A Practitioner's Guide to Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation


Book Description

A Practitioner's Guide to Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation brings together knowledge and experience from conservation practitioners and experts around the world to help readers understand the global challenge of conserving biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems. More importantly, it offers specific strategies and suggestions for managers to use in establishing new conservation initiatives or improving the effectiveness of existing initiatives. The book: offers an understanding of fundamental issues by explaining how ecosystems are structured and how they support biodiversity; provides specific information and approaches for identifying areas most in need of protection; examines promising strategies that can help reduce biodiversity loss; and describes design considerations and methods for measuring success within an adaptive management framework. The book draws on experience and knowledge gained during a five-year project of The Nature Conservancy known as the Freshwater Initiative, which brought together a range of practitioners to create a learning laboratory for testing ideas, approaches, tools, strategies, and methods. For professionals involved with land or water management-including state and federal agency staff, scientists and researchers working with conservation organizations, students and faculty involved with freshwater issues or biodiversity conservation, and policymakers concerned with environmental issues-the book represents an important new source of information, ideas, and approaches.




Freshwater Biodiversity


Book Description

Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.




Freshwater Ecosystems in Protected Areas


Book Description

Rather than a marginal part of protected area management, this book shows that freshwater conservation is central to sustaining biodiversity. It focuses on better practices for conserving inland aquatic ecosystems in protected areas (PAs), including rivers, wetlands, swamps, other brackish and freshwater ecosystems, and coastal estuaries.




Aquatic Biodiversity II


Book Description

Freshwater Biodiversity is a much underestimated component of global biodiversity, both in its diversity and in its potential to act as models for fundamental research in evolutionary biology and ecosystem studies. Freshwater organisms also reflect quality of water bodies and can thus be used to monitor changes in ecosystem health. The present book comprises a unique collection of primary research papers spanning a wide range of topics in aquatic biodiversity studies, and including a first global assessment of specific diversity of freshwater animals. The book also presents a section on the interaction between scientists and science policy managers. A target opinion paper lists priorities in aquatic biodiversity research for the next decade and several reactions from distinguished scientists discuss the relevance of these items from different points of view: fundamental ecology, taxonomy and systematics, needs of developing countries, present-day biodiversity policy at European and at global scales. It is believed that such a platform for the interaction between science and science policy is an absolute necessity for the efficient use of research budgets in the future.




Management of Freshwater Biodiversity


Book Description

Integrating research into freshwater biodiversity and the role of keystone species, this fascinating book presents freshwater crayfish as representatives of human-exacerbated threats to biodiversity and conservation. It uses examples from these and other large decapod invertebrates to explore how communities function and are controlled, alongside the implications of human demands and conflicts over limited resources, notably the severe impacts on biodiversity. The discussion is structured around three key topics – the present situation of crayfish in world freshwater ecosystems, the applications of science to conservation management and knowledge transfer for successful crayfish management. It outlines the historic exploitation of crayfish, addressing the problems caused by invasive alien forms and explaining the importance of correct identification when dealing with conservation issues. Offering a global perspective on freshwater systems, the book ultimately highlights how the conservation of such large and long-lived species will help protect ecosystem quality in the future.




Aquatic Ecosystem: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation


Book Description

This book brings together the latest information on the rapid advances and developments in the field of aquatic ecology. India is very rich in terms of biological diversity due to its wide range of habitats and climatic conditions. It is home to as much as 7 per cent of the world’s animal species, although it only accounts for about 2 per cent of the total landmass. The present work on biodiversity, ecology and conservation of aquatic resources represents original research in the field of aquatic biodiversity, wetland ecology and its applications with reference to the country’s aquatic resources. There are 19 chapters, each contributed by an expert in his/her particular field and offering novel approaches to various topics in the area of aquatic ecosystems.




Freshwater Ecology


Book Description

Freshwater Ecology, Second Edition, is a broad, up-to-date treatment of everything from the basic chemical and physical properties of water to advanced unifying concepts of the community ecology and ecosystem relationships as found in continental waters.With 40% new and expanded coverage, this text covers applied and basic aspects of limnology, now with more emphasis on wetlands and reservoirs than in the previous edition. It features 80 new and updated figures, including a section of color plates, and 500 new and updated references. The authors take a synthetic approach to ecological problems, teaching students how to handle the challenges faced by contemporary aquatic scientists.This text is designed for undergraduate students taking courses in Freshwater Ecology and Limnology; and introductory graduate students taking courses in Freshwater Ecology and Limnology. - Expanded revision of Dodds' successful text. - New boxed sections provide more advanced material within the introductory, modular format of the first edition. - Basic scientific concepts and environmental applications featured throughout. - Added coverage of climate change, ecosystem function, hypertrophic habitats and secondary production. - Expanded coverage of physical limnology, groundwater and wetland habitats. - Expanded coverage of the toxic effects of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupters as freshwater pollutants - More on aquatic invertebrates, with more images and pictures of a broader range of organisms - Expanded coverage of the functional roles of filterer feeding, scraping, and shredding organisms, and a new section on omnivores. - Expanded appendix on standard statistical techniques. - Supporting website with figures and tables - http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companion.jsp?ISBN=9780123747242




Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment


Book Description

This book offers a comprehensive study of species- and genus-level diversity and chorology of the global freshwater fauna to date. It gives a state of the art assessment of the diversity and distribution of Metazoa in the continental waters of the world.




Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation


Book Description

This is a comprehensive book on the biodiversity of one of the most diverse ecosystems known - tropical freshwater.




Freshwater Biodiversity in Asia


Book Description

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 337. Draws on household survey data from 87 rural villages in Bangladesh to examine the contribution that government family planning programs, as well as other health care interventions, have made toward the recent reduction in fertility by increasing contraceptive use and reducing infant mortality. The paper suggests that the programs have been effective and finds that targeted credit program placement, such as the Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), contributed to the effort as well.