Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation in Tropical Islands

Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation in Tropical Islands PDF

Author: Chandrakasan Sivaperuman

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-04-05

Total Pages: 805

ISBN-13: 0128130652

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Biodiversity and Climate Change Adaptation in Tropical Islands provides comprehensive information on climate change, biodiversity, possible impacts, adaptation measures and policy challenges to help users rehabilitate and preserve the natural resources of tropical islands. While biodiversity and climate change of tropical islands has previously received less attention, it is ironically one of the most vulnerable regions in this regard. The core content of the work derives largely from the ideas and research output from various reputed scientists and experts who have recorded climate change impacts on aquatic and coastal life in tropical regions. Contributors have direct working experience with the tribes in some of the tropical islands. All of their expertise and information is compiled and presented in the work, including coverage related to climate change. This work highlights the ever-growing need to develop and apply strategies that optimize the use of natural resources, both on land and in water and judicious use of biodiversity. It functions as a critical resource on tropical island biodiversity for researchers, academicians, practitioners and policy makers in a variety of related disciplines. Covers a huge range of biodiversity documentation, conservation measures and strategies that can be applied to various sectors, from forests to agriculture Brings together expertise from researchers in the area who have direct experience in the regions described Contains a wealth of field research related to biodiversity conservation and its applications from a variety of tropical islands

Islands

Islands PDF

Author: Peter Vitousek

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-08

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 3642789633

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Oceanic islands represent a set of systems in which biological diversity varies as a consequence of remoteness or size, not environment; they are also generally simpler than continental ecosystems. Islands therefore provide an opportunity to determine the direct effects of biological diversity on ecosystem function. The volume addresses the components of biological diversity on islands and their patterns of variation; the modern threats to the maintenance of biological diversity on islands; the consequences of island biology and its modification by humanity regarding aspects of ecosystem function; the global implications of islands for conservation; and how islands can help one to understand the processes inducing changes throughout the world.

Messages from Islands

Messages from Islands PDF

Author: Ilkka Hanski

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-12-14

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 022640658X

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From a small island in the Baltic Sea to the large tropical islands of Borneo and Madagascar, Messages from Islands is a global tour of these natural, water-bound laboratories. In this career-spanning work, Ilkka Hanski draws upon the many islands on which he performed fieldwork to convey key themes in ecology. By exploring the islands’ biodiversity as an introduction to general issues, Hanski helps us to learn how species and communities interact in fragmented landscapes, how evolution generates biodiversity, and how this biodiversity is maintained over time. Beginning each chapter on a particular island, Hanski dives into reflections on his own field studies before going on to pursue a variety of ecological questions, including: What is the biodiversity crisis? What are extinction thresholds and extinction debts? What can the biodiversity hypothesis tell us about rapidly increasing allergies, asthma, and other chronic inflammatory disorders? The world’s largest island, Greenland, for instance, is the starting point for a journey into the benefits that humankind acquires from biodiversity, including the staggering biodiversity of microbes in the ecosystems that are closest to us—the ecosystems in our guts, in our respiratory tracts, and under our skin. Conceptually oriented but grounded in an adventurous personal narrative, Messages from Islands is a landmark work that lifts the natural mysteries of islands from the sea, bringing to light the thrilling complexities and connections of ecosystems worldwide.

The Biology of Island Floras

The Biology of Island Floras PDF

Author: David Bramwell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-07-21

Total Pages: 539

ISBN-13: 1139497804

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Oceanic islands offer biologists unparalleled opportunities to study evolutionary processes and ecological phenomena. However, human activity threatens to alter or destroy many of these fragile ecosystems, with recent estimates suggesting that nearly half of the world's insular endemics are threatened with extinction. Bringing together researchers from around the world, this book illustrates how modern research methods and new concepts have challenged accepted theories and changed our understanding of island flora. Particular attention is given to the impact of molecular studies and the insights that they provide into topics such as colonisation, radiation, diversification and hybridisation. Examples are drawn from around the world, including the Hawaiian archipelago, Galapagos Islands, Madagascar and the Macronesian region. Conservation issues are also highlighted, with coverage of alien species and the role of ex situ conservation providing valuable information that will aid the formulation of management strategies and genetic rescue programmes.

Island Biogeography

Island Biogeography PDF

Author: Robert J. Whittaker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0198566115

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Isolation, extinction, conservation, biodiversity, hotspots.

Island Biogeography

Island Biogeography PDF

Author: Robert J. Whittaker

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2006-11-30

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0191524166

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Island biogeography is the study of the distribution and dynamics of species in island environments. Due to their isolation from more widespread continental species, islands are ideal places for unique species to evolve, but they are also places of concentrated extinction. Not surprisingly, they are widely studied by ecologists, conservationists and evolutionary biologists alike. There is no other recent textbook devoted solely to island biogeography, and a synthesis of the many recent advances is now overdue. This second edition builds on the success and reputation of the first, documenting the recent advances in this exciting field and explaining how islands have been used as natural laboratories in developing and testing ecological and evolutionary theories. In addition, the book describes the main processes of island formation, development and eventual demise, and explains the relevance of island environmental history to island biogeography. The authors demonstrate the huge significance of islands as hotspots of biodiversity, and as places from which disproportionate numbers of species have been extinguished by human action in historical time. Many island species are today threatened with extinction, and this work examines both the chief threats to their persistence and some of the mitigation measures that can be put in play with conservation strategies tailored to islands.

Islands of the Mind

Islands of the Mind PDF

Author: Richard Pine

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-02-05

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1527546616

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730 million people—almost 10% of the world’s population—inhabit islands. One quarter of the states represented at the United Nations are islands. Islands constitute almost twenty percent of the total land area of Greece, and exhibit more significant aspects of biodiversity than other global contexts. They are both occasions of triumph and occurrences of catastrophe. Islands are both open and enclosed communities, points of arrival and departure. Islands exert a fascination for the visitor and generate, in the islander, both positive and negative mindsets. The romantic fallacies about self-sufficiency and insularity of islands are constantly challenged. This collection of essays by scholars from some of the world’s most compelling islands—Jersey, Ireland, Tasmania, Corfu, Ereikousa, Prince Edward Island, Malta—explores the psychology of islands, islanders and their visitors, the literatures they stimulate, and the scientific, ethical and biogeographical issues they present in an increasingly globalised world. Corfu, the home of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell in the 1930s, and host to literary and scientific enquiry, is the place where this collection was conceived, and occupies a central place in its discussions.

Language Death and Language Maintenance

Language Death and Language Maintenance PDF

Author: Mark Janse

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-03-13

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9027275297

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Languages are dying at an alarming rate all over the world. Estimates range from 50% to as much as 90% by the end of the century. This collection of original papers tries to strike a balance between theoretical, practical and descriptive approaches to language death and language maintenance. It provides overviews of language endangerment in Africa, Eurasia, and the Greater Pacific Area. It also presents case studies of endangered languages from various language families. These descriptive case studies not only provide data on the degree of endangerment and the causes of language death, but also provide a general sociolinguistic and typological characterization the language(s) under discussion and the prospects of language maintenance (if any). The volume will be of interest to all those concerned with the ongoing extinction of the world’s linguistic diversity.