Author : Mark D. Schulze
Publisher :
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 40,35 MB
Release : 1999
Category : Forest site quality
ISBN :
Author : Ariel E. Lugo
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 18,91 MB
Release : 2006-04-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 0387217789
Big-Leaf Mahogany is the most important commercial timber species of the tropics. Current debate concerning whether to protect it as an endangered species has been hampered by the lack of complete, definitive scientific documentation. This book reports on vital research on the ecology of big-leaf mahogany, including genetic variations, regeneration, natural distribution patterns and the silvicutural and trade implications for the tree.
Author : David L. Lentz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 24,90 MB
Release : 2015-02-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1316060926
The primary theoretical question addressed in this book focuses on the lingering concern of how the ancient Maya in the northern Petén Basin were able to sustain large populations in the midst of a tropical forest environment during the Late Classic period. This book asks how agricultural intensification was achieved and how essential resources, such as water and forest products, were managed in both upland areas and seasonal wetlands, or bajos. All of these activities were essential components of an initially sustainable land use strategy that eventually failed to meet the demands of an escalating population. This spiraling disconnect with sound ecological principles undoubtedly contributed to the Maya collapse. The book's findings provide insights that broaden the understanding of the rise of social complexity - the expansion of the political economy, specifically - and, in general terms, the trajectory of cultural evolution of the ancient Maya civilization.
Author : David L. Hawksworth
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 538 pages
File Size : 26,19 MB
Release : 2007-04-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 1402052081
Drawing on research from biodiversity experts around the world, this book reflects the diversity of forest types and forest issues that concern forest scientists. Coverage ranges from savannah and tropical rainforests to the ancient oak forests of Poland; issues explored include the effects of logging, management practices, forest dynamics and climate change on forest structure and biodiversity. Here is a useful overview of current science, for researchers and educators alike.
Author : Damien B. Marken
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 493 pages
File Size : 32,86 MB
Release : 2023-07-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1646424093
Building an Archaeology of Maya Urbanism tears down entrenched misconceptions of Maya cities to build a new archaeology of Maya urbanism by highlighting the residential dynamics that underwrote one of the most famous and debated civilizations of the ancient Americas. Exploring the diverse yet interrelated agents and processes that modified Maya urban landscapes over time, this volume highlights the adaptive flexibility of urbanization in the tropical Maya lowlands. Integrating recent lidar survey data with more traditional excavation and artifact-based archaeological practices, chapters in this volume offer broadened perspectives on the patterns of Maya urban design and planning by viewing bottom-up and self-organizing processes as integral to the form, development, and dissolution of Classic lowland cities alongside potentially centralized civic designs. Full of innovative examples of how to build an archaeology of urbanism that can be applied not just to the lowland Maya and across the region, Building an Archaeology of Maya Urbanism simultaneously improves interpretations of lowland Maya culture history and contributes to empirical and comparative discussions of tropical, non-Western cities worldwide. Contributors: Divina Perla Barrera, Arianna Campiani, Cyril Castanet, Adrian S. Z. Chase, Lydie Dussol, Sara Dzul Góngora, Keith Eppich, Thomas Garrison, María Rocio González de la Mata, Timothy Hare, Julien Hiquet, Takeshi Inomata, Eva Lemonnier, José Francisco Osorio León, Marilyn Masson, Elsa Damaris Menéndez, Timothy Murtha, Philippe Nondédéo, Keith M. Prufer, Louise Purdue, Francisco Pérez Ruíz, Julien Sion, Travis Stanton, Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, Karl A. Taube, Marc Testé, Amy E. Thompson, Daniela Triadan
Author : Thomas G. Garrison
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 28,20 MB
Release : 2019-01-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1607327643
Presenting the results of six years of archaeological survey and excavation in and around the Maya kingdom of El Zotz, An Inconstant Landscape paints a complex picture of a dynamic landscape over the course of almost 2,000 years of occupation. El Zotz was a dynastic seat of the Classic period in Guatemala. Located between the renowned sites of Tikal and El Perú-Waka’, it existed as a small kingdom with powerful neighbors and serves today as a test-case of political debility and strength during the height of dynastic struggles among the Classic Maya. In this volume, contributors address the challenges faced by smaller polities on the peripheries of powerful kingdoms and ask how subordination was experienced and independent policy asserted. Leading experts provide cutting-edge analysis in varied topics and detailed discussion of the development of this major site and the region more broadly. The first half of the volume contains a historical narrative of the cultural sequence of El Zotz, tracing the changes in occupation and landscape use across time; the second half provides deep technical analyses of material evidence, including soils, ceramics, stone tools, and bone. The ever-changing, inconstant landscapes of peripheral kingdoms like El Zotz reveal much about their more dominant—and better known—neighbors. An Inconstant Landscape offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of this important but under-studied site, an essential context for the study of the Classic Maya in Guatemala, and a premier reference on the subject of peripheral kingdoms at the height of Maya civilization. Contributors: Timothy Beach, Nicholas Carter, Ewa Czapiewska-Halliday, Alyce de Carteret, William Delgado, Colin Doyle, James Doyle, Laura Gámez, Jose Luis Garrido López, Yeny Myshell Gutiérrez Castillo, Zachary Hruby, Melanie Kingsley, Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Cassandra Mesick Braun, Sarah Newman, Rony Piedrasanta, Edwin Román, and Andrew K. Scherer
Author : James D. Nations
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 33,70 MB
Release : 2010-01-01
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0292778775
The Maya Tropical Forest, which occupies the lowlands of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, is the closest rainforest to the United States and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Western Hemisphere. It has been home to the Maya peoples for nearly four millennia, starting around 1800 BC. Ancient cities in the rainforest such as Palenque, Yaxchilan, Tikal, and Caracol draw thousands of tourists and scholars seeking to learn more about the prehistoric Maya. Their contemporary descendants, the modern Maya, utilize the forest's natural resources in village life and international trade, while striving to protect their homeland from deforestation and environmental degradation. Writing for both visitors and conservationists, James Nations tells the fascinating story of how ancient and modern Maya peoples have used and guarded the rich natural resources of the Maya Tropical Forest. He opens with a natural history that profiles the forest's significant animals and plants. Nations then describes the Maya peoples, biological preserves, and major archaeological sites in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of conservation work in the Maya Tropical Forest, Nations tells first-hand stories of the creation of national parks and other protected areas to safeguard the region's natural resources and archaeological heritage. He concludes with an expert assessment of the forest's future in which he calls for expanded archaeological tourism to create an ecologically sustainable economic base for the region.
Author : Anabel Ford
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 40,18 MB
Release : 2016-07
Category : History
ISBN : 1315417928
Using studies on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, the authors show that the ancient Maya were able to support, sustainably, a vast population by farming the forest—thus refuting the common notion that Maya civilization devolved due to overpopulation and famine.
Author : B. L. Turner II
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 36,23 MB
Release : 2004-02-19
Category : Science
ISBN : 0191514284
This highly topical study of tropical deforestation in Mexico reports on the first phase of the Land-Cover and Land-Use Change in the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region Project (LCLUC-SYPR): a large, multi-institutional, and team-based study designed to understand and project land changes in a development frontier that pits the rapidly growing needs of smallholder farmers to cut down forests for cultivation against federally sponsored initiatives committed to various international programmes of forest preservation and complementary economic programmes. The SYPR project is a response to inderdisciplinary defined research themes deemed critical to global environmental change and complementary international research agendas (e.g. environment and development, ecosystem assessment, biotic diversity). Pivotal among these agendas are those posed by the Land-Use/Cover Change (LUCC) effort of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme as it is linked through such US sponsors as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The themes (i.e. questions and subjects) posed by these programmes and organization are 'integrated' or 'synthesis' in kind, meaning that they rest within the intersection of formal disciplines and are intended to fit into a larger, systems framework about human-environment relationships and the structure and function of the biosphere. The editors of this volume, as most of its contributors, come from the disciplines of geography, ecology, and economics. The lead editor, the geographer B. L. Turner II, has spent most of his career in pursuit of understanding different aspects of tropical deforestation and agriculture.
Author : Levente Hufnagel
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 16,61 MB
Release : 2023-01-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1803554355
Ecotheology - Sustainability and Religions of the World gives a very interesting overview of the frontiers of scientific research in this important multi- and transdisciplinary area. Its chapters use ecotheological approaches to discuss the multiple aspects of an environmental crisis from almost every segment of our planet. This book will be very useful for everyone – researchers, teachers, students, or others interested in the field – who would like to gain some insights into this aspect of our culture.
