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Elsevier

Books in Environmental sciences

The Environmental Sciences titles present critical research and insights into the complex interactions within natural ecosystems, climate systems, and human impacts on the environment. Covering areas such as biodiversity, sustainability, climate change, and resource management, these titles support scientific discovery and practical solutions for addressing today’s most pressing environmental challenges. This collection is essential for researchers, policymakers, and students dedicated to advancing environmental understanding and stewardship

  • Perspectives for Agroecosystem Management:

    Balancing Environmental and Socio-economic Demands
    • 1st Edition
    • Peter Schroder + 2 more
    • English
    Sustainable agriculture is a key concept for scientists, researchers, and agricultural engineers alike. This book focuses on the FAM- project (FAM Munich Research Network on Agroecosystems) of the 1990s as a means to assessing, forecasting, and evaluating changes in the agroecosystems that are necessary for agricultural sustainability. The management of two separate management systems: an organic and an integrated farming system are described to provide an interdisciplinary approach Changes of matter fluxes in soils, changes of trace gas fluxes from soils, precision farming in a small scale heterogen landscape, influence of management changes on flora and fauna, as well as the development of agroecosystem models, the assessment of soil variability and the changes in nutrient status are important aspects of this book.

  • Developments in Surface Contamination and Cleaning

    Fundamentals and Applied Aspects
    • 1st Edition
    • Rajiv Kohli + 1 more
    • English
    Surface contamination is of cardinal importance in a host of technologies and industries, ranging from microelectronics to optics to automotive to biomedical. Thus, the need to understand the causes of surface contamination and their removal is very patent. Generally speaking, there are two broad categories of surface contaminants: film-type and particulates. In the world of shrinking dimensions, such as the ever-decreasing size of microelectronic devices, there is an intensified need to understand the behavior of nanoscale particles and to devise ways to remove them to an acceptable level. Particles which were functionally innocuous a few years ago are ôkiller defectsö today, with serious implications for yield and reliability of the components. This book addresses the sources, detection, characterization and removal of both kinds of contaminants, as well as ways to prevent surfaces from being contaminated. A number of techniques to monitor the level of cleanliness are also discussed. Special emphasis is placed on the behaviour of nanoscale particles. The book is amply referenced and profusely illustrated.

  • Waste Management for the Food Industries

    • 1st Edition
    • Ioannis S. Arvanitoyannis
    • English
    The continuously increasing human population, has resulted in a huge demand for processed and packaged foods. As a result of this demand, large amounts of water, air, electricity and fuel are consumed on a daily basis for food processing, transportation and preservation purposes. Although not one of the most heavily polluting, the food industry does contribute to the increase in volume of waste produced as well as to the energy expended to do so. For the first time, nine separate food industry categories are thoroughly investigated in Waste Management for the Food Industries in an effort to help combat this already acute problem. The current state of environmental management systems is described, offering comparisons of global legislation rarely found in other resources. An extensive review of commercial equipment, including advantages and disadvantages per employed waste management technique, offers a unique perspective for any academic, student, professional, and/or consultant in the food, agriculture and environmental industries.

  • Analysis of Environmental Radionuclides

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 11
    • Pavel P. Povinec
    • English
    The purpose of this book is to present a state of art summary of current knowledge of methods of assessment of radionuclides in the terrestrial and marine environments. It cover the traditional methods of radioactivity measurements such as radiometrics techniques, but also recent developments in the mass spectrometry sector. The book starts with a short preface introducing the subject of the book, summarising content and philosophy of the book, as well as the most important historical achievements. The scientific topics are introduced by description of sampling methods, optimisation of sampling sites and sampling frequency. The recent developments in radiochemical separation methods using chromatography resins for the treatment of actinides, transuranics and other groups of radioelements are also described. No other book is available covering all aspects of environmental radioactivity measurements, although remarkable progress has been made in detection techniques over the last ten years. At present the new methods enable to carry out investigations which were not possible before, either because of lack of sensitivity or because of the fact that they required too large samples.

  • Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics

    A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions
    • 1st Edition
    • David G. Anderson + 2 more
    • English
    The Middle Holocene epoch (8,000 to 3,000 years ago) was a time of dramatic changes in the physical world and in human cultures. Across this span, climatic conditions changed rapidly, with cooling in the high to mid-latitudes and drying in the tropics. In many parts of the world, human groups became more complex, with early horticultural systems replaced by intensive agriculture and small-scale societies being replaced by larger, more hierarchial organizations. Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics explores the cause and effect relationship between climatic change and cultural transformations across the mid-Holocene (c. 4000 B.C.).

  • Introduction to Emergency Management

    • 3rd Edition
    • Jane Bullock + 2 more
    • English
    Introduction to Emergency Management, Third Edition provides a comprehensive update of this foundational text on the background components and systems involved in the management of disasters and other emergencies. The book details current practices, strategies, and the key players involved in emergency management, especially in the U.S. but also around the world. Expanded coverage of local and state issues, particularly as they need to interact and work with FEMA and other federal agencies, adds value to public administrators locally tasked with protecting their community. The Third Edition is fully updated to cover FEMA's continually changing role within the Department of Homeland Security and the impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lessons including proper planning, mitigation, in-crisis decisions, evacuation, and recovery shed light on how managers can avoid devastating breakdowns in communication and leadership during an event. Not only terrorist events but many such natural disasters require similar preparedness planning. Emergency planning is vital to the security of entire communities and thus an essential focus for research, planning and training. This new edition continues in its tradition of serving as an essential resource for students and young professionals in the discipline of Emergency Management.

  • Pesticide Risk Assessment in Rice Paddies: Theory and Practice

    • 1st Edition
    • Ettore Capri + 1 more
    • English
    Rice is cultivated throughout the world under submerged conditions. The high water requirements and the heavy pesticide load used in rice paddies worldwide have resulted in contamination of associated surface water, such as streams, ditches, rivers and lakes. The uniform risk assessment approach which has been developed for other crops is not applicable to rice paddies, because of the specific conditions applied to rice cultivation. Pesticide Risk Assessment in Rice Paddies: Theory and Practice fills the gap in information on this subject. Written by experts, this book summarizes the methods used for pesticide risk assessment in rice paddies, the limitations and problems encountered and future developments. It also examines the various agronomic, pesticide application and risk assessment approaches used in different rice cultivated zones in Asia, America and Europe and is an essential reference for those working in this area.

  • The Evolution of Hemispheric Specialization in Primates

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • William D. Hopkins
    • English
    Hemispheric specialization, and lateralized sensory, cognitive or motor function of the left and right halves of the brain, commonly manifests in humans as right-handedness and left hemisphere specialization of language functions. Historically, this has been considered a hallmark of, and unique to, human evolution. Some theories propose that human right-handedness evolved in the context of language and speech while others that it was a product of the increasing motor demands associated with feeding or tool-use. In the past 20-25 years, there has been a plethora of research in animals on the topic of whether population-level asymmetries in behavioral processes or neuro-anatomical structures exist in animals, notably primates and people have begun to question the historical assumptions that hemispheric specialization is unique to humans. This book brings together various summary chapters on the expression of behavioral and neuro-anatomical asymmetries in primates. Several chapters summarize entire families of primates while others focus on genetic and non-genetic models of handedness in humans and how they can be tested in non-human primates. In addition, it makes explicit links between various theoretical models of the development of handedness in humans with the observed patterns of results in non-human primates. A second emphasis is on comparative studies of handedness in primates. There is now enough data in the literature across different species to present an evolutionary tree for the emergence of handedness (and perhaps other aspects of hemispheric specialization, such as neuro-anatomical asymmetries) and its relation to specific morphological and ecological adaptations in various primate species.

  • Persistent Organic Pollutants in Asia

    Sources, Distributions, Transport and Fate
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 7
    • An Li + 4 more
    • English
    Large amounts of data obtained through environmental monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in 10 Asian countries and Australia have been compiled and explored using principles of environmental chemistry, toxicology, and risk assessment. This book also includes descriptions and discussions of current governmental policies, monitoring and surveillance programs, history of manufacturing and applications, emission sources, impacts on human health, and cross-boundary transport of POPs in these countries.

  • Ecology of Saprotrophic Basidiomycetes

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 28
    • Lynne Boddy + 2 more
    • English
    The breadth and depth of understanding of many areas concerning basidiomycetes has increased dramatically since the premier publication of Frankland et al., Decomposer Basidiomycetes: their Biology and Ecology. New vistas have opened up with the advent of powerful computing, modeling and molecular approaches helping to greatly increase the general understanding of the ecology of basidiomycetes. This is tantamount to understanding the role of fungi in natural ecosystems because they are major agents of decomposition and nutrient cycling. These remarkable advances have been incorporated into this volume that discusses all aspects of saprotrophic basidiomycete ecology.

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