Ecology of Insular Southeast Asia


Book Description

The textbook entitled Tropical Ecology of Southeast Asia – The Indonesian Archipelago unfolds in its 5 major chapters with 20 subchapters on more than 500 pages, with more than 300 figures, the basic principles of ecology with examples mainly coming from the Indonesian Archipelago. After an introduction describing the geography, geology and climate of the region, the second chapter is dedicated to marine and freshwater ecosystems. Chapters on the functional ecology of seagrass beds, coral reefs, open ocean and deep sea are followed by information on lotic and lentic freshwater ecosystems. In chapter III ecotones and special ecosystems of the achipelago are in focus. The ecology and ecosystems of shore and tidal flats, mangroves, estuaries and soft bottom shores, caves, small islands, grasslands and savannas are decribed. The forest ecosystems with beach forest, tropical lowland evergreen rainforest, some special forest systems and mountain forests form the contents of chapter IV. The final chapter V is dealing with agroecosystems and human ecology. The main focus in this chapter is ricefield ecology, landuse systems and social ecology, including the advent of man and the development and expansion of man influencing this achipelago. An extended glossary and bibliography is added as well as tables of abbreviations, conversion factors, international system of units and measurements or SI and a geological time table and systematics. The index gives assess to important keywords and relevant information spread thoughout the contents of the book. The textbook will certainly be useful to teachers, lecturers and their students at university and college level. It also gives an overview about insular ecology of the vast Indonesian archipelago to any interested person or working ecologist.* Focuses on the tropical ecology and insular ecosystems and biodiversity of Indonesia, as well as the agroecology of humid tropics * Contains over 300 figures * Provides an extended glossary and bibliography, as well as tables of abbreviations, converstion factors, international system of units and a geological time table * Easy-to-use index gives access to important keywords used throughout the text




Advances in Ecology Environment and Conservation Research and Application: 2012 Edition


Book Description

Advances in Ecology Environment and Conservation Research and Application / 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Ecology Environment and Conservation. The editors have built Advances in Ecology Environment and Conservation Research and Application / 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Ecology Environment and Conservation in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Advances in Ecology Environment and Conservation Research and Application / 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.




Cultural Values and Human Ecology in Southeast Asia


Book Description

Ecologists have long based their conceptual frameworks in the natural sciences. Recently, however, they have acknowledged that ecosystems cannot be understood without taking into account human interventions that may have taken place for thousands of years. And for their part, social scientists have recognized that human behavior must be understood in the environment in which it is acted out. Researchers have thus begun to develop the area of “human ecology.” Yet human ecology needs suitable conceptual frameworks to tie the human and natural together. In response, Cultural Values and Human Ecology uses the framework of cultural values to collect a set of highly diverse contributions to the field of human ecology. Values represent an important and essential aspect of the intellectual organization of a society, integrated into and ordained by the over-arching cosmological system, and constituting the meaningful basis for action, in terms of concreteness and abstraction of content as well as mutability and permanence. Because of this balance, values lend themselves to the kinds of analyses of ecological relationships conducted here, those that demand a reasonable amount of specificity as well as historical stability. The contributions to Cultural Values and Human Ecology are exceedingly diverse. They include abstract theoretical discussions and specific case studies, ranging across the landscape of Southeast Asia from the islands to southern China. They deal with hunting-gathering populations as well as peasants operating within contemporary nation-states, and they are the work of natural scientists, social scientists, and humanists of Western and Asian origin. Diversity in the backgrounds of the authors contributes most to the varied approaches to the theme of this volume, because differences in cultural background and academic tradition will lead to different research interests and to differences in the empirical approaches chosen to pursue given problems.




Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia


Book Description

In Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia: A Longue Durée Perspective, eleven historians bring their knowledge and insights to bear on the long Braudelian sweep of Southeast Asian history. In doing so they seek both to debunk simplistic assumptions about fragile traditions and transformational modernities, and to identify real repeating patterns in Southeast Asia's past: clientelistic political structures, periodic tectonic and climatic disasters, ethnic occupational specializations, long cycles of economic globalization and deglobalization. Their contributions range across many centuries: from the Austronesian expansion to the Aceh tsunami, and from the Sanskrit cosmopolis to the Asian financial crisis. The book is inspired by, and dedicated to, Peter Boomgaard, a scholar whose work has embodied the Braudelian spirit in Southeast Asian historiography. This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access.




Anthropology and Religion


Book Description

Drawing from ethnographic examples found throughout the world, this revised and updated text offers an introduction to what anthropologists know or think about religion, how they have studied it, and how they have interpreted or explained it since the late nineteenth century. Robert Winzeler’s balanced consideration of classic topics, basic concepts, and new developments in the anthropological study of religion moves beyond cultural anthropology and ethnography to gather information from physical anthropology, prehistory, and archaeology. Written as a sophisticated but accessible treatment of the issues, Anthropology and Religion is a key text for upper-division courses.




Biotic Evolution and Environmental Change in Southeast Asia


Book Description

Authoritative reviews and focused case studies on the history and future of the fauna and flora of Southeast Asia.




The Ecology of Tropical East Asia


Book Description

An updated edition of the only book dedicated to the terrestrial ecology of the East Asian tropics, authored by a world-renowned tropical ecologist




Biomass Burning in South and Southeast Asia, Two Volume Set


Book Description

The increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters all around the world has caused severe socioeconomic impacts, especially in South and Southeast Asia. This region is particularly susceptible to vegetation fires, leading to biomass burning pollution with impacts on other countries through trans-boundary air pollution. Despite the growing body of information on biomass pollutants worldwide, only a modest amount of data from these regions are available. With fires and biomass burning identified as a vital issue in South/Southeast Asia, this two-volume set was created to meet community research and application needs. To better serve the atmospheric, environmental, and remote sensing communities, and to address air quality, climate, and the human health impacts of greenhouse gases and aerosols from biomass burning, this set brings together the collective achievements of experts in these regions and the state-of-the-art technologies and spatial analyses to model and monitor biomass burning events and their impacts. This first volume covers various topics on fire, biomass burning, mapping and monitoring while the second volume highlights the impact of biomass burning on the biosphere and reflects extensive research by interdisciplinary teams of experts. This set will serve as a valuable resource for remote sensing scientist, geographers, ecologists, atmospheric scientists, environmental scientists, and all who wish to advance their knowledge on fires, biomass burning, and biomass burning pollution in South/Southeast Asia Specific Features: Unique in its discussion of the sources and the causes of biomass burning and atmospheric research in South and Southeast Asia. Explains how remote sensing and geospatial technologies help the mapping and monitoring of biomass burning events and their impacts. Focuses on large spatial scales integrating top-down and bottom-up methodologies. Addresses the pressing issues of environmental pollution that are rampant in South and Southeast Asia. Includes contributions from global experts currently working on biomass burning projects in the US, Japan, South/Southeast Asia, and Europe.




Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia


Book Description

The environment is one of the defining issues of our times, and it is closely linked to questions and dilemmas surrounding economic development. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most economically and demographically dynamic regions, and it is also one in which a host of environmental issues raise themselves. The Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia is a collection of 30 chapters dealing with the most significant scholarly debates in this rapidly growing field of study. Structured in four main parts, it gives a comprehensive regional overview of, and insight into, the environment in Southeast Asia. Wide-ranging and balanced, this handbook promotes scholarly understanding of how environmental issues are dealt with from diverse theoretical perspectives. It offers a detailed empirical understanding of the myriad environmental problems and challenges faced in Southeast Asia. This is the first publication of its kind in this field; a helpful companion for a global audience and for scholars of Southeast Asian studies from a variety of disciplines.




Tropical Rain Forest Ecosystems


Book Description

After publication of the first volume of the Tropical Rain Forest, the International Journal of Mycology and Lichenology commented ``This is a welcome addition to the literature on the ecology of tropical rain forests. The book provides a wealth of data and stimulating discussions and is of great interest to ecologists interested in tropical areas.'' Whereas the first volume dealt with system-ecological aspects such as community organization and processes, the present volume concentrates on biogeographical aspects such as species composition, diversity, and geographical variation.Recent ecological research in the tropical rain forest has greatly extended our understanding of biogeographical patterns of variation in the various groups of organisms, and has revealed many of the ecological and evolutionary forces that led to the present patterns of variation. Many important systems of co-evolution between the tropical rain forest ecosystems have also come to light, and the loss of species and related damage is better understood in quantitative terms.This volume presents a comprehensive review of these and other features of the rain forest ecosystem structure, and the ecological processes operating that system. General chapters on abiotic and biotic factors are followed by specific chapters on all major groups of organisms. Prospects for the future are discussed and research needs clearly stated. Also the human exploitation of the system, its effects and its limits are discussed. The book is extensively illustrated by photographs, graphs, and tables, and comprehensive bibliographies follow each chapter. Author, systematic and subject indices complete the book.It is a must for all ecologists, agriculturists, foresters, agronomists, hydrologists, soil scientists, entomologists, human ecologists, nature conservationists, and planners dealing with tropical areas. Biologists and environmentalists will also find the volume of great interest.