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Author: Laszlo Nagy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642189679
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480
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Book Description
The United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, spawned a multitude of pro grammes aimed at assessing, managing and conserving the earth's biological diversity. One important issue addressed at the conference was the mountain environment. A specific feature of high mountains is the so-called alpine zone, i. e. the treeless regions at the uppermost reaches. Though covering only a very small proportion of the land surface, the alpine zone contains a rela tively large number of plants, animals, fungi and microbes which are specifi cally adapted to cold environments. This zone contributes fundamentally to the planet's biodiversity and provides many resources for mountain dwelling as well as lowland people. However, rapid and largely man-made changes are affecting mountain ecosystems, such as soil erosion, losses of habitat and genetic diversity, and climate change, all of which have to be addressed. As stated in the European Community Biodiversity Strategy, "the global scale of biodiversity reduction or losses and the interdependence of different species and ecosystems across national borders demands concerted international action". Managing biodiversity in a rational and sustainable way needs basic knowledge on its qualitative and quantitative aspects at local, regional and global scales. This is particularly true for mountains, which are distributed throughout the world and are indeed hot spots of biodiversity in absolute terms as well as relative to the surrounding lowlands.
Author: Laszlo Nagy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642189679
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Get Book
Book Description
The United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, spawned a multitude of pro grammes aimed at assessing, managing and conserving the earth's biological diversity. One important issue addressed at the conference was the mountain environment. A specific feature of high mountains is the so-called alpine zone, i. e. the treeless regions at the uppermost reaches. Though covering only a very small proportion of the land surface, the alpine zone contains a rela tively large number of plants, animals, fungi and microbes which are specifi cally adapted to cold environments. This zone contributes fundamentally to the planet's biodiversity and provides many resources for mountain dwelling as well as lowland people. However, rapid and largely man-made changes are affecting mountain ecosystems, such as soil erosion, losses of habitat and genetic diversity, and climate change, all of which have to be addressed. As stated in the European Community Biodiversity Strategy, "the global scale of biodiversity reduction or losses and the interdependence of different species and ecosystems across national borders demands concerted international action". Managing biodiversity in a rational and sustainable way needs basic knowledge on its qualitative and quantitative aspects at local, regional and global scales. This is particularly true for mountains, which are distributed throughout the world and are indeed hot spots of biodiversity in absolute terms as well as relative to the surrounding lowlands.
Author: László Nagy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781861075451
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 17
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Book Description
Author: Commission européenne. Direction générale pour l'environnement
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789279117299
Category : Natural areas
Languages : en
Pages : 15
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Book Description
Author: Scottish Natural Heritage
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780114973193
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424
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Book Description
This publication contains the proceedings of an international conference, held in Pitlochry, Scotland in November 2002, to mark the UN International Year of Mountains 2002. The conference participants discussed the state of current knowledge about the mountains of Northern Europe and considered issues arising from the interactions between people and nature, and the conservation and sustainable development activities needed to benefit the natural heritage of mountain regions in the UK, Norway and Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
Author: Laszlo Nagy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191546577
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
This book is unique in providing a global overview of alpine (high mountain) habitats that occur above the natural (cold-limited) tree line, describing the factors that have shaped them over both ecological and evolutionary timescales. The broad geographic coverage helps synthesise common features whilst revealing differences in the world's major alpine systems from the Arctic to the Tropics. The words "barren" and "wasteland" have often been applied to describe landscapes beyond the treeline. However, a closer look reveals a large diversity of habitats, assemblages and individual taxa, largely connected to topographic diversity within individual alpine regions. The book considers habitat-forming factors (landforms, energy and climate, hydrology, soils, and vegetation) individually, as well as their composite impacts on habitat characteristics. Evolution and population processes are examined in the context of the responsiveness / resilience of alpine habitats to global change. Finally, a critical assessment of the potential impacts of climate change, atmospheric pollutants and land use is made and related to the management and conservation options available for these unique habitats.
Author: Frank E. Zachos
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783642209925
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 550
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Book Description
Biodiversity and its conservation are among the main global topics in science and politics and perhaps the major challenge for the present and coming generations. This book written by international experts from different disciplines comprises general chapters on diversity and its measurement, human impacts on biodiversity hotspots on a global scale, human diversity itself and various geographic regions exhibiting high levels of diversity. The areas covered range from genetics and taxonomy to evolutionary biology, biogeography and the social sciences. In addition to the classic hotspots in the tropics, the book also highlights various other ecosystems harbouring unique species communities including coral reefs and the Southern Ocean. The approach taken considers, but is not limited to, the original hotspot definition sensu stricto and presents a chapter introducing the 35th hotspot, the forests of East Australia. While, due to a bias in data availability, the majority of contributions on particular taxa deal with vertebrates and plants, some also deal with the less-studied invertebrates. This book will be essential reading for anyone involved with biodiversity, particularly researchers and practitioners in the fields of conservation biology, ecology and evolution.
Author: Anja Molinari-Jobin
Publisher: Council of Europe
ISBN: 9287151113
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 25
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Book Description
The Lynx was reintroduced in Switzerland in 1971 and has since increased its population to cover a substantial part of the Alps. The re-introduction was followed by a monitoring programme that has shown that the species still faces some challenges for its survival in the region. The Pan-Alpine Conservation Strategy for the Lynx (PACS) presented in this document states that no Alpine country can host a viable lynx population in isolation as all regional populations will be transboundary, and notes that international co-operation is essential for the conservation of shared populations, and even more to solve the mutual problems. The Strategy was endorsed by the Standing Committee to the Bern Convention in 2001.
Author: F.Stuart III Chapin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642789668
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337
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Book Description
As human populations expand and have increasing access to technol ogy, two general environmental concerns have arisen. First, human pop ulations are having increasing impact on the earth system, such that we are altering the biospheric carbon pools, basic processes of elemental cycling and the climate system of the earth. Because of time lags and feedbacks, these processes are not easily reversed. These alterations are occurring now more rapidly than at any time in the last several million years. Secondly, human activities are causing changes in the earth's biota that lead to species extinctions at a rate and magnitude rivaling those of past geologic extinction events. Although environmental change is potentially reversible at some time scales, the loss of species is irrevo cable. Changes in diversity at other scales are also cause for concern. Habitat fragmentation and declines in population sizes alter genetic di versity. Loss or introduction of new functional groups, such as nitro gen fixers or rodents onto islands can strongly alter ecosystem processes. Changes in landscape diversity through habitat modification and frag mentation alter the nature of processes within and among vegetation patches. Although both ecological changes altering the earth system and the loss of biotic diversity have been major sources of concern in recent years, these concerns have been largely independent, with little concern for the environmental causes the ecosystem consequences of changes in biodiversity. These two processes are clearly interrelated. Changes in ecological systems cause changes in diversity.
Author: Angela Sierra-Almeida
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889744493
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
Author: Christoph Leuschner
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319430424
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 998
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Book Description
This handbook in two volumes synthesises our knowledge about the ecology of Central Europe’s plant cover with its 7000-yr history of human impact, covering Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Based on a thorough literature review with 5500 cited references and nearly 1000 figures and tables, the two books review in 26 chapters all major natural and man-made vegetation types with their climatic and edaphic influences, the structure and dynamics of their communities, the ecophysiology of important plant species, and key aspects of ecosystem functioning. Volume I deals with the forests and scrub vegetation and analyses the ecology of Central Europe’s tree flora, whilst Volume II is dedicated to the non-forest vegetation covering mires, grasslands, heaths, alpine habitats and urban vegetation. The consequences of over-use, pollution and recent climate change over the last century are explored and conservation issues addressed.
