the total organic carbon on the planet. Consequently, even small changes in this SOM carbon pool may have a significant impact on the concentration of atmospheric CO2. Recent new understanding of the chemical na...

This volume discusses the general physics of debris flows and various approaches to modeling - including the SEGMENT-Landslide approach – as well as the pros and cons of these approaches and how other approaches are sub-sets of the SEGMENT-Landslide approach. In addition, this volume will systematically unify the concepts of vadose zone hydrology and geotechnical engineering, with special emphasis on quantifying ecosystem consequences of storm-triggered landslides in a warmer climate setti...

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...