Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
5,746
result(s) for
"Savanna ecology."
Sort by:
Savanna food chains
\"This photo-illustrated book introduces early fluent readers to the relationship between predator and prey in the savanna environment. Includes glossary and index.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Savannas of our birth
This book tells the sweeping story of the role that East African savannas played in human evolution, how people, livestock, and wildlife interact in the region today, and how these relationships might shift as the climate warms, the world globalizes, and human populations grow. Our ancient human ancestors were nurtured by African savannas, which today support pastoral peoples and the last remnants of great Pleistocene herds of large mammals. Why has this wildlife thrived best where they live side-by-side with humans? Ecologist Robin S. Reid delves into the evidence to find that herding is often compatible with wildlife, and that pastoral land use sometimes enriches savanna landscapes and encourages biodiversity. Her balanced, scientific, and accessible examination of the current state of the relationships among the region's wildlife and people holds critical lessons for the future of conservation around the world.
eBook
Ecosystem function in Savannas
Spanning biophysics, biochemistry, land use change, and measuring and modeling, this book addresses the quantitative spatial and temporal dynamics of global savannas. It describes the global savanna biome in terms of broad ecological properties, temporal dynamics, disturbance levels, and human dimensions. The text examines carbon, water, energy, and trace gas fluxes for major global savanna regions. It also looks at quantitative surface properties of savannas that can be retrieved using remote sensing, presents numerical approaches to explore savanna dynamics, and explores the unification of savanna modeling and measurement.
eBook
Once upon an elephant
\"From slowing wildfires to planting seeds, one animal is the true superhero that keeps the African savanna in balance. Elephants dig to find salt that other animal lick, their deep footprints collect water for small creatures to drink, and they eat young trees to keep the forest from overtaking the grasslands. In every season, the elephants are there to protect the savanna and its residents - but what would happen if the elephants were only \"once upon a time\"? Read along to discover the important role this keystone species plays in the savanna and explore what would happen if the elephants vanished\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Carbon Accounting and Savanna Fire Management
In the context of Australia's developing carbon economy, fire management helps to abate emissions of greenhouse gases and is an important means of generating carbon credits. The vast high-rainfall savannas of northern Australia are one of the world's most flammable landscapes. Management of fires in this region has the potential to assist with meeting emissions reduction targets, as well as conserving biodiversity and providing employment for Indigenous people in remote parts of Australia's north.
This comprehensive volume brings together recent research from northern Australian savannas to provide an internationally relevant case study for applying greenhouse gas accounting methodologies to the practice of fire management. It provides scientific arguments for enlarging the area of fire-prone land managed for emissions abatement. The book also charts the progress towards development of a savanna fire bio-sequestration methodology. The future of integrated approaches to emissions abatement and bio-sequestration is also discussed.
eBook
Culture, ecology and economy of fire management in North Australian Savannas : rekindling the Wurrk tradition
This engaging volume explores the management of fire in one of the world's most flammable landscapes: Australia's tropical savannas, where on average 18% of the landscape is burned annually. Impacts have been particularly severe in the Arnhem Land Plateau, a centre of plant and animal diversity on Indigenous land. Culture, Ecology and Economy of Fire Management in North Australian Savannas documents a remarkable collaboration between Arnhem Land's traditional landowners and the scientific community to arrest a potentially catastrophic fire-driven decline in the natural and cultural assets of the region - not by excluding fire, but by using it better through restoration of Indigenous control over burning. This multi-disciplinary treatment encompasses the history of fire use in the savannas, the post-settlement changes that altered fire patterns, the personal histories of a small number of people who lived most of their lives on the plateau and, critically, their deep knowledge of fire and how to apply it to care for country. Uniquely, it shows how such knowledge and commitment can be deployed in conjunction with rigorous formal scientific analysis, advanced technology, new cross-cultural institutions and the emerging carbon economy to build partnerships for controlling fire at scales that were, until this demonstration, thought beyond effective intervention.
eBook
Emerging ecological trends in West Africa: implications on soil organic matter and other soil quality indicators
Aims
In West Africa, savannas are changing to either forest islands or arable lands arising from anthropogenic interference with the natural ecosystem. This study aimed at quantifying the trade-offs of this land use conversion on major soil quality indicators.
Methods
We evaluated soil organic matter (SOM) and other soil quality indicators such as macro- and micronutrients (including the absence of some hazardous trace metals) using standard methodologies across 11 settlements in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria. The degree of soil quality improvement/degradation and soil quality were assessed using empirical models.
Results
The effects of savanna conversion were manifold and varied depending on the type of land use change, soil depth, and soil quality indicator. In savanna-forests, there was a substantial rise in SOM (37%—794%) and exchangeable cations (15% to 800%) and changes in SOM in the topsoil quadrupled that of the subsoil. A general loss in SOM (1% -74%) and soil macro-and micronutrients occurred under savanna-arable lands. Potassium, calcium and magnesium increased by ≥ 12%, ≥ 15% and 27% respectively while increases in Mn and Zn were 37% and ≥ 250% in the forests over the savannas. Trace quantities of Pb were detected which were below the contamination threshold. About 63% forest islands, 18% arable land, and 9% savannas had SQI % ≥ 50.
Conclusion
In marginal lands, land use conversion to forest islands presents great potential for improving soil fertility and overall ecosystem health as shown in the high organic matter and improved soil quality.
Journal Article