Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
22,068
result(s) for
"Biosphere"
Sort by:
The Influence of Diet on Endurance and General Efficiency
Experimental study of the physiological needs of the body for food has indicated that the real requirements of the system, especially for proteid foods, are far below the amounts called for by existing dietary standards, and still farther below the customary habits of the majority of mankind.
eBook
Pushing our limits : insights from Biosphere 2
Biospherian Mark Nelson offers insider perspectives on Biosphere 2 and bold insights into today's global ecological challenges--Provided by publisher.
Book
Microbiology education: a significant path to sustainably improve the human and biosphere condition
Abstract
In this short piece, I connect the dots between the pervasive influence of microbial activities on our health and that of the planet, including their positive and negative roles in current polycrises, our ability to influence microbes to promote their positive influences and mitigate their negative impacts, the roles of everyone as stewards and stakeholders in personal, family, community, national, and global wellbeing, the need for stewards and stakeholders to possess relevant information in order to fulfil their roles and obligations, and the compelling case for microbiology literacy and introduction of a societally relevant microbiology curriculum in school.
Journal Article
Destabilized microbial networks with distinct performances of abundant and rare biospheres in maintaining networks under increasing salinity stress
Global changes such as seawater intrusion and freshwater resource salinization increase environmental stress imposed on the aquatic microbiome. A strong predictive understanding of the responses of the aquatic microbiome to environmental stress will help in coping with the “gray rhino” events in the environment, thereby contributing to an ecologically sustainable future. Considering that microbial ecological networks are tied to the stability of ecosystem functioning and that abundant and rare biospheres with different biogeographic patterns are important drivers of ecosystem functioning, the roles of abundant and rare biospheres in maintaining ecological networks need to be clarified. Here we showed that, with the increasing salinity stress induced by the freshwater‐to‐seawater transition, the microbial diversity reduced significantly and the taxonomic structure experienced a strong succession. The complexity and stability of microbial ecological networks were diminished by the increasing stress. The composition of the microorganisms supporting the networks underwent sharp turnovers during the freshwater‐to‐seawater transition, with the abundant biosphere behaving more robustly than the rare biosphere. Notably, the abundant biosphere played a much more important role than the rare biosphere in stabilizing ecological networks under low‐stress environments, but the difference between their relative importance narrowed significantly with the increasing stress, suggesting that the environmental stress weakened the “Matthew effect” in the microbial world. With in‐depth insights into the aquatic microbial ecology under stress, our findings highlight the importance of adjusting conservation strategies for the abundant and rare biospheres to maintain ecosystem functions and services in response to rising environmental stress. This study revealed that, with increasing salinity, the microbial diversity declined, the taxonomic structure underwent marked turnover, and the complexity and stability of ecological networks diminished. In low‐stress conditions, the abundant biosphere played a more important role than the rare biosphere in stabilizing ecological networks, but the difference between their relative importance narrowed significantly with the increasing stress. Highlights The complexity and stability of microbial ecological networks diminish with increasing salinity stress. The abundant biosphere is more robust in maintaining ecological networks under increasing stress than the rare biosphere. The difference in the relative importance between the abundant and rare biospheres in maintaining networks narrows with increasing stress.
Journal Article
Warm spring reduced carbon cycle impact of the 2012 US summer drought
The global terrestrial carbon sink offsets one-third of the world’s fossil fuel emissions, but the strength of this sink is highly sensitive to large-scale extreme events. In 2012, the contiguous United States experienced exceptionally warm temperatures and the most severe drought since the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, resulting in substantial economic damage. It is crucial to understand the dynamics of such events because warmer temperatures and a higher prevalence of drought are projected in a changing climate. Here, we combine an extensive network of direct ecosystem flux measurements with satellite remote sensing and atmospheric inverse modeling to quantify the impact of the warmer spring and summer drought on biosphere-atmosphere carbon and water exchange in 2012.We consistently find that earlier vegetation activity increased spring carbon uptake and compensated for the reduced uptake during the summer drought, which mitigated the impact on net annual carbon uptake. The early phenological development in the Eastern Temperate Forests played a major role for the continental-scale carbon balance in 2012. The warm spring also depleted soil water resources earlier, and thus exacerbated water limitations during summer. Our results show that the detrimental effects of severe summer drought on ecosystem carbon storage can be mitigated by warming-induced increases in spring carbon uptake. However, the results also suggest that the positive carbon cycle effect of warm spring enhances water limitations and can increase summer heating through biosphere–atmosphere feedbacks.
Journal Article
Here on earth : a natural history of the planet
An explorer and environmentalist offers a natural history of the Earth as well as a biography of the human species.
Book
