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"Ecological engineering."
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Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere
Humans, unlike any other multicellular species in Earth's history, have emerged as a global force that is transforming the ecology of an entire planet. It is no longer possible to understand, predict, or successfully manage ecological pattern, process, or change without understanding why and how humans reshape these over the long term. Here, a general causal theory is presented to explain why human societies gained the capacity to globally alter the patterns, processes, and dynamics of ecology and how these anthropogenic alterations unfold over time and space as societies themselves change over human generational time. Building on existing theories of ecosystem engineering, niche construction, inclusive inheritance, cultural evolution, ultrasociality, and social change, this theory of anthroecological change holds that sociocultural evolution of subsistence regimes based on ecosystem engineering, social specialization, and non-kin exchange, or \"sociocultural niche construction,\" is the main cause of both the long-term upscaling of human societies and their unprecedented transformation of the biosphere. Human sociocultural niche construction can explain, where classic ecological theory cannot, the sustained transformative effects of human societies on biogeography, ecological succession, ecosystem processes, and the ecological patterns and processes of landscapes, biomes, and the biosphere. Anthroecology theory generates empirically testable hypotheses on the forms and trajectories of long-term anthropogenic ecological change that have significant theoretical and practical implications across the subdisciplines of ecology and conservation. Though still at an early stage of development, anthroecology theory aligns with and integrates established theoretical frameworks including social-ecological systems, social metabolism, countryside biogeography, novel ecosystems, and anthromes. The \"fluxes of nature\" are fast becoming \"cultures of nature.\" To investigate, understand, and address the ultimate causes of anthropogenic ecological change, not just the consequences, human sociocultural processes must become as much a part of ecological theory and practice as biological and geophysical processes are now. Strategies for achieving this goal and for advancing ecological science and conservation in an increasingly anthropogenic biosphere are presented.
Journal Article
Karst landscapes of China: patterns, ecosystem processes and services
ContextThe karst region of southwestern China, one of the largest continuous karsts in the world, is known for its unique landscapes and rich biodiversity. This region has suffered severe environmental degradation (e.g., vegetation cover loss, soil erosion and biodiversity loss). In recent decades, Chinese governments at different levels have initiated several ecological programs (e.g., Green for Grain, Mountain Closure) to restore the degraded environment and to alleviate poverty.ObjectivesThis study summarizes landscape studies of karst landscapes patterns, their dynamics and interactions among landscape pattern, hydrological processes and ecosystem services (ES).MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review of science and land use policy to identify knowledge gaps and recommend future research and policy directions.ResultsKarst landscapes have experienced rapid turnover in recent decades due largely to the overlap of intense human activity on the fragile karst ecosystems. Many studies have comprehensively examined hydrology, soil processes and ecosystem services (ES) and their relationships with landscape pattern. Most of these studies have found that karst ecosystems recover with improved ES. However, the importance of epikarst in hydrological and soil processes, intense anthropogenic disturbance and landscape heterogeneity in landscape models remains elusive.ConclusionsFuture research should focus on in-depth examination and modelling of karst specific hydrological and soil processes, investigating relationships between climatic change, landscape change, ecological processes, and region-specific ES assessments. Results from such research should provide the necessary scientific support for a comprehensive, national karst rocky desertification treatment project (Stage II) and poverty alleviation initiatives.
Journal Article
Planetary health : safeguarding human health and the environment in the anthropocene
We live in unprecedented times - the Anthropocene - defined by far-reaching human impacts on the natural systems that underpin civilisation. Planetary Health explores the many environmental changes that threaten to undermine progress in human health, and explains how these changes affect health outcomes, from pandemics to infectious diseases to mental health, from chronic diseases to injuries. It shows how people can adapt to those changes that are now unavoidable, through actions that both improve health and safeguard the environment. But humanity must do more than just adapt: we need transformative changes across many sectors - energy, housing, transport, food, and health care. The book discusses specific policies, technologies, and interventions to achieve the change required, and explains how these can be implemented. It presents the evidence, builds hope in our common future, and aims to motivate action by everyone, from the general public to policymakers to health practitioners.
Book
Physics and Technology of Nanostructured Materials II
Selected, peer reviewed papers from the Second Asia Conference on Physics and Technology of Nanostructured Materials(ASCO-Nanomat 2013), August 20-27, 2013, Vladivostok, Russia.
eBook
Under a white sky : the nature of the future
\"The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? That man should have dominion \"over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth\" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. She meets scientists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single, tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave. She visits a lava field in Iceland, where engineers are turning carbon emissions to stone; an aquarium in Australia, where researchers are trying to develop \"super coral\" that can survive on a hotter globe; and a lab at Harvard, where physicists are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere in order to reflect sunlight back to space and cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Niche Construction Theory: A Practical Guide for Ecologists
Niche construction theory (NCT) explicitly recognizes environmental modification by organisms (“niche construction”) and their legacy over time (“ecological inheritance”) to be evolutionary processes in their own right. Here we illustrate how niche construction theory provides useful conceptual tools and theoretical insights for integrating ecosystem ecology and evolutionary theory. We begin by briefly describing NCT, and illustrating how it differs from conventional evolutionary approaches. We then distinguish between two aspects of niche construction—environment alteration and subsequent evolution in response to constructed environments—equating the first of these with “ecosystem engineering.” We describe some of the ecological and evolutionary impacts on ecosystems of niche construction, ecosystem engineering, and ecological inheritance, and illustrate how these processes trigger ecological and evolutionary feedbacks and leave detectable ecological signatures that are open to investigation. Finally, we provide a practical guide to how NCT could be deployed by ecologists and evolutionary biologists to explore eco-evolutionary dynamics. We suggest that, by highlighting the ecological and evolutionary ramifications of changes that organisms bring about in ecosystems, NCT helps link ecosystem ecology to evolutionary biology, potentially leading to a deeper understanding of how ecosystems change over time.
Journal Article
Small eco houses : living green in style
A showcase of how good design can transform any small space into a comfortable, modern, and environmentally sensitive home.
Book
Going with the flow or against the grain? The promise of vegetation for protecting beaches, dunes, and barrier islands from erosion
Coastlines have traditionally been engineered to maintain structural stability and to protect property from storm-related damage, but their ability to endure will be challenged over the next century. The use of vegetation to reduce erosion on ocean-facing mainland and barrier island shorelines - including the sand dunes and beaches on these islands - could be part of a more flexible strategy. Although there is growing enthusiasm for using vegetation for this purpose, empirical data supporting this approach are lacking. Here, we identify the potential roles of vegetation in coastal protection, including the capture of sediment, ecological succession, and the building of islands, dunes, and beaches; the development of wave-resistant soils by increasing effective grain size and sedimentary cohesion; the ability of aboveground architecture to attenuate waves and impede through-flow; the capability of roots to bind sediments subjected to wave action; and the alteration of coastline resiliency by plant structures and genetic traits. We conclude that ecological and engineering practices must be combined in order to develop a sustainable, realistic, and integrated coastal protection strategy.
Journal Article