Trees have been around for more than 370 million years, and today there are about 80 thousand species of them, occupying 3.5 billion hectares worldwide, including 250 million ha of commercial plantations. While forests can provide tremendous environmental, social, and economic benefits to nations, they also affect the hydrologic cycle in different ways. As the demand for water grows and local precipitation patterns change due to global warming, plantation forestry has encountered an increasing number of water-related conflicts worldwide. This document provides a country-by-country summary of the current state of knowledge on the relationship between forest management and water resources. Based on available research publications, the Editor-in-Chief of this document contacted local scientists from countries where the impact of forest management on water resources is an issue, inviting them to submit a chapter.

This volume incorporates case studies that explore past and current land use decisions on both public and private lands, and includes practical approaches and tools for land use decision-making. The most important feature of the book is the linking of ecological theory and principle with applied land use decision-making. The theoretical and empirical are joined through concrete case studies of actual land use decision-making processes.

"Amphibians are facing an extinction crisis, but getting to the facts has been difficult. "Threatened Amphibians of the World" is a visual journey through the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of the world's 6,000 known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. All 1,900 species known to be threatened with extinction are covered, including a description of threats to each species and an evaluation of conservation measures in place or needed. Each entry includes a photograph or illustration of the species where available, a distribution map, and detailed information on range, population and habitat and ecology. Introductory chapters present a detailed analysis of the results, complemented by a series of short essays written by many of the world's leading herpetologists. Appendices include annoted lists of lower risk species and a country-by-country listing of threatened amphibians."--pub. desc.

Here is a comprehensive review of the ecology of freshwater bivalves and gastropods worldwide. Robert Dillon discusses the ecology of these species in its broadest sense, including diet, habitat, and reproductive biology to emphasize the tremendous diversity of these freshwater invertebrates. He develops a new life history model that unifies them and reviews their population and community ecology, treating competition, predation, parasitism, and biogeography. Extensively referenced and synthesizing work from the nineteenth century through to the present day, this book includes original analyses that unify previous work into a coherent whole.

The environment that we construct affects both humans and our natural world in myriad ways. There is a pressing need to create healthy places and to reduce the health threats inherent in places already built. However, there has been little awareness of the adverse effects of what we have constructed-or the positive benefits of well designed built environments. This book provides a far-reaching follow-up to the pathbreaking Urban Sprawl and Public Health, published in 2004. That book sparked a range of inquiries into the connections between constructed environments, particularly cities and suburbs, and the health of residents, especially humans. Since then, numerous studies have extended and refined the book's research and reporting. Making Healthy Places offers a fresh and comprehensive look at this vital subject today. There is no other book with the depth, breadth, vision, and accessibility that this book offers. In addition to being of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students in public health and urban planning, it will be essential reading for public health officials, planners, architects, landscape architects, environmentalists, and all those who care about the design of their communities. Like a well-trained doctor, Making Healthy Places presents a diagnosis of--and offers treatment for--problems related to the built environment. Drawing on the latest scientific evidence, with contributions from experts in a range of fields, it imparts a wealth of practical information, with an emphasis on demonstrated and promising solutions to commonly occurring problems.

First published in 1995, the award-winning Civil Engineering Handbook soon became known as the field's definitive reference. To retain its standing as a complete, authoritative resource, the editors have incorporated into this edition the many changes in techniques, tools, and materials that over the last seven years have found their way into civil

• • • John Harper • • • Nature conservation has changed from an idealistic philosophy to a serious technology. Ecology, the science that underpins the technol ogy of conservation, is still too immature to provide all the wisdom that it must. It is arguable that the desire to conserve nature will in itself force the discipline of ecology to identify fundamental prob lems in its scientific goals and methods. In return, ecologists may be able to offer some insights that make conservation more practicable (Harper 1987). The idea that nature (species or communities) is worth preserv ing rests on several fundamental arguments, particularly the argu ment of nostalgia and the argument of human benefit and need. Nostalgia, of course, is a powerful emotion. With some notable ex ceptions, there is usually a feeling of dismay at a change in the sta tus quo, whether it be the loss of a place in the country for walking or rambling, the loss of a painting or architectural monument, or that one will never again have the chance to see a particular species of bird or plant.