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Agroforestry as Climate Change Adaptation: The Case of Cocoa Farming in Ghana
by Mette Fog Olwig Aske Skovmand Bosselmann Kwadwo OwusuThis open access book provides multidisciplinary perspectives on the potential of agroforestry to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on cocoa production. Against the backdrop of increasingly precarious farmer livelihoods, it focuses on cocoa-agroforestry in Ghana – the second largest producer of cocoa in the world. Taking the reader on a journey across experimental plots and on-farm studies, the book delivers a holistic understanding of cocoa-agroforestry. Chapters examine historical yield and climate interactions, the effects of heat and drought on cocoa plants and the role of differing shade trees on soil fertility, yields, pests and diseases. The book discusses the socioeconomics of shade tree management, including cost-benefits, tree rights and competition for natural resources emphasizing policy implications and recommendations.Taking a multidisciplinary approach to climate-agriculture interactions, the book provides an innovative understanding of agroforestry and perennial cropping systems that goes beyond the Ghanaian cocoa belt. It is of relevance to students, researchers, farmers, practitioners and policymakers working with agroforestry and climate change adaptation.This is an open access book.
Agroforestry for Degraded Landscapes: Recent Advances and Emerging Challenges - Vol.1
by Jagdish Chander Dagar Sharda Rani Gupta Demel TeketayThis book presents various aspects of agroforestry research and development, as well as the latest trends in degraded landscape management. Over the last four decades, agroforestry research (particularly on degraded landscapes) has evolved into an essential problem-solving science, e.g. in terms of sustaining agricultural productivity, improving soil health and biodiversity, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change. This book examines temperate and tropical agroforestry systems around the world, focusing on traditional and modern practices and technologies used to rehabilitate degraded lands. It covers the latest research advances, trends and challenges in the utilization and reclamation of degraded lands, e.g. urban and peri-urban agroforestry, reclamation of degraded landscapes, tree-based multi-enterprise agriculture, domestication of high-value halophytes, afforestation of coastal areas, preserving mangroves and much more. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad range of stakeholders including farmers, scientists, researchers, educators, students, development/extension agents, environmentalists, policy/decision makers, and government and non-government organizations.
Agroforestry for Degraded Landscapes: Recent Advances and Emerging Challenges - Vol. 2
by Jagdish Chander Dagar Sharda Rani Gupta Demel TeketayThis book presents various aspects of agroforestry research and development, as well as the latest trends in degraded landscape management. Over the last four decades, agroforestry research (particularly on degraded landscapes) has evolved into an essential problem-solving science, e.g. in terms of sustaining agricultural productivity, improving soil health and biodiversity, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change. This book examines temperate and tropical agroforestry systems around the world, focusing on traditional and modern practices and technologies used to rehabilitate degraded lands. It covers the latest research advances, trends and challenges in the utilization and reclamation of degraded lands, e.g. urban and peri-urban agroforestry, reclamation of degraded landscapes, tree-based multi-enterprise agriculture, domestication of high-value halophytes, afforestation of coastal areas, preserving mangroves and much more. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad range of stakeholders including farmers, scientists, researchers, educators, students, development/extension agents, environmentalists, policy/decision makers, and government and non-government organizations.
Agroforestry - The Future of Global Land Use (Advances in Agroforestry #9)
by P.K. Ramachandran Nair Dennis GarrityThis volume contains a solid body of the current state of knowledge on the various themes and activities in agroforestry worldwide. It is organized into three sections: the Introduction section consists of the summaries of six keynote speeches at the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009; that is followed by two sections of peer-reviewed thematic chapters grouped as "Global Perspectives" (seven chapters) and "Regional Perspectives" (eleven chapters), authored by professional leaders in their respective agroforestry-related fields worldwide. A total of 130 professionals from institutions in 33 countries in both developing and the industrialized temperate regions of the world contributed to the book as chapter authors and/or reviewers. Thus, the book presents a comprehensive and authoritative account of the global picture of agroforestry today.
Agrometeorological Applications for Climate Resilient Agriculture
by S. D. Attri Nabansu Chattopadhyay Robert Stefanski Laxman Singh RathoreThis book offers perspectives on more productive, sustainable and resilient modes of agriculture. The chapters highlight successful, evidence-based local and regional practices across the globe that are resulting in more sustainable and viable methods of farming, particularly important within the context of weather variability and climate change. The efficient use of weather and climate services for agricultural applications are fundamental to these efforts. In the past, weather and climate services have not been used to their fullest potential for developing sustainable agriculture. But now more than ever, as this book documents, agrometeorology is an essential tool for current and future food production and security around the world. This book offers strategic recommendations for strengthening the role and availability of agrometeorological services around the globe.
Agromining: Extracting Unconventional Resources Using Plants (Mineral Resource Reviews)
by Antony van der Ent Alan J. M. Baker Guillaume Echevarria Marie-Odile Simonnot Jean Louis MorelThis second and expanded edition of the first book on agromining (phytomining) presents a comprehensive overview of the metal farming & recovery of the agromining production chain. Agromining is an emerging technology that aims to transform the extraction of sources of target elements not accessible by traditional mining and processing techniques. Agromining, which is based on sustainable development, uses hyperaccumulator plants as 'metal crops' farmed on sub-economic soils or minerals wastes to obtain valuable target elements. This volume is edited and authored by the pioneers in the rapidly expanding field of agromining and presents the latest insights and developments in the field. This book provides in-depth information on the global distribution and ecology of hyperaccumulator plants, their biogeochemical pathways, the influence of rhizosphere microbes, the physiology and molecular biology of hyperaccumulation, as well as aspects of propagation and conservation of these unusual plants. It describes the agronomy of metal crops and opportunities for incorporating agromining into rehabilitation and mine closure, including test cases for agromining of nickel, cobalt, manganese, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, zinc, thallium, rare earth elements and platinum group elements. Since the first edition was published, there have successful nickel agromining field trials in the tropics (in Malaysia and Guatemala), and these are presented in a dedicated case study chapter. Other new chapters focus on the processing of bio-ore for elements other than nickel, such as rare earth elements and cadmium, and on agromining from industrial wastes such as tailings, and industrial by-products and sites. Furthermore, the book features two new chapters that provide a comprehensive assessment of accumulation a very wide range elements from the Periodic Table in various plant species around the globe, and a chapter on practical methods for discovery of hyperaccumulator plant species in the field and in the herbarium. This book is of interest to environmental professionals in the minerals industry, government regulators, and academics.
Agronomic Crops: Volume 1: Production Technologies
by Mirza HasanuzzamanAgronomic crops have been used to provide foods, beverages, fodders, fuels, medicines and industrial raw materials since the dawn of human civilization. Today, agronomic crops are being cultivated by employing scientific methods instead of traditional methods. However, in the current era of climate change, agronomic crops are subjected to various environmental stresses, which results in substantial yield loss. To meet the food demands of the ever-increasing global population, new technologies and management practices are being adopted to boost yield and maintain productivity under both normal and adverse conditions. Scientists are now exploring a variety of approaches to the sustainable production of agronomic crops, including varietal development, soil management, nutrient and water management, pest management, etc. Researchers have also made remarkable progress in developing stress tolerance in crops through different approaches. However, achieving optimal production to meet the increasing food demand is an open challenge. Although there have been numerous publications on the above-mentioned problems, and despite the extensive research being conducted on them, there is hardly any comprehensive book available. In response, this book offers a timely resource, addressing all aspects of production technologies, management practices and stress tolerance in agronomic crops in a single volume.
Agronomic Crops: Volume 2: Management Practices
by Mirza HasanuzzamanAgronomic crops have provided food, beverages, fodder, fuel, medicine and industrial raw materials since the beginning of human civilization. More recently, agronomic crops have been cultivated using scientific rather than traditional methods. However, in the current era of climate change, agronomic crops are suffering from different environmental stresses that result in substantial yield loss. To meet the food demands of the ever-increasing global population, new technologies and management practices are being adopted to boost yields and maintain productivity under both normal and adverse conditions. Further, in the context of sustainable agronomic crop production, scientists are adopting new approaches, such as varietal development, soil management, nutrient and water management, and pest management. Researchers have also made remarkable advances in developing stress tolerance in crops. However, the search for appropriate solutions for optimal production to meet the increasing food demand is still ongoing. Although there are several publications on the recent advances in these areas, there are few comprehensive resources available covering all of the recent topics. This timely book examines all aspects of production technologies, management practices and stress tolerance of agronomic crops.
Agronomic Crops: Volume 3: Stress Responses and Tolerance
by Mirza HasanuzzamanAgronomic crops have been a source of foods, beverages, fodders, fuels, medicines and industrial raw materials since the dawn of human civilization. Over time, these crops have come to be cultivated using scientific methods instead of traditional methods. However, in the era of climate change, agronomic crops are increasingly subjected to various environmental stresses, which results in substantial yield loss. To meet the food demands of the ever-increasing global population, new technologies and management practices are being adopted to boost yield and maintain productivity under both normal and adverse conditions. To promote the sustainable production of agronomic crops, scientists are currently exploring a range of approaches, which include varietal development, soil management, nutrient and water management, pest management etc. Researchers have also made remarkable progress in developing stress tolerance in crops through various approaches. However, finding solutions to meet the growing food demands remains a challenge. Although there are several research publications on the above-mentioned problems, there are virtually no comprehensive books addressing all of the recent topics. Accordingly, this book, which covers all aspects of production technologies, management practices, and stress tolerance of agronomic crops in a single source, offers a highly topical guide.
Agronomy for Development: The Politics of Knowledge in Agricultural Research (Pathways to Sustainability)
by James SumbergOver the last decade there has been renewed interest in food security and the state of the global food system. Population growth, climate change and food price spikes have combined to focus new attention on the technologies and institutions that underpin the production and consumption of food that is varied, nutritious and safe. Knowledge politics within development-oriented agronomy set the stage for some models of agricultural development to be favoured over others, with very real implications for the food security and wellbeing of many millions of people. Agronomy for Development demonstrates how the analysis of knowledge politics can shed valuable new light on current debates about agricultural development and food security. Using bio-physical and social sciences perspectives to address the political economy of the production and use of knowledge in development, this edited collection reflects on the changing politics of knowledge within the field of agronomy and the ways in which these politics feed and reflect the interests of a broad set of actors. This book is aimed at professionals working in agricultural research as well as students and practitioners of agricultural, rural and international development. ?
Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl
by Roald Dahlroald dahl's new book is a wonderful collection of stories, most of which were written in the late 1940s, originally published in various magazines and collections in the forties and fifties, and are gathered here together for the first time. Set in one English village and sharing a cast of characters, these stories--each bearing the inimitable, antic, slightly wicked Dahl touch--have the vivid effect of a novel, giving us the larger picture of this small world in the years just after World War II. And leave it to Dahl to find the most unusual, the eeriest, the funniest, and the most shocking details lurking inside this (or any) pastoral. There's the ratcatcher who looks--and acts--alarmingly like his quarry...the grand backfiring of the greatest pheasant poaching (a "sporting type of stealing") ever almost pulled off...the strange disappearance--and gruesome reappearance--of Ole Jimmy, the elderly, sweet-tempered, tipsy playground attendant...the comings and goings at the illegal greyhound racetrack where the dogs are far tamer than the bookies...the surprisingorigin of the expression "bull's eye" (and a lesson in assuring the sex of your cow's next calf)... Seven stories that delight us with their mixture of the charming and the charmingly perverse, and that remind us--as only a Roald Dahl story can--that the mystery of life isn't always as sweet as it seems.
Ahimsa
by Josie TaglienteLily loves all creatures great and small, including spiders, and believes that all lives are precious. When caterpillars begin to destroy the leaves of her beloved grapevine, Lily must figure out how to save her plant without hurting the insects that are eating it.
Ahora o nunca: Una vuelta en bici para salvar el planeta
by Marc GrañóHace diez años, todavía había quien dudaba del cambio climático, las abejas no estaban en peligro de extinción, y reciclar era opcional. Hoy, todo esto es nuestra realidad. #AhoraoNuncaLibro <P><P>Vivimos en un mundo en el que: <br>1.- los grandes bosques... están siendo talados. <br>2.- muchas especies de animales... desaparecen cada año. <br>3.- los veranos son más largos y calurosos..., y los inviernos más cortos y menos fríos. <P>Ahora o nunca nos da una vuelta al mundo para ver la realidad de la Tierra con los ojos abiertos. Aprenderás qué puedes hacer tú, día a día, paso a paso, para salvar el planeta.
AI and Robotics in Disaster Studies (Disaster Research and Management Series on the Global South)
by T. V. Vijay Kumar Keshav SudThis book promotes a meaningful and appropriate dialogue and cross-disciplinary partnerships on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in governance and disaster management. The frequency and the cost of losses and damages due to disasters are rising every year. From wildfires to tsunamis, drought to hurricanes, floods to landslides combined with chemical, nuclear and biological disasters of epidemic proportions has increased human vulnerability and ecosystem sustainability. Life is not as it used to be and governance to manage disasters cannot be a business as usual. The quantum and proportion of responsibilities with the emergency services has increased many times to strain them beyond their human capacities. Its time that the struggling disaster management services get supported and facilitated by new technology of combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) with Data Analytics Technologies (DAT)to serve people and government in disaster management. AI and ML have advanced to a state where they could be utilized for many operations in disaster risk reduction. Even though many disasters cannot be prevented and a number of them are blind natural disasters yet through an appropriate application of AI and ML quick predictions, vulnerability identification and classification of relief and rescue operations could be achieved.
AI for Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Engineering and Management)
by Suneeta Satpathy Sachi Nandan Mohanty Satyasundara Mahapatra Nidhi AgarwalThis book discusses the adverse effects of climatic changes on our planet. It examines AI-based tools and technologies and how they can assist in identifying energy emission reductions, CO2 removal, and support the development of greener transportation networks, monitoring deforestation, and forecasting extreme weather events.AI for Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability identifies and discusses in detail the importance of environmental sustainability based on accomplishment of the UN's 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs). It presents the various AI-based possibilities for accelerating international efforts to safeguard the environment and conserve natural resources. The authors offer a comprehensive analysis of the emerging field of climate change in relation to Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. The book discusses AI developments, applications, and best practices that will help us transition to a low-carbon future on both a regional and global scale. It provides case studies with analytical results pertinent to climate change and weather prediction and includes chapters with a research-oriented approach, which can encourage new developments in the field of sustainable climate and green environment.The book can be used as a primary textbook for graduate and postgraduate students in technology and science, as well as a reference for researchers, academics, and IT professionals working on climate change and sustainability initiatives.
AI in the Wild: Sustainability in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (One Planet)
by Peter DauvergneExamining the potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence to advance global sustainability.Drones with night vision are tracking elephant and rhino poachers in African wildlife parks and sanctuaries; smart submersibles are saving coral from carnivorous starfish on Australia's Great Barrier Reef; recycled cell phones alert Brazilian forest rangers to the sound of illegal logging. The tools of artificial intelligence are being increasingly deployed in the battle for global sustainability. And yet, warns Peter Dauvergne, we should be cautious in declaring AI the planet's savior. In AI in the Wild, Dauvergne avoids the AI industry-powered hype and offers a critical view, exploring both the potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence to advance global sustainability.
Aid Performance and Climate Change
by Julian CaldecottThe richer countries spend about US$165 billion yearly on overseas aid, mainly to keep human development going. These efforts are undermined by climate change, water-catchment damage, biodiversity loss, and desertification, and their interactions with social systems at all scales, which few aid designs or evaluations fully address. This must change if aid performance is to be improved. Constraints to be overcome include limited understanding of the very complex systems that aid investments affect, and of the ecology behind climate change adaptation and mitigation. Aid Performance and Climate Change targets these problems and others, by explaining how to use multiple points of view to describe each aid investment as a complex system in its own unique context. With examples throughout, it reviews cases, ideas, and options for mitigation using technology and ecology, and for adaptation by preserving resilience and diversity, while exploring related priorities, treaties, and opportunities. Combining an empirical, eye-witness approach with methodological conclusions, this book is an essential resource for those looking to improve aid design and evaluation, and will be a necessary tool in training the next generation of aid professionals to respond to the causes and consequences of climate change.
Aid, Technology and Development: The Lessons from Nepal (The Earthscan Science in Society Series)
by Dipak Gyawali, Michael Thompson and Marco VerweijOver the last 50 years, Nepal has been considered an experiential model in determining the effectiveness and success of global human development strategies, both in theory and in practice. As such, it provides a rich array of in-depth case studies in both development success and failure. This edited collection examines these in order to propose a novel perspective on how human development occurs and how it can be aided and sustained. Aid, Technology and Development: The lessons from Nepal champions plural rationality from both a theoretical and practical perspective in order to challenge and critique the status quo in human development understanding, while simultaneously presenting a concrete framework with which to aid citizen and governmental organisations in the galvanization of human development. Including contributions by leading international social scientists and development practitioners throughout Nepal, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners working in the field of foreign aid and development studies.
Ain't Love Grand!: Earthworms to Elephant Seals (Chicago Shorts)
by Marty CrumpThe natural world is filled with diverse—not to mention quirky and odd—animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the insects, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp. In Ain’t Love Grand, Marty Crump—a tropical field biologist well known for her work with the reproductive behavior of amphibians—examines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate. More importantly, Crump points out that diverse and unrelated animals often share seemingly erratic behaviors—evidence, Crump argues, that these natural histories, though outwardly weird, are actually successful ways of living.
Ain't There No More: Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain (America's Third Coast Series)
by Carl A. Brasseaux Donald W. DavisWinner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award given by the Louisiana Library AssociationFor centuries, outlanders have openly denigrated Louisiana's coastal wetlands residents and their stubborn refusal to abandon the region's fragile prairies tremblants despite repeated natural and, more recently, man-made disasters. Yet, the cumulative environmental knowledge these wetlands survivors have gained through painful experiences over the course of two centuries holds invaluable keys to the successful adaptation of modern coastal communities throughout the globe. As Hurricane Sandy recently demonstrated, coastal peoples everywhere face rising sea levels, disastrous coastal erosion, and, inevitably, difficult lifestyle choices.Along the Bayou State's coast the most insidious challenges are man-made. Since channelization of the Mississippi River in the wake of the 1927 flood, which diverted sediments and nutrients from the wetlands, coastal Louisiana has lost to erosion, subsidence, and rising sea levels a land mass roughly twice the size of Connecticut. State and national policymakers were unable to reverse this environmental catastrophe until Hurricane Katrina focused a harsh spotlight on the human consequences of eight decades of neglect. Yet, even today, the welfare of Louisiana's coastal plain residents remains, at best, an afterthought in state and national policy discussions.For coastal families, the Gulf water lapping at the doorstep makes this morass by no means a scholarly debate over abstract problems. Ain't There No More renders an easily read history filled with new insights and possibilities. Rare, previously unpublished images documenting a disappearing way of life accompany the narrative. The authors bring nearly a century of combined experience to distilling research and telling this story in a way invaluable to Louisianans, to policymakers, and to all those concerned with rising sea levels and seeking a long-term solution.
Air: The Restless Shaper of the World
by William Bryant LoganThe author of Dirt and Oak brings to life this quickest, most sustaining, most communicative element of the earth. Air sustains the living. Every creature breathes to live, exchanging and changing the atmosphere. Water and dust spin and rise, make clouds and fall again, fertilizing the dirt. Twenty thousand fungal spores and half a million bacteria travel in a square foot of summer air. The chemical sense of aphids, the ultraviolet sight of swifts, a newborn's awareness of its mother's breast--all take place in the medium of air. Ignorance of the air is costly. The artist Eva Hesse died of inhaling her fiberglass medium. Thousands were sickened after 9/11 by supposedly "safe" air. The African Sahel suffers drought in part because we fill the air with industrial dusts. With the passionate narrative style and wide-ranging erudition that have made William Bryant Logan's work a touchstone for nature lovers and environmentalists, Air is--like the contents of a bag of seaborne dust that Darwin collected aboard the Beagle--a treasure trove of discovery.
Air (Earth Materials and Systems)
by Tamra B. OrrAll living things need air to survive. Air also protects Earth. Discover why air is an important part of nature!
Air and Waste Management: A Laboratory and Field Handbook
by Howard D. HeskethThis manual will serve a useful function in training and giving experience to environmental scientists at all levels. Included in this manual are explanatory materials, exercises and experiments. These are intended as training guides. The users of this manual will find it possible to use simple equipment and naturally occurring events to construct some of the needed equipment but may also find it necessary to use commercially available equipment with some of the procedures.
Air and Water: The Biology and Physics of Life's Media
by Mark W. DennyAddressing general readers and biologists, Mark Denny shows how the physics of fluids (in this case, air and water) influences the often fantastic ways in which life forms adapt themselves to their terrestrial or aquatic "media."
Air, Gas, and Water Pollution Control Using Industrial and Agricultural Solid Wastes Adsorbents
by Tushar SenAir and water pollution occurs when toxic pollutants of varying kinds (organic, inorganic, radioactive and so on) are directly or indirectly discharged into the environment without adequate treatment to remove these potential pollutants. There are a total of 13 book chapters in three sections contributed by significant number of expert authors around the world, aiming to provide scientific knowledge and up-to-date development of various solid wastes based cost-effective adsorbent materials and its sustainable application in the removal of contaminates/pollutants from air, gas and water. This book is useful for the professions, practicing engineers, scientists, researchers, academics and undergraduate and post-graduate students’ interest on this specific area. Key Features: • Exclusive compilation of information on use of industrial and agricultural waste based adsorbents for air and water pollution abatement. • Explores utilization of industrial solid wastes in adsorptive purification and agricultural and agricultural by-products in separation and purification. • Discusses cost-effective solid wastes based emerging adsorbents. • Alternative adsorbents in the removal of a wide range of contaminants and pollutants from water is proposed. • Includes performance of unit operations in waste effluents treatment.