Microfossils are ideally suited to environmental studies because their short generation times allow them to respond rapidly to environmental change. This book represents an assessment of the progress made in environmental micropalaeontology and sets out future research directions. The taxa studied are mainly foraminifera, but include arcellaceans, diatoms, dinoflagellates, and ostracodes. The papers themselves range from reviews of applications of particular taxa to specific case studies.

Reconstructing past environments is critical in evaluating modern environmental change and making predictions for the future. Records can be found in a range of natural sources, including microfossils, and their analysis can make important contributions to studies of contemporary global environmental issues such as climate change, water pollution and acidification. This is the first text which aims to explain the practical applications of the analysis of microfossils to undergraduate and graduate students of the earth and environmental sciences. Including pedagogic features such as chapter summaries, highlighted key words, annotated guides to further reading and an appendix of statistical techniques, the book is extensively illustrated throughout and includes a wide range of fully international examples and case studies. This book will be an invaluable guide for students of geography, geology, oceanography, environmental archaeology and environmental science.

This book will help readers learn the basic skills needed to study microfossils especially those without a formal background in paleontology. It details key principles, explains how to identify different groups of microfossils, and provides insight into their potential applications in solving geologic problems. Basic principles are addressed with examples that explore the strengths and limitations of microfossils and their geological records. This overview provides an understanding of taphonomy and quality of the fossil records, biomineralization and biogeochemistry, taxonomy, concepts of species, and basic concepts of ecology. Readers learn about the major groups of microfossils, including their morphology, ecology, and geologic history. Coverage includes: foraminifera, ostracoda, coccolithophores, pteropods, radiolaria, diatoms, silicoflagellates, conodonts, dinoflagellates, acritarch, and spores and pollens. In this coverage, marine microfossils, and particularly foraminifera, are discussed in more detail compared with the other groups as they continue to play a major role in most scientific investigations. Among the various tracers of earth history, microfossils provide the most diverse kinds of information to earth scientists. This richly illustrated volume will help students and professionals understand microfossils, and provide insight on how to work with them to better understand evolution of life, and age and the paleoenvironment of sedimentary strata.

Foraminiferal Micropaleontology for Understanding Earth's History incorporates new findings on taxonomy, classification and biostratigraphy of foraminifera. Foraminifera offer the best geochemical proxies for paleoclimate and paleoenvironment interpretation. The study of foraminifera was promoted by oil exploration due to its exceptional use in subsurface stratigraphy. A rapid technological development in the past 20 years in the field of imaging microfossils and in geochemical microanalysis have added novel information about foraminifera. Foraminiferal Micropaleontology for Understanding Earth's History builds an understanding of biology, morphology and classification of foraminifera for its varied applications. In the past two decades, a phenomenal growth has occurred in geochemical proxies in shells of foraminifera, and as a result, crucial information about past climate of the earth is achieved. Foraminifera is the most extensively used marine microfossils in deep-time reconstruction of the earth history. Its key applications are in paleoenvironment and paleoclimate interpretation, paleoceanography, and biostratigraphy to continuously improve the Geologic Time Scale. - Provides an overview of the Earth history as witnessed and evidenced by foraminifera - Discusses a variety of geochemical proxies used in reconstruction of environment, climate and paleobiology of foraminifera - Presents a new insight into the morphology and classification of foraminifera by modern tools of x-ray microscopy, quantitative methods, and molecular research

This beautifully illustrated text book, with state-of-the-art illustrations, is useful not only for an introduction to the subject, but also for the application of marine microfossils in paleoceanographic, paleoenvironmental and biostratigraphic analyses. The recent revival of interest in marine micropaleontology worldwide in the wake of the development of sequence stratigraphic models has led to the decision to reissue the volume in its original, but paperback, form. The ideas expressed in various chapters of this second edition remain as valid today as they were when the book was first issued. The text, however, includes an updated Phanerozoic geologic time which has been considerably modified since the 1980s.

The reconstruction of ancient marine environments is an important task of the Earth Sciences, of great interest to geology, pure and applied, to oceanography and climatology, as well as to such fields as ecology and evolution. In principle, such reconstructions are based on the actualistic approach of "the present is the key to the past." Since the deciphering of past environmental changes, either nat ural or man-made, has considerable bearing on planning, the past may provide a key to the future. Paleoenvironmental interpretations in the marine realm are based to a great extent on assemblages of fossils recovered from ancient sediments in outcrops and from land-based or submarine drillings. Observable lateral sequences of assemblages in contemporaneous strata, the known or assumed functional or adaptive significance of preserved skeletal struc tures, as well as their evolution through time and space, provide by themselves indications of ancient environmental settings. In some cases even present-day eco logical considerations may be derived from analysis of fossils.

Many papers have noted the association between micropaleontology and petroleum exploration, but no book has ever provided a comprehensive and thematic treatment. This book attempts to do just that. It begins with an overview of pure micropaleontology, then treats the principles and practice of applied micropaleontology and sequence stratigraphy; case studies of applications in various geographic, geologic, and stratigraphic settings are given. The final section deals with applications outside petroleum exploration, with sections on environmental monitoring, coal mining, mineral exploration and exploitation, and engineering. Extensively illustrated and referenced, this book will benefit academic and commercial paleontologists.

Accessibly written by a team of international authors, the Encyclopedia of Environmental Change provides a gateway to the complex facts, concepts, techniques, methodology and philosophy of environmental change. This three-volume set illustrates and examines topics within this dynamic and rapidly changing interdisciplinary field. The encyclopedia includes all of the following aspects of environmental change: Diverse evidence of environmental change, including climate change and changes on land and in the oceans Underlying natural and anthropogenic causes and mechanisms Wide-ranging local, regional and global impacts from the polar regions to the tropics Responses of geo-ecosystems and human-environmental systems in the face of past, present and future environmental change Approaches, methodologies and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling, projecting and predicting change Social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues, environmental conservation and management and environmental policy Over 4,000 entries explore the following key themes and more: Conservation Demographic change Environmental management Environmental policy Environmental security Food security Glaciation Green Revolution Human impact on environment Industrialization Landuse change Military impacts on environment Mining and mining impacts Nuclear energy Pollution Renewable resources Solar energy Sustainability Tourism Trade Water resources Water security Wildlife conservation The comprehensive coverage of terminology includes layers of entries ranging from one-line definitions to short essays, making this an invaluable companion for any student of physical geography, environmental geography or environmental sciences.

This book provides insights into various aspects of marine faunal communities in India, which are extremely diverse due to the geomorphologic and climatic variations along the Indian coasts. Consisting of 30 chapters by experts in their respective fields, it is divided into two parts: · Part I: Tropical Marine Faunal Communities · Part II: Ecology and Conservation Part I highlights the diversity and distribution of Foraminifera; sponges associated with seagrass; Polychaeta; Opisthobranchia; oysters; copepods; horseshoe and brachyuran crabs; echinoderms; ascidians; fishes; fish parasites; and sea mammals. Topics of Part II include the status and environmental parameters of benthos; the status of coral reefs; the invasion of snowflake coral; the recovery of bleached corals; the socioeconomics and management of dugong; marine biodiversity conservation and management in India; the assessment of the marine fauna of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act; and marine biodiversity protected areas in India. This book will serve as a valuable reference work for marine scientists, as well as for environmental managers and policy makers.