Download or read book Dead Zones written by David L. Kirchman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-22 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dead zones are on the rise... Human activity has caused an increase in uninhabitable, oxygen-poor zones--also known as "dead zones"--in our waters. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe, and it is a necessity for nearly all life on Earth. Yet many rivers, estuaries, coastal waters, and parts of the open ocean lack enough of it. In this book, David L. Kirchman explains the impacts of dead zones and provides an in-depth history of oxygen loss in water. He details the role the agricultural industry plays in water pollution, showcasing how fertilizers contaminate water supplies and kickstart harmful algal blooms in local lakes, reservoirs, and coastal oceans. Algae decomposition requires so much oxygen that levels drop low enough to kill fish, destroy bottom-dwelling biota, reduce biological diversity, and rearrange food webs. We can't undo the damage completely, but we can work together to reduce the size and intensity of dead zones in places like the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and the Baltic Sea. Not only does Kirchman clearly outline what dead zones mean for humanity, he also supplies ways we can reduce their deadly impact on human and aquatic life. Nutrient pollution in some regions has already begun to decline because of wastewater treatment, buffer zones, cover crops, and precision agriculture. More needs to be done, though, to reduce the harmful impact of existing dead zones and to stop the thousands of new ones from cropping up in our waters. Kirchman provides insight into the ways changing our diet can reduce nutrient pollution while also lowering greenhouse gasses emitted by the agricultural industry. Individuals can do something positive for their health and the world around them. The resulting book allows readers interested in the environment--whether students, policymakers, ecosystem managers, or science buffs--to dive into these deadly zones and discover how they can help mitigate the harmful effects of oxygen-poor waters today.
Download or read book Dead Zones written by Carol Hand and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Times are tough for shrimpers and fishers in the Gulf of Mexico. The animals they rely on for their livelihood are harder to find. Every summer a dead zone—a region of low oxygen—emerges in the waters along the Gulf Coast. Where oxygen is low, fish and others animals cannot survive. Currently the world has more than 400 identified dead zones, up dramatically from the 49 dead zones identified in the 1960s. The good news is that people can eliminate dead zones by changing agricultural practices and reducing pollution. Using real-world examples, this book looks at the impact of pollution on global water resources, and discusses the interconnectedness of ecosystems and organisms.
Download or read book The Dead Zone written by Stephen King and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestseller and “compulsive page-turner” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) about a reluctant clairvoyant man who must weigh his options when he suddenly sees the terrible future awaiting mankind—from master storyteller Stephen King. When Johnny Smith was six years old, head trauma caused by a bad ice-skating accident left him with a nasty bruise on his forehead and, from time to time, those hunches…infrequent but accurate snippets of things to come. But it isn’t until Johnny’s a grown man—now having survived a horrifying auto injury that plunged him into a coma lasting four-and-a-half years—that his special abilities really push to the fore. Johnny Smith comes back from the void with an extraordinary gift that becomes his life’s curse…presenting visions of what was and what will be for the innocent and guilty alike. But when he encounters a ruthlessly ambitious and amoral man who promises a terrifying fate for all humanity, Johnny must find a way to prevent a harrowing predestination from becoming reality.
Download or read book Dead Zone written by Philip Lymbery and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An honest, compelling and important account, and a critical plea for a fusion of farming, food and nature to provide global ecological security' CHRIS PACKHAM Why are so many animals facing extinction? Climate change and poaching are not the only culprits. The impact of consumer demand for cheap meat is equally devastating, and it is vital that we confront this problem if we are to stand a chance of reducing its effect on the world around us. · We are falsely led to believe that squeezing animals into factory farms and cultivating crops in vast, chemical-soaked prairies is a necessary evil, an efficient means of providing for an ever-expanding global population while leaving land free for wildlife · Our planet's resources are reaching breaking point: awareness is slowly building that the wellbeing of society depends on a thriving natural world From the author of the internationally acclaimed Farmageddon, Dead Zone takes us on an eye-opening journey across the globe, focussing on a dozen iconic species - from elephants to bumblebees to penguins - and looking at the role that industrial farming is playing in their plight.
Download or read book Ecological and Practical Applications for Sustainable Agriculture written by Kuldeep Bauddh and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-27 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rampant industrialization, urbanization, and population growth have resulted in increased global environmental contamination. The productivity of agricultural soil is drastically deteriorated and requires a high dose of fertilizers to cultivate crops. To ensure food security, farmers are compelled to apply excess chemical fertilizers and insecticides that contaminate soil, air, and water. Heavy loads of chemical fertilizers not only degrade the quality of agricultural land but also pollute water and air. Use of chemical fertilizers also accelerate the release of greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide and methane along with nutrient runoff from the watershed in to lower elevation rivers and lakes, resulting in cultural eutrophication. Farming practices globally in developed, developing, and under-developing countries should utilize and promote sustainable methods through viable combined environmental, social, and economic means that improve rather than harm future generations. This can include use of non-synthetic fertilizers like compost, vermicompost, slow-release fertilizers, farmyard manures, crop rotations that include nitrogen-fixing legumes. Organic fertilizers like compost and vermicompost improve soil properties like texture, porosity, water-holding capacity, organic matter, as well as nutrient availability. The purpose of this book is to document the available alternatives of synthetic fertilizers, their mode of action, efficiency, preparation methodology, practical suggestions for sustainable practices, and needed research focus. The book will cover major disciplines like plant science, environmental science, agricultural science, agricultural biotechnology and microbiology, horticulture, soil science, atmospheric science, agro-forestry, agronomy, and ecology. This book is helpful for farmers, scientists, industrialists, research scholars, masters and graduate students, non-governmental organizations, financial advisers, and policy makers.
Download or read book Clean Coastal Waters written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-08-17 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental problems in coastal ecosystems can sometimes be attributed to excess nutrients flowing from upstream watersheds into estuarine settings. This nutrient over-enrichment can result in toxic algal blooms, shellfish poisoning, coral reef destruction, and other harmful outcomes. All U.S. coasts show signs of nutrient over-enrichment, and scientists predict worsening problems in the years ahead. Clean Coastal Waters explains technical aspects of nutrient over-enrichment and proposes both immediate local action by coastal managers and a longer-term national strategy incorporating policy design, classification of affected sites, law and regulation, coordination, and communication. Highlighting the Gulf of Mexico's "Dead Zone," the Pfiesteria outbreak in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, and other cases, the book explains how nutrients work in the environment, why nitrogen is important, how enrichment turns into over-enrichment, and why some environments are especially susceptible. Economic as well as ecological impacts are examined. In addressing abatement strategies, the committee discusses the importance of monitoring sites, developing useful models of over-enrichment, and setting water quality goals. The book also reviews voluntary programs, mandatory controls, tax incentives, and other policy options for reducing the flow of nutrients from agricultural operations and other sources.
Download or read book Processes in Microbial Ecology written by David L. Kirchman and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Microbial ecology is the study of interactions among microbes in natural environments and their roles in biogeochemical cycles, food web dynamics, and the evolution of life. Microbes are the most numerous organisms in the biosphere and mediate many critical reactions in elemental cycles and biogeochemical reactions. Because microbes are essential players in the carbon cycle and related processes, microbial ecology is a vital science for understanding the role of the biosphere in global warming and the response of natural ecosystems to climate change. This novel textbook discusses the major processes carried out by viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and other protists - the microbes - in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. It focuses on biogeochemical processes, starting with primary production and the initial fixation of carbon into cellular biomass, before exploring how that carbon is degraded in both oxygen-rich (oxic) and oxygen-deficient (anoxic) environments. These biogeochemical processes are affected by ecological interactions, including competition for limiting nutrients, viral lysis, and predation by various protists in soils and aquatic habitats. The book neatly connects processes occurring at the micron scale to events happening at the global scale, including the carbon cycle and its connection to climate change issues. A final chapter is devoted to symbiosis and other relationships between microbes and larger organisms. Microbes have huge impacts not only on biogeochemical cycles, but also on the ecology and evolution of more complex forms of life, including Homo sapiens..
Download or read book Delay and Uncertainty in Human Balancing Tasks written by Tamás Insperger and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-18 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates how delay differential equations (DDEs) can be used to compliment the laboratory investigation of human balancing tasks. This approach is made accessible to non-specialists by comparing mathematical predictions and experimental observations. For example, the observation that a longer pole is easier to balance on a fingertip than a shorter one demonstrates the essential role played by a time delay in the balance control mechanism. Another balancing task considered is postural sway during quiet standing. With the inverted pendulum as the driver and the feedback control depending on state variables or on an internal model, the feedback can be identified by determining a critical pendulum length and/or a critical delay. This approach is used to identify the nature of the feedback for the pole balancing and postural sway examples. Motivated by the question of how the nervous system deals with these feedback control challenges, there is a discussion of ‘’microchaotic’’ fluctuations in balance control and how robust control can be achieved in the face of uncertainties in the estimation of control parameters. The final chapter suggests some topics for future research. Each chapter includes an abstract and a point-by-point summary of the main concepts that have been established. A particularly useful numerical integration method for the DDEs that arise in balance control is semi-discretization. This method is described and a MATLAB template is provided. This book will be a useful source for anyone studying balance in humans, other bipedal organisms and humanoid robots. Much of the material has been used by the authors to teach senior undergraduates in computational neuroscience and students in bio-systems, biomedical, mechanical and neural engineering.
Download or read book The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform written by Kenneth J. Saltman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-08-30 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform examines educational reform from a global perspective. Comprised of approximately 25 original and specially commissioned essays, which together interrogate educational reform from a critical global and transnational perspective, this volume explores a range of topics and themes that fully investigate global convergences in educational reform policies, ideologies, and practices. The Handbook probes the history, ideology, organization, and institutional foundations of global educational reform movements; actors, institutions, and agendas; and local, national, and global education reform trends. It further examines the “new managerialism” in global educational reform, including the standardization of national systems of educational governance, curriculum, teaching, and learning through the rise of new systems of privatization, accountability, audit, big-data, learning analytics, biometrics, and new technology-driven adaptive learning models. Finally, it takes on the subjective and intersubjective experiential dimensions of the new educational reforms and alternative paths for educational reform tied to the ethical imperative to reimagine education for human flourishing, justice, and equality. An authoritative, definitive volume and the first global take on a subject that is grabbing headlines as well as preoccupying policy makers, scholars, and teachers around the world Edited by distinguished leaders in the field Features contributions from an illustrious list of experts and scholars The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students of education throughout the world as well as the policy makers who can institute change.
Download or read book Sea Sick written by Alanna Mitchell and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All life — whether on land or in the sea — depends on the oceans for two things: • Oxygen. Most of Earth’s oxygen is produced by phytoplankton in the sea. These humble, one-celled organisms, rather than the spectacular rain forests, are the true lungs of the planet. • Climate control. Our climate is regulated by the ocean’s currents, winds, and water-cycle activity. Sea Sick is the first book to examine the current state of the world’s oceans — the great unexamined ecological crisis of the planet — and the fact that we are altering everything about them; temperature, salinity, acidity, ice cover, volume, circulation, and, of course, the life within them. Alanna Mitchell joins the crews of leading scientists in nine of the global ocean’s hotspots to see firsthand what is really happening around the world. Whether it’s the impact of coral reef bleaching, the puzzle of the oxygen-less dead zones such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico, or the shocking implications of the changing Ph balance of the sea, Mitchell explains the science behind the story to create an engaging, accessible yet authoritative account.
Download or read book Bandpass Sigma Delta Modulators written by Jurgen van Engelen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-10-31 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sigma delta modulation has become a very useful and widely applied technique for high performance Analog-to-Digital (A/D) conversion of narrow band signals. Through the use of oversampling and negative feedback, the quantization errors of a coarse quantizer are suppressed in a narrow signal band in the output of the modulator. Bandpass sigma delta modulation is well suited for A/D conversion of narrow band signals modulated on a carrier, as occurs in communication systems such as AM/FM receivers and mobile phones. Due to the nonlinearity of the quantizer in the feedback loop, a sigma delta modulator may exhibit input signal dependent stability properties. The same combination of the nonlinearity and the feedback loop complicates the stability analysis. In Bandpass Sigma Delta Modulators, the describing function method is used to analyze the stability of the sigma delta modulator. The linear gain model commonly used for the quantizer fails to predict small signal stability properties and idle patterns accurately. In Bandpass Sigma Delta Modulators an improved model for the quantizer is introduced, extending the linear gain model with a phase shift. Analysis shows that the phase shift of a sampled quantizer is in fact a phase uncertainty. Stability analysis of sigma delta modulators using the extended model allows accurate prediction of idle patterns and calculation of small-signal stability boundaries for loop filter parameters. A simplified rule of thumb is derived and applied to bandpass sigma delta modulators. The stability properties have a considerable impact on the design of single-loop, one-bit, high-order continuous-time bandpass sigma delta modulators. The continuous-time bandpass loop filter structure should have sufficient degrees of freedom to implement the desired (small-signal stable) sigma delta modulator behavior. Bandpass Sigma Delta Modulators will be of interest to practicing engineers and researchers in the areas of mixed-signal and analog integrated circuit design.
Download or read book Adaptive Backstepping Control of Uncertain Systems written by Jing Zhou and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-02-07 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book employs the powerful and popular adaptive backstepping control technology to design controllers for dynamic uncertain systems with non-smooth nonlinearities. Various cases including systems with time-varying parameters, multi-inputs and multi-outputs, backlash, dead-zone, hysteresis and saturation are considered in design and analysis. For multi-inputs and multi-outputs systems, both centralized and decentralized controls are addressed. This book not only presents recent research results including theoretical success and practical development such as the proof of system stability and the improvement of system tracking and transient performance, but also gives self-contained coverage of fundamentals on the backstepping approach illustrated with simple examples. Detail description of methodologies for the construction of adaptive laws, feedback control laws and associated Lyapunov functions is systematically provided in each case. Approaches used for the analysis of system stability and tracking and transient performances are elaborated. Two case studies are presented to show how the presented theories are applied.
Download or read book Asian And Pacific Coasts 2011 Proceedings Of The 6th International Conference written by Joseph Hun-wei Lee and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2011-11-24 with total page 2187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a compilation of papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Asian and Pacific Coasts (APAC2011) held on December 14-16, 2011 in Hong Kong, China. It contains more than 200 articles addressing a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from conventional coastal engineering problems (such as wave hydrodynamics and sediment transport) to issues of contemporary interest (such as tsunami, coastal development, climate change and seawater level rise, shoreline protection, marine energy, nearshore ecology, oil spill, etc.). Authors present their experiences in tackling these problems, by means of theoretical modeling, numerical simulation, laboratory and field observations, with an aim to advance fundamental understanding of the controlling mechanisms, as well as to develop solutions for practical designs. This volume serves to promote technological progress and activities, technical knowledge transfer and cooperation on an international scale.
Download or read book Adaptive Control of Nonsmooth Dynamic Systems written by Gang Tao and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-09-26 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of the non-smooth, non-linear phenomena covered in this well-balanced book are of vital importance in almost any field of engineering. Contributors from all over the world ensure that no one area’s slant on the subjects predominates.
Download or read book Environmental Geography written by Leslie A. Duram and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the complex relationship humans have with the environment. It is one of both responsibility—including the sustainable or unsustainable management of natural resources—and emotion, like the elation gleaned from a beautiful landscape or the devastation experienced from a natural disaster. Human-induced damage to the environment has widespread consequences for Earth and its inhabitants that have already included sea level rise, increased wildlife extinctions, heatwaves, droughts, intensified air pollution, and water shortages. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the complex interactions between people and the environment. It presents three clear, honest, and down-to-earth essays that cover the devastating impact humans have on the environment; the equally devastating impact the environment has on humans at times; and the positive impact that increasing awareness of our effect on the planet is having on the movement to create a more sustainable future. In addition, in-depth entries on 60 key environmental geography terms, such as deforestation, ecotourism, and environmental justice, provide a deeper dive into the topic; 15 real-world case studies on topics like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Great Green Wall of Africa illustrate geography in action; and 10 brief spotlights from around the world draw the reader in with relevant facts.
Download or read book FTTX Concepts and Applications written by Gerd Keiser and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-02-06 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents fundamental passive optical network (PON) concepts, providing you with the tools needed to understand, design, and build these new access networks. The logical sequence of topics begins with the underlying principles and components of optical fiber communication technologies used in access networks. Next, the book progresses from descriptions of PON and fiber-to-the-X (FTTX) alternatives to their application to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks and, lastly, to essential measurement and testing procedures for network installation and maintenance. An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department.
Download or read book Marine Algal Bloom Characteristics Causes and Climate Change Impacts written by Santosh Kumar Sarkar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-05-02 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the marine environment, single-celled, microscopic, plant-like organisms naturally occur in the well-lit surface layer of any body of water. These organisms, referred to as phytoplankton or microalgae, form the base of the food web upon which nearly all other marine organisms depend. Algal bloom is a rapid increase in or accumulation of the population of about 300 species of algae due to excess nutrients (eutrophication), and is of major global interest as it causes reduction in species diversity, abrupt changes in water quality, and discoloration of the water (green, yellow, brown or red) depending on the species of algae and the type of pigments they contain. Dying blooms can also be an environmental concern as when the cells sink and decay, bacteria break down the organic material, which in turn strips oxygen from the water. This microbial oxygen demand at times leads to very low oxygen levels in the bottom waters, harming aquatic life. Documentation of this sporadic high abundance of algae, together with the significant species richness of the diatoms, requires comprehensive studies in the Sundarban coastal environment, which is facing severe degradation due to natural & anthropogenic stressors. In addition, a better understanding of the effects of algal blooms on seafood quality, the complex biological, chemical and physical interactions and subsequent effects on trophodynamics is needed to develop strategies for effective coastal zone management. The book discusses the occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) caused by the dinoflagellates of the genus Alexandrium and Karenia, or diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, which have large and varied impacts on marine ecosystems (such as large-scale marine mortality events that have been associated with various types of shellfish poisonings) depending on the species involved, the environment where they are found, and the mechanism by which they exert negative effects. HABs represent a major environmental problem in all regions of the U.S., and their occurrence is on the rise due to increased nutrient pollution. HABs have severe impacts on human health, aquatic ecosystems, and the economy. Such blooms, known colloquially as red tides due to their red or brown hues, are increasing in frequency and magnitude worldwide as a result of changes in oceanic climate, increased coastal eutrophication and enhanced long-distance dispersal in ballast water. As such, the book offers an in-depth account of the complex biological, chemical and physical interactions of the algal blooms (both innocuous and harmful ones). It also discusses the highly topical issue of the impact of global climate change on the frequency and severity of HABs in the context of alterations in temperature, stratification, light and ocean acidification. Focusing on both basic and applied limnology, this book is a reliable and up-to-date reference resource for students, teachers and researchers engaged in the field of coastal research/management at regional and global scales.
