Nature : Ecology

This unprecedented volume presents a sweeping picture of what we know about the natural history, biology, and ecology of whales in the broad context of the dynamics of ocean ecosystems. Innovative and comprehensive, the volume encompasses multiple points of view to consider the total ecological impact of industrial whaling on the world's oceans. Combining empirical research, ecological theory and modeling, and historical data, its chapters present perspectives from ecology, population biology, physiology, genetics, evolutionary history, ocean biogeography, economics, culture, and law, among other disiplines. Throughout, contributors investigate how whaling fundamentally disrupted ocean ecosystems, examine the various roles whales play in food webs, and discuss the continuing ecological chain reactions to the depletion of these large animals. In addition to reviewing what is known of the current and historic whale populations, Whales, Whaling, and Ocean Ecosystems considers how this knowledge will bear on scientific approaches to conservation and whaling in the future and provocatively asks whether it is possible to restore ocean ecosystems to their pre-whaling condition. more...

Price: $15.95

''An excellent study of U.S. policy on creating and maintaining a state of energy security.''--Hafeez Malik, Villanova University The United States is the world's largest oil consumer and importer. Here Gawdat Bahgat examines the nation's growing dependence on fossil fuels--particularly oil--and the main challenges it faces in securing supplies from two energy-rich regions, the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. more...

Price: $39.95

The global expansion of aquaculture production and its future role as a food supplier to human society has environmental, social and economic limitations, affecting marine ecosystems and socio-economic scales from local to global. The expansion is closely linked with human health requirements and societal needs for various goods and services provided by marine ecosystems. This book provides a scientific forecast of the development in aquaculture with a focus on the environmental, technological, social and economic constraints that need to be resolved to ensure sustainable development of the industry and allow the industry to be able to feed healthy seafood products to the future generations. The chapters included discuss the most critical bottlenecks of the development encompassing subjects of understanding the environmental impacts, the current state-of-art in monitoring programs and in coastal zone management, the important interactions between wild and cultured organisms including release of non-native species into the wild, the current trends within the development of aquafeeds along with human health aspects as well as the political, socio-economic and economic trends within the industry including a chapter on approaches taken by Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to aquaculture. Finally the last chapter provides different future scenarios of the industry based on the identified bottlenecks. more...

Price: $169.00

In just the last few years, behavioral ecologists have begun to address issues in conservation biology. This volume is the first attempt to link these disciplines formally. Here leading researchers explore current topics in conservation biology and discuss how behavioral ecology can contribute to a greater understanding of conservation problems and conservation intervention programs. In each chapter, the authors identify a conservation issue, review the ways it has been addressed, review behavioral ecological data related to it, including their own, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the behavioral ecological approach, and put forward specific conservation recommendations. The chapters juxtapose different studies on a wide variety of taxonomic groups. A number of common themes emerge, including the ways in which animal mating systems affect population persistence, the roles of dispersal and inbreeding avoidance for topics such as reserve design and effective population size, the key role of humans in conservation issues, and the importance of baseline data for conservation monitoring and modeling attempts. Each chapter sheds new light on conservation problems, generates innovative avenues of interdisciplinary research, and shows how conservation-minded behavioral ecologists can apply their expertise to some of the most important questions we face today.  more...

Price: $114.50

The cultivation of molluscs is a rapidly expanding industry employing a wide variety of people. This is a guide to the bivalve variety. more...

Price: $200.00