The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is a recurrent feature of the climate in tropical regions. In this volume leading experts summarize information gained over the past decade concerning diverse aspects of ENSO, which have led to marked improvements in our ability to forecast its development months or seasons in advance. This volume compares ENSO's modern morphology and variability with its recent historic and prehistoric behaviour. It expands and updates Diaz and Markgraf's earlier volume El Niño: Historical and Paleoclimatic Aspects of the Southern Oscillation (1992, Cambridge University Press). The volume will be of importance to a broad range of scientists in meteorology, oceanography, hydrology, geosciences, ecology, public health, emergency management response and mitigation, and decision-making. It will also be used as a supplementary textbook and reference source in graduate courses in environmental studies.

Papers from a symposium on the endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel, called in response to the building of an observatory on the mountain by the University of Arizona, offers a comprehensive picture of the ecological conditions and the impacts of natural and man-mad changes on the squirrel and its mountain home.

In 1962 the Green River was poisoned and its native fishes killed so that the new Flaming Gorge Reservoir could be stocked with non-native game fishes for sportsmen. This incident was representative of water management in the West, where dams and other projects have been built to serve human needs without consideration for the effects of water diversion or depletion on the ecosystem. Indeed, it took a Supreme Court decision in 1976 to save Devils Hole pupfish from habitat destruction at the hands of developers. Nearly a third of the native fish fauna of North America lives in the arid West; this book traces their decline toward extinction as a result of human interference and the threat to their genetic diversity posed by decreases in their populations. What can be done to slow or end this tragedy? As the most comprehensive treatment ever attempted on the subject, Battle Against Extinction shows how conservation efforts have been or can be used to reverse these trends. In covering fishes in arid lands west of the Mississippi Valley, the contributors provide a species-by-species appraisal of their status and potential for recovery, bringing together in one volume nearly all of the scattered literature on western fishes to produce a monumental work in conservation biology. They also ponder ethical considerations related to the issue, ask why conservation efforts have not proceeded at a proper pace, and suggest how native fish protection relates to other aspects of biodiversity planetwide. Their insights will allow scientific and public agencies to evaluate future management of these animal populations and will offer additional guidance for those active in water rights and conservation biology. First published in 1991, Battle Against Extinction is now back in print and available as an open-access e-book thanks to the Desert Fishes Council.