The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys


Book Description

Providing a synthesis of basic and applied research, The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook takes an encyclopedic look at how to study and manage ecosystems connected by surface and subsurface water movements. The book examines the South Florida hydroscape, a series of ecosystems linked by hydrolog













Wetland Habitats of North America


Book Description

“Wetland Habitats of North America is essential reading for everyone who studies, manages, or visits North American wetlands. It fills an important void in the wetland literature, providing accessible and succinct descriptions of all of the continent’s major wetland types.” Arnold van der Valk, Iowa State University “Batzer and Baldwin have compiled the most comprehensive compendium of North American wetland habitats and their ecology that is presently available—a must for wetland scientists and managers.” Irving A. Mendelssohn, Louisiana State University "If you want to gain a broad understanding of the ecology of North America’s diverse wetlands, Wetland Habitats of North America is the book for you. Darold Batzer and Andrew Baldwin have assembled an impressive group of regional wetland scientists who have produced a virtual encyclopedia to the continent’s wetlands. Reading the book is like a road trip across the Americas with guided tours of major wetland types by local experts. Your first stop will be to coastal wetlands with eight chapters covering tidal wetlands along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. Then you’ll travel inland where you can visit any or all of 18 types ranging from bottomland swamps of the Southeast to pothole marshes of the Northern Prairies to montane wetlands of the Rockies to tropical swamps of Central America and desert springs wetlands. All in one book—I’m impressed! Every wetlander should add this book to her or his swampland library. Ralph Tiner, University of Massachusetts–Amherst




Everglades


Book Description

The 31 chapters provide a wealth of previously unpublished information, plus topic syntheses, for a wide range of ecological parameters. These include the physical driving forces that created and continue to shape the Everglades and patterns and processes of its flora and fauna. The book summarizes recent studies of the region's vegetation, alligators, wading birds, and endangered species such as the snail kite and Florida panther. This referee-reviewed volume is the product of collaboration among 58 international authors from 27 institutional affiliations over nearly five years. The book concludes with a synthesis of system-wide restoration hypotheses, as they apply to the Everglades, that represent the integration and a collective viewpoint from the preceding 30 chapters. Techniques and systems learned here can be applied to ecosystems around the world.




Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades


Book Description

Although the progress of environmental restoration projects in the Florida Everglades remains slow overall, there have been improvements in the pace of restoration and in the relationship between the federal and state partners during the last two years. However, the importance of several challenges related to water quantity and quality have become clear, highlighting the difficulty in achieving restoration goals for all ecosystem components in all portions of the Everglades. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades explores these challenges. The book stresses that rigorous scientific analyses of the tradeoffs between water quality and quantity and between the hydrologic requirements of Everglades features and species are needed to inform future prioritization and funding decisions.




Ecological Regions of North America


Book Description

This volume represents a first attempt at holistically classifying and mapping ecological regions across all three countries of the North American continent. A common analytical methodology is used to examine North American ecology at multiple scales, from large continental ecosystems to subdivisions of these that correlate more detailed physical and biological settings with human activities on two levels of successively smaller units. The volume begins with an overview of North America from an ecological perspective, concepts of ecological regionalization. This is followed by descriptions of the 15 broad ecological regions, including information on physical and biological setting and human activities. The final section presents case studies in applications of the ecological characterization methodology to environmental issues. The appendix includes a list of common and scientific names of selected species characteristic of the ecological regions.




The Environment of South Florida


Book Description

Description of the south Florida ecosystem and changes resulting from man's activities.




Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States


Book Description

This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.