Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America

Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America PDF Author: Earl B. Alexander
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 019516508X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
This book is about geology, soils, and plant communities in serpentine landscapes of western North America. Aspects of the interaction of geology and soils reveal a fascinating symbiosis relating the structure, composition, and distribution of plant communities. The plants that survive are a unique group. There are some entire genera or even families of plants that are common throughout California that are poorly represented on serpentine, while other genera are more diverse on serpentine than on other soils. Serpentine rocks have dramatic effects on the vegetation that grows on them. Many common plants cannot grow on serpentine soils, leaving distinctive suites of plants to occupy serpentine habitats. The floristic diversity associated with serpentine soils formed above ultramafic rocks is surprising considering that these soils are toxic to many plants. Serpentine barrens of California often look like moonscapes but here we find numerous species of plants of low biomass that produce a richness of species rarely found in the world.

Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America

Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America PDF Author: Earl B. Alexander
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 019516508X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521

Get Book

Book Description
This book is about geology, soils, and plant communities in serpentine landscapes of western North America. Aspects of the interaction of geology and soils reveal a fascinating symbiosis relating the structure, composition, and distribution of plant communities. The plants that survive are a unique group. There are some entire genera or even families of plants that are common throughout California that are poorly represented on serpentine, while other genera are more diverse on serpentine than on other soils. Serpentine rocks have dramatic effects on the vegetation that grows on them. Many common plants cannot grow on serpentine soils, leaving distinctive suites of plants to occupy serpentine habitats. The floristic diversity associated with serpentine soils formed above ultramafic rocks is surprising considering that these soils are toxic to many plants. Serpentine barrens of California often look like moonscapes but here we find numerous species of plants of low biomass that produce a richness of species rarely found in the world.

Ultramafic Geoecology of North America

Ultramafic Geoecology of North America PDF Author: Earl B. Alexander
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781663234391
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
A book about the geology, soils, and plant communities in ultramafic (serpentine etc.) landscapes from arctic and boreal areas in Alaska and Canada to Central America and the Caribbean area.

Serpentine

Serpentine PDF Author: Susan Harrison
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520268350
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
"This outstanding volume brings together leading experts across a broad range of disciplines to bring serpentine into focus, as never before, as a window to understanding major natural processes and patterns in nature. By doing so, the authors illuminate exciting questions and challenges that will serve to inspire and direct much future study of these fascinating systems."—Bruce G. Baldwin, University of California, Berkeley

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California PDF Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520962176
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1008

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Book Description
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for California’s remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem type—its distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of California’s ecological patterns and the history of the state’s various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the state’s ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of California’s environment and curious naturalists.

Tools for Landscape-Scale Geobotany and Conservation

Tools for Landscape-Scale Geobotany and Conservation PDF Author: Franco Pedrotti
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030749509
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 451

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Book Description
This book contains the papers presented at the conferences of the International Association Vegetation Science of Pirenopolis (2016) on Applied Mapping for Conservation and Management: from Plant and of Palermo (2017) on Vegetation Patterns in relation to multi-scale levels of ecological complexity: from associations to geoseries. The reports refer to general themes (semiological bases of mapping, dynamic-catenal mapping, nature conservation, plant biodiversity, biogeography, and geosynphytosociology) and their application to vegetation in different parts of the world (Andes of Bolivia, California, Kaga Coast in Japan, Southeastern USA, Morocco, Europe: Carpathians mountains, Swiss Alps, Sicily, Southern Portugal, Spain, and French Atlantic coastal). One of the benefits of the book is that it offers the possibility of comparing the different methodologies used in very different types of vegetation in the world (Boreal, Mediterranean, Tropical, Neotropical, etc.). The book is intended for researchers, Ph.D. students, and university professors.

Soil Geography of the USA

Soil Geography of the USA PDF Author: James G. Bockheim
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319066684
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Since 1980, our understanding of the factors and processes governing the distribution of soils on the Earth’s surface has increased dramatically, as have the techniques for studying soil patterns. The approach used in this book relies on the National Resources Conservation Service databases to delineate the distribution of each of the eight diagnostic epipedons and 19 subsurface horizons, to identify the taxonomic level at which each of these horizons is used, to develop an understanding of the role of the factors and processes in their formation and to summarize our latest understanding of their genesis. A chapter is devoted to each diagnostic horizon (or combined horizons). This book is intended to serve as a textbook in soil geography, a reference book for geographers, ecologists and geologists and a tool for soil instructors, landlookers, mappers, classifiers and information technologists.

The Soils of Taiwan

The Soils of Taiwan PDF Author: Zueng-Sang Chen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401797269
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date overview on soils of Taiwan. It includes sections on soil research history, climate, geology, geomorphology, major soil types, soil maps, soil properties, soil classification, soil fertility, land use and vegetation, soil management, soils and humans, soils and industry, future soil issues. The book summarizes what is known about the soils in Taiwan in a concise and highly reader-friendly way.

Genomics of Bacterial Metal Resistance

Genomics of Bacterial Metal Resistance PDF Author: Alessio Mengoni
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3036503900
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
The importance of understanding metal–microbe interactions underlies a number of social–economic issues in the world. The antimicrobial resistance era has created a need for novel antimicrobials and within this fieldm metal and metalloid ions are promising solutions. Pollution sites, either co-contaminated with metals or with metals as the sole pollutant, contain microbes that are present as key participants, with both of these issues habing links to agriculture. Microbes also play key roles in the global geochemical cycle of many elements. Such statements solidify the need to understand metal–microbe interactions. Given that genomics has arguably become the most useful tool in biology, the application of this technology within the field of understanding metal resistance comes as no surprise. Whilst by no means comprehensive, this book provides examples of the applications of genomic approaches in the study of metal–microbe interactions. Here, we present a collection of manuscripts that highlights some present directions in the field. The book starts with a collection of three papers evaluating aspects of the genomics of the archetype metal resistant bacteria, Cuprividus metallidurans. This is followed by four studies that evaluate the mechanisms of metal resistance. The next two papers assess metal resistance in agricultural related situations, including a review on metal resistance in Listeria. The book concludes with a review on metal phytoremediation via Rhizobia and two subsequent studies of metal biotechnology relevance.

Terrestrial Vegetation of California, 3rd Edition

Terrestrial Vegetation of California, 3rd Edition PDF Author: Michael Barbour
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520933362
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 734

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Book Description
This thoroughly revised, entirely rewritten edition of what is the essential reference on California’s diverse and ever-changing vegetation now brings readers the most authoritative, state-of-the-art view of California’s plant ecosystems available. Integrating decades of research, leading community ecologists and field botanists describe and classify California’s vegetation types, identify environmental factors that determine the distribution of vegetation types, analyze the role of disturbance regimes in vegetation dynamics, chronicle change due to human activities, identify conservation issues, describe restoration strategies, and prioritize directions for new research. Several new chapters address statewide issues such as the historic appearance and impact of introduced and invasive plants, the soils of California, and more.

Water-Rock Interaction XIII

Water-Rock Interaction XIII PDF Author: Peter Birkle
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1439862990
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1008

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Book Description
In the late 18th century, Neptunists and Plutonists had controversial opinions about the formation of the Earth and its lithological units. The former believed that rocks formed from the crystallization of minerals in the early Earth’s oceans, the latter believed that rocks were formed in fire. Both theories ignored the importance of continuous water-rock interaction processes at Earth ́s surface and underground, which can enhance and define the type of volcanic activity, can cause the formation of secondary hydrothermal minerals and respective ore deposits, or simply alter the natural landscape by weathering. Although not visible at first glance, water-rock interaction plays a significant role in the daily life of humans. Many primary necessities of modern society, such as the availability of high-quality drinking water, the supply of fossil fuel and renewable energy types, the abundance of precious minerals, the remediation of contaminated natural sites, and the reconnaissance of geological hazards require a profound understanding of physicochemical processes interacting between liquid, solid and gas phases. Since 1974, when the first Water-Rock Interaction Symposia (WRI-1) was held in Prague (Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic), the Working Group on Water-Rock Interaction of the International Association of GeoChemistry (IAGC) has organized an international meeting every three years to present and discuss the most recent results in geochemical technologies. In 2010, WRI-13 attracted about 300 geoscientists affiliated with universities, research institutions, regulatory agencies and from private industry, from 35 countries to Guanajuato, Mexico. The 231 papers published in this volume describe novel advances in research related to interactive processes between the hydrosphere and the lithosphere. Innovative field-based studies, theoretical approaches and small-scale lab experiments are applied to reconstruct and combine pieces of the complex hydrological puzzle, and to confront society ́s impact on the environment. The papers reveal details on high-temperature reactions during the formation of hydrothermal ore deposits and geothermal reservoirs, practical case studies on groundwater quality and karst systems, environmental issues by mine tailings, novel technologies for the attenuation and remediation of contaminated sites, water/mineral interfacial processes on a micro- to macroscopic scale, the kinetics of weathering during low temperature conditions, examples for the advanced modeling of flow and transport processes as well as for CO2 reservoir injection, biochemical factors in surface and underground media, and the application of novel isotope techniques in rock/water/gas systems. Special emphasis in many papers is given on environmental concerns in abandoned mining districts, the occurrence and hazards of non-metals (especially arsenic) in exploited groundwater systems, and an increasing interest in mitigating CO2 emission by its injection into underground reservoirs. The papers in this volume are of wide-ranging interest to professionals and students in Earth sciences, including geochemistry, hydrochemistry, hydrology, geology, mineralogy, volcanology and environmental sciences, but also to decision-makers and engineers involved in the management of energy and natural resources, as well as professionals concerned about environmental issues.