1.
Forestry
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Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands, the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester, other terms are used a verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft, and technology. Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries, the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the wooden age, as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use. Roman Latifundiae, large estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans, however already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy, the use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan and it was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests. The notion of commons refers to the traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times, however, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting. Systematic management of forests for a yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e. g. in Nuremberg. Typically, a forest was divided into sections and mapped. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards, large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens, timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland. The notion of Nachhaltigkeit, sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz
2.
Forest restoration
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Climax forest is therefore the target ecosystem, which defines the ultimate aim of forest restoration. Since climate is a factor that determines climax forest composition. Forest restoration is a form of reforestation, but it differs from conventional tree plantations in that its primary goals are biodiversity recovery. Tree species planted are those that are typical of, or provide a critical function in. However, wherever people live in or near restoration sites, restoration projects include economic species amongst the planted trees. Economic indices of success include the value of forest products and ecological services generated, payments for such ecological services and forest products can provide strong incentives for local people to implement restoration projects. Even in protected areas, there are often large deforested sites, if protected areas are to act as Earth’s last wildlife refuges, restoration of such areas will be needed. FLR recognizes that forest restoration has social and economic functions and it aims to achieve the best possible compromise between meeting both conservation goals and the needs of rural communities. As human pressure on landscapes increases, forest restoration will most commonly be practiced within a mosaic of other forms of forest management, tree planting is not always essential to restore forest ecosystems. A lot can be achieved by studying how forests regenerate naturally, identifying the factors that limit regeneration and these can include weeding and adding fertilizer around natural tree seedlings, preventing fire, removing cattle and so on. This is accelerated or assisted natural regeneration and it is simple and cost-effective, but it can only operate on trees that are already present, mostly light-loving pioneer species. Because this is a process, biodiversity recovery can usually be accelerated by planting some climax forest tree species, especially large-seeded. It is not feasible to plant all the species that may have formerly grown in the original primary forest and it is usually unnecessary to do so. In large parts of the world, forest fires cover a heavy toll on forests and that can be because of provoked deforestation in order to substitute forests by crop areas, or in dry areas, because of wild fires occurring naturally or intentionally. This indeed has dire consequences on both the quality of the habitats and their related fauna, the primary stakeholders in this cooperative restoration effort are the U. S. Forest Service, the City of Ashland, Lomaktsi Restoration Project, and the Nature Conservancy. Located in the dry forests of southern Oregon, the threat of wildfire is a reality for land managers, the boundaries of the city of Ashland intersect with the surrounding forest in what is referred to as the wildland-urban interface. Historically, the forests of this region experienced a relatively frequent fire return interval, a century of fire exclusion and suppression on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest has led to increased forest density and fuel loads, and thus a more persistent threat of devastating wildfire. The AFR project has implemented restoration techniques and prescriptions that aim to replicate the process of succession in dry
3.
Forest
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A forest is a large area dominated by trees. Hundreds of more precise definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as density, tree height, land use, legal standing. According to the widely used Food and Agriculture Organization definition, forests covered four billion hectares or approximately 30 percent of the land area in 2006. Forests are the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are distributed across the globe, Forests account for 75% of the gross primary productivity of the Earths biosphere, and contain 80% of the Earths plant biomass. Forests at different latitudes and elevations form distinctly different ecozones, boreal forests near the poles, tropical forests near the equator, higher elevation areas tend to support forests similar to those at higher latitudes, and amount of precipitation also affects forest composition. Human society and forests influence each other in both positive and negative ways, Forests provide ecosystem services to humans and serve as tourist attractions. Forests can also affect peoples health, human activities, including harvesting forest resources, can negatively affect forest ecosystems. Although forest is a term of common parlance, there is no universally recognised precise definition, there are three broad categories of forest definitions in use, administrative, land use, and land cover. Land use definitions are based upon the purpose that the land serves. For example, a forest may be defined as any land that is used primarily for production of timber, land cover definitions define forests based upon the type and density of vegetation growing on the land. Such definitions typically define a forest as an area growing trees above some threshold and these thresholds are typically the number of trees per area, the area of ground under the tree canopy or the section of land that is occupied by the cross-section of tree trunks. Under such land cover definitions, and area of land only be defined as forest if it is growing trees, areas that fail to meet the land cover definition may be still included under while immature trees are establishing if they are expected to meet the definition at maturity. Under land use definitions, there is variation on where the cutoff points are between a forest, woodland, and savanna. Under some definitions, forests require high levels of tree canopy cover, from 60% to 100%, excluding savannas. Other definitions consider savannas to be a type of forest, the term was not endemic to Romance languages, and cognates in Romance languages, such as Italian foresta, Spanish and Portuguese floresta, etc. are all ultimately borrowings of the French word. The exact origin of Medieval Latin foresta is obscure, uses of the word forest in English to denote any uninhabited area of non-enclosure are now considered archaic. The word was introduced by the Norman rulers of England as a term denoting an uncultivated area legally set aside for hunting by feudal nobility. These hunting forests were not necessarily wooded much, if at all, however, as hunting forests did often include considerable areas of woodland, the word forest eventually came to mean wooded land more generally
4.
Sustainability
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In ecology, sustainability is the property of biological systems to remain diverse and productive indefinitely. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of biological systems. In more general terms, sustainability is the endurance of systems, the organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development, which includes the four interconnected domains, ecology, economics, politics and culture. Sustainability science is the study of development and environmental science. Sustainability can also be defined as a process characterized by the pursuit of a common ideal. An ideal is by definition unattainable in a time and space. However, by persistently and dynamically approaching it, the results in a sustainable system. Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of humans, ways of reducing negative human impact are environmentally-friendly chemical engineering, environmental resources management and environmental protection. Information is gained from green chemistry, earth science, environmental science, Ecological economics studies the fields of academic research that aim to address human economies and natural ecosystems. Moving towards sustainability is also a challenge that entails international and national law, urban planning and transport, local and individual lifestyles. The name sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere, sustain can mean “maintain, support, or endure”. ”The 2005 World Summit on Social Development identified sustainable development goals, such as economic development, social development and environmental protection. This view has been expressed as an illustration using three overlapping ellipses indicating that the three pillars of sustainability are not mutually exclusive and can be mutually reinforcing, in fact, the three pillars are interdependent, and in the long run none can exist without the others. The three pillars have served as a ground for numerous sustainability standards and certification systems in recent years. Standards which today explicitly refer to the bottom line include Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade. Some sustainability experts and practitioners have illustrated four pillars of sustainability, one such pillar is future generations, which emphasizes the long-term thinking associated with sustainability. There is also an opinion that considers resource use and financial sustainability as two pillars of sustainability. Sustainable development consists of balancing local and global efforts to meet human needs without destroying or degrading the natural environment. The question then becomes how to represent the relationship between those needs and the environment, a study from 2005 pointed out that environmental justice is as important as sustainable development
5.
Holism
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Holism is the idea that systems and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not just as a collection of parts. The term Holism was coined by J C Smuts in Holism and it was Smuts opinion that Holism is a concept that represents all of the wholes in the universe, and these wholes are the real factors in the universe. Further, that Holism also denoted a theory of the universe in the vein as Materialism and Spiritualism. The derived adjective holistic has been applied to a range of fields where they incorporate the concept of holism. The field characterizes a whole as a unified and synthesised event in the system of Relativity, as such, the concept of field entails both activity and structure. Darwins theory of organic descent placed primary emphasis on the role of natural selection, the whole exhibits a discernible regulatory function as it relates to cooperation and coordination of the structure and activity of parts, and to the selection and deselection of variations. The result is a correlation of organs and functions. The activities of the parts are directed to central ends, co-operation and it is the intermingling of fields which is creative or causal in nature. This is seen in matter, where if not for its dynamic structural creative character matter could not have been the mother of the universe, with minds the regulatory function of Holism acquires consciousness and freedom, demonstrating a creative power of the most far-reaching character. Holism is not only creative but self-creative, and its structures are far more holistic than its initial structures. Holism exemplifies this idea while emphasizing the holistic character of the process. The whole completely transforms the concept of Causality, results are not directly a function of causes, the whole absorbs and integrates the cause into its own activity, results appear as the consequence of the activity of the whole. It is the edition of Holism and Evolution that provides the most recent. In philosophy, any doctrine that emphasizes the priority of a whole over its parts is holism, some suggest that such a definition owes its origins to a non-holistic view of language and places it in the reductivist camp. Alternately, a definition of holism denies the necessity of a division between the function of separate parts and the workings of the whole. It suggests that the key characteristic of a concept of holism is a sense of the fundamental truth of any particular experience. This exists in contradistinction to what is perceived as the reductivist reliance on inductive method as the key to verification of its concept of how the function within the whole. In the philosophy of mind, a state may be identified only in terms of its relations with others
6.
Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance, succession and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
7.
Productivity
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Productivity describes various measures of the efficiency of production. A productivity measure is expressed as the ratio of output to inputs used in a production process, Productivity is a crucial factor in production performance of firms and nations. Productivity growth also helps businesses to be more profitable, there are many different definitions of productivity and the choice among them depends on the purpose of the productivity measurement and/or data availability. Productivity measures that use one class of inputs or factors, in practice, measurement in production means measures of partial productivity. Interpreted correctly, these components are indicative of productivity development, and approximate the efficiency with which inputs are used in an economy to produce goods, however, productivity is only measured partially – or approximately. At the company level, typical partial productivity measures are such things as worker hours, before widespread use of computer networks, partial productivity was tracked in tabular form and with hand-drawn graphs. Tabulating machines for data processing began being used in the 1920s and 1930s. By the late 1970s inexpensive computers allowed industrial operations to process control. Today data collection is largely computerized and almost any variable can be viewed graphically in real time or retrieved for selected time periods, in macroeconomics, a common partial productivity measure is labour productivity. Labour productivity is an indicator of several economic indicators as it offers a dynamic measure of economic growth, competitiveness. It is the measure of productivity which helps explain the principal economic foundations that are necessary for both economic growth and social development. In general labour productivity is equal to the ratio between a measure of volume and a measure of input use. This is done in order to avoid double-counting when an output of one firm is used as an input by another in the same measurement, in macroeconomics the most well-known and used measure of value-added is the Gross Domestic Product or GDP. It is widely used as a measure of the growth of nations. GDP is the income available for paying capital costs, labor compensation, taxes, some economists instead use gross value added, there is normally a strong correlation between GDP and GVA. The measure of input use reflects the time, effort and skills of the workforce, denominator of the ratio of labour productivity, the input measure is the most important factor that influences the measure of labour productivity. Labour input is measured either by the number of hours worked of all persons employed or total employment. There are both advantages and disadvantages associated with the different input measures that are used in the calculation of labour productivity, however, the quality of hours-worked estimates is not always clear
8.
Photosynthesis
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Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that can later be released to fuel the organisms activities. In most cases, oxygen is released as a waste product. Most plants, most algae, and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis, such organisms are called photoautotrophs, in plants, these proteins are held inside organelles called chloroplasts, which are most abundant in leaf cells, while in bacteria they are embedded in the plasma membrane. In these light-dependent reactions, some energy is used to strip electrons from suitable substances, such as water, in the Calvin cycle, atmospheric carbon dioxide is incorporated into already existing organic carbon compounds, such as ribulose bisphosphate. Using the ATP and NADPH produced by the light-dependent reactions, the compounds are then reduced and removed to form further carbohydrates. Cyanobacteria appeared later, the oxygen they produced contributed directly to the oxygenation of the Earth. Today, the rate of energy capture by photosynthesis globally is approximately 130 terawatts. Photosynthetic organisms also convert around 100–115 thousand million tonnes of carbon into biomass per year. Photosynthetic organisms are photoautotrophs, which means that they are able to synthesize food directly from carbon dioxide, however, not all organisms that use light as a source of energy carry out photosynthesis, photoheterotrophs use organic compounds, rather than carbon dioxide, as a source of carbon. In plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, photosynthesis releases oxygen and this is called oxygenic photosynthesis and is by far the most common type of photosynthesis used by living organisms. Although there are differences between oxygenic photosynthesis in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, the overall process is quite similar in these organisms. There are also varieties of anoxygenic photosynthesis, used mostly by certain types of bacteria. Carbon dioxide is converted into sugars in a process called carbon fixation, photosynthesis provides the energy in the form of free electrons that are used to split carbon from carbon dioxide that is then used to fix that carbon once again as carbohydrate. Carbon fixation is a redox reaction, so photosynthesis supplies the energy that drives both process. In the first stage, light-dependent reactions or light reactions capture the energy of light and use it to make the energy-storage molecules ATP, during the second stage, the light-independent reactions use these products to capture and reduce carbon dioxide. Most organisms that utilize oxygenic photosynthesis use visible light for the light-dependent reactions, some organisms employ even more radical variants of photosynthesis. Some archea use a method that employs a pigment similar to those used for vision in animals. The bacteriorhodopsin changes its configuration in response to sunlight, acting as a proton pump and this produces a proton gradient more directly, which is then converted to chemical energy
9.
Primary production
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In ecology, primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide. Almost all life on Earth relies directly or indirectly on primary production, the organisms responsible for primary production are known as primary producers or autotrophs, and form the base of the food chain. In terrestrial ecoregions, these are mainly plants, while in aquatic ecoregions algae predominate in this role, ecologists distinguish primary production as either net or gross, the former accounting for losses to processes such as cellular respiration, the latter not. Primary production is the production of energy in organic compounds by living organisms. The main source of energy is sunlight but a minute fraction of primary production is driven by lithotrophic organisms using the chemical energy of inorganic molecules. Regardless of its source, this energy is used to complex organic molecules from simpler inorganic compounds such as carbon dioxide. Consumption of primary producers by heterotrophic organisms, such as animals, then transfers these organic molecules up the food web, gross primary production is the amount of chemical energy as biomass that primary producers create in a given length of time. Some fraction of this energy is used by primary producers for cellular respiration. The remaining fixed energy is referred to as net primary production, some net primary production goes toward growth and reproduction of primary producers, while some is consumed by herbivores. Both gross and net primary production are in units of mass per area per unit time interval. In terrestrial ecosystems, mass of carbon per area per year is most often used as the unit of measurement. On the land, almost all production is now performed by vascular plants, with a small fraction coming from algae and non-vascular plants such as mosses. Before the evolution of plants, non-vascular plants likely played a more significant role. Primary production on land is a function of many factors, but principally local hydrology, while plants cover much of the Earths surface, they are strongly curtailed wherever temperatures are too extreme or where necessary plant resources are limiting, such as deserts or polar regions. Water is consumed in plants by the processes of photosynthesis and transpiration, the latter process is driven by the evaporation of water from the leaves of plants. Transpiration allows plants to transport water and mineral nutrients from the soil to growth regions, diffusion of water vapour out of a leaf, the force that drives transpiration, is regulated by structures known as stomata. These structure also regulate the diffusion of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the leaf, certain plants use alternative forms of photosynthesis, called Crassulacean acid metabolism and C4. In a reversal of the pattern on land, in the oceans, almost all photosynthesis is performed by algae, with a small fraction contributed by vascular plants, algae encompass a diverse range of organisms, ranging from single floating cells to attached seaweeds
10.
Cellular respiration
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Respiration is one of the key ways a cell releases chemical energy to fuel cellular activity. Cellular respiration is considered an exothermic reaction which releases heat. The overall reaction occurs in a series of steps, most of which are redox reactions themselves. Nutrients that are used by animal and plant cells in respiration include sugar, amino acids and fatty acids. The chemical energy stored in ATP can then be used to drive processes requiring energy, including biosynthesis, aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to create ATP. The potential of NADH and FADH2 is converted to more ATP through a transport chain with oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. Most of the ATP produced by cellular respiration is made by oxidative phosphorylation. This works by the released in the consumption of pyruvate being used to create a chemiosmotic potential by pumping protons across a membrane. This potential is used to drive ATP synthase and produce ATP from ADP. Biology textbooks often state that 38 ATP molecules can be made per oxidised glucose molecule during cellular respiration, aerobic metabolism is up to 15 times more efficient than anaerobic metabolism. They share the pathway of glycolysis but aerobic metabolism continues with the Krebs cycle. The post-glycolytic reactions take place in the mitochondria in eukaryotic cells, glycolysis is a metabolic pathway that takes place in the cytosol of cells in all living organisms. This pathway can function with or without the presence of oxygen, in humans, aerobic conditions produce pyruvate and anaerobic conditions produce lactate. In aerobic conditions, the process converts one molecule of glucose into two molecules of pyruvate, generating energy in the form of two net molecules of ATP, four molecules of ATP per glucose are actually produced, however, two are consumed as part of the preparatory phase. The initial phosphorylation of glucose is required to increase the reactivity in order for the molecule to be cleaved into two molecules by the enzyme aldolase. During the pay-off phase of glycolysis, four groups are transferred to ADP by substrate-level phosphorylation to make four ATP. Glycogen can be converted into glucose 6-phosphate as well with the help of glycogen phosphorylase, during energy metabolism, glucose 6-phosphate becomes fructose 6-phosphate. An additional ATP is used to phosphorylate fructose 6-phosphate into fructose 1, fructose 1, 6-diphosphate then splits into two phosphorylated molecules with three carbon chains which later degrades into pyruvate
11.
Riparian zone
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A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth, Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. In some regions the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, the word riparian is derived from Latin ripa, meaning river bank. Riparian zones may be natural or engineered for soil stabilization or restoration and these zones are important natural biofilters, protecting aquatic environments from excessive sedimentation, polluted surface runoff and erosion. They supply shelter and food for aquatic animals and shade that limits stream temperature change. When riparian zones are damaged by construction, agriculture or silviculture, biological restoration can take place, usually by human intervention in erosion control and revegetation. If the area adjacent to a watercourse has standing water or saturated soil for as long as a season, because of their prominent role in supporting a diversity of species, riparian zones are often the subject of national protection in a Biodiversity Action Plan. These are also known as a Plant or Vegetation Waste Buffer, research shows that riparian zones are instrumental in water quality improvement for both surface runoff and water flowing into streams through subsurface or groundwater flow. Particularly, the attenuation of nitrate or denitrification of the nitrates from fertilizer in this zone is important. The use of wetland riparian zones shows a high rate of removal of nitrate entering a stream. The meandering curves of a river, combined with vegetation and root systems, slow the flow of water, sediment is trapped, reducing suspended solids to create less turbid water, replenish soils, and build stream banks. Pollutants are filtered from surface runoff, enhancing water quality via biofiltration, the riparian zones also provide wildlife habitat, increased biodiversity, and wildlife corridors, enabling aquatic and riparian organisms to move along river systems avoiding isolated communities. Riparian vegetation can also forage for wildlife and livestock. They provide native landscape irrigation by extending seasonal or perennial flows of water, nutrients from terrestrial vegetation are transferred to aquatic food webs. The vegetation surrounding the stream helps to shade the water, mitigating water temperature changes, the vegetation also contributes wood debris to streams, which is important to maintaining geomorphology. From a social aspect, riparian zones contribute to nearby property values through amenity and views, space is created for riparian sports such as fishing, swimming and launching for vessels and paddlecraft. The protection of zones is often a consideration in logging operations. The undisturbed soil, soil cover, and vegetation provide shade, plant litter, and woody material, factors such as soil types and root structures, climatic conditions and vegetative cover determine the effectiveness of riparian buffering
12.
Water quality
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Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and it is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance can be assessed. The most common used to assess water quality relate to health of ecosystems, safety of human contact. In the setting of standards, agencies make political and technical/scientific decisions about how the water will be used, in the case of natural water bodies, they also make some reasonable estimate of pristine conditions. Natural water bodies will vary in response to environmental conditions, Environmental scientists work to understand how these systems function, which in turn helps to identify the sources and fates of contaminants. Environmental lawyers and policymakers work to define legislation with the intention that water is maintained at a quality for its identified use. The vast majority of water on the Earth is neither potable nor toxic. This remains true when seawater in the oceans is not counted, another general perception of water quality is that of a simple property that tells whether water is polluted or not. In fact, water quality is a subject, in part because water is a complex medium intrinsically tied to the ecology of the Earth. Industrial and commercial activities are a cause of water pollution as are runoff from agricultural areas, urban runoff. The parameters for water quality are determined by the intended use, work in the area of water quality tends to be focused on water that is treated for human consumption, industrial use, or in the environment. Water quality depends on the geology and ecosystem, as well as human uses such as sewage dispersion, industrial pollution, use of water bodies as a heat sink. The United States Environmental Protection Agency limits the amounts of contaminants in tap water provided by US public water systems. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water that must provide the protection for public health. Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants, the presence of these contaminants does not necessarily indicate that the water poses a health risk. Water drawn directly from a stream, lake, or aquifer, dissolved minerals may affect suitability of water for a range of industrial and domestic purposes. Hard water may be softened to remove these ions, the softening process often substitutes sodium cations. Hard water may be preferable to soft water for consumption, since health problems have been associated with excess sodium
13.
Soil compaction
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In geotechnical engineering, soil compaction is the process in which a stress applied to a soil causes densification as air is displaced from the pores between the soil grains. When stress is applied that causes densification due to water being displaced from between the grains, then consolidation, not compaction, has occurred. Normally, compaction is the result of heavy machinery compressing the soil, affected soils become less able to absorb rainfall, thus increasing runoff and erosion. Plants have difficulty in compacted soil because the grains are pressed together, leaving little space for air and water. Burrowing animals also find it an environment, because the denser soil is more difficult to penetrate. The ability of a soil to recover from this type of compaction depends on climate, mineralogy, soils with high shrink-swell capacity, such as vertisols, recover quickly from compaction where moisture conditions are variable. But clays which do not crack as they dry cannot recover from compaction on their own unless they host ground-dwelling animals such as earthworms — the Cecil soil series is an example, Soil compaction is a vital part of the construction process. It is used for support of structural entities such as building foundations, roadways, walkways, for a given soil type certain properties may deem it more or less desirable to perform adequately for a particular circumstance. When an area is to be filled or backfilled the soil is placed in layers called lifts, the ability of the first fill layers to be properly compacted will depend on the condition of the natural material being covered. In order to determine if the soil will support the first fill layers. Proofrolling consists of utilizing a piece heavy construction equipment to roll across the fill site and these areas will be indicated by the development of rutting, pumping, or ground weaving. To ensure adequate soil compaction is achieved, project specifications will indicate the required soil density or degree of compaction that must be achieved and these specifications are generally recommended by a geotechnical engineer in a geotechnical engineering report. It also has an influence on how the materials should be compacted in given situations. Compaction is accomplished by use of heavy equipment, in sands and gravels, the equipment usually vibrates, to cause re-orientation of the soil particles into a denser configuration. In silts and clays, a roller is frequently used, to create small zones of intense shearing. Determination of adequate compaction is done by determining the density of the soil. The most commonly used laboratory test is called the Proctor compaction test and they are the standard Proctor and modified Proctor tests, the modified Proctor is more commonly used. For small dams, the standard Proctor may still be the reference, while soil under structures and pavements needs to be compacted, it is important after construction to decompact areas to be landscaped so that vegetation can grow
14.
Road
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Roads consist of one or two roadways, each with one or more lanes and any associated sidewalks and road verges. Roads that are available for use by the public may be referred to as parkways, avenues, freeways, interstates, highways, or primary, secondary, and tertiary local roads. In urban areas roads may diverge through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a function as urban space easement. Modern roads are normally smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel, historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or maintenance. In the United Kingdom there is ambiguity between the terms highway and road. The Highway code details rules for road users and this includes footpaths, bridleways and cycle tracks, and also road and driveways on private land and many car parks. Vehicle Excise Duty, a use tax, is payable on some vehicles used on the public road. The definition of a road depends on the definition of a highway, in the United States, laws distinguish between public roads, which are open to public use, and private roads, which are privately controlled. The assertion that the first pathways were the trails made by animals has not been universally accepted, others believe that some roads originated from following animal trails. The Icknield Way is given as an example of type of road origination. By about 10,000 BC, rough roads/pathways were used by human travelers, the worlds oldest known paved road was constructed in Egypt some time between 2600 and 2200 BC. Stone-paved streets are found in the city of Ur in the Middle East dating back to 4000 BC, corduroy roads are found dating to 4000 BC in Glastonbury, England. The Sweet Track, a timber causeway in England, is one of the oldest engineered roads discovered. Built in winter 3807 BC or spring 3806 BC, tree-ring dating enabled very precise dating and it was claimed to be the oldest road in the world until the 2009 discovery of a 6, 000-year-old trackway in Plumstead, London. Brick-paved streets were used in India as early as 3000 BC, in 500 BC, Darius I the Great started an extensive road system for Persia, including the Royal Road, which was one of the finest highways of its time. The road remained in use after Roman times, a hybrid of road transport and ship transport beginning in about 1740 is the horse-drawn boat in which the horse follows a cleared path along the river bank. From about 312 BC, the Roman Empire built straight strong stone Roman roads throughout Europe and North Africa, at its peak the Roman Empire was connected by 29 major roads moving out from Rome and covering 78,000 kilometers or 52,964 Roman miles of paved roads. In the 8th century AD, many roads were built throughout the Arab Empire, the most sophisticated roads were those in Baghdad, which were paved with tar
15.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
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Clearcutting
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Clearcutting, clearfelling, or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some support the practice for scientific, safety. Detractors see clearcutting as synonymous with deforestation, destroying natural habitats, Clearcutting is the most common and economically profitable method of logging. Aside from the purpose of harvesting wood, clearcutting is also used to land for farming. The insatiable human demand for wood and arable land through clearcutting, the same reasons for preserving the world’s tropical rainforests also apply to the taiga, as do the reasons for destroying them. Long-term studies of clearcut forests, such as studies of the Pasoh Rainforest in Malaysia, are important in providing insights into the preservation of forest resources worldwide. Many variations of clearcutting exist, the most common practices are, Standard clearcut – removal of every stem. Patch clearcut – removal of all the stems in a limited, predetermined area, strip clearcut – removal of all the stems in a row, usually placed perpendicular to the prevailing winds in order to minimize the possibility of windthrow. Clearcutting-with-reserves – removal of the majority of standing stems save a few reserved for other purposes, slash-and-burn – the permanent conversion of tropical and subtropicals forests for agricultural purposes. This is most prevalent in tropical and subtropical forests in overpopulated regions in developing, slash-and-burn entails the removal of all stems in a particular area. This can be a form of deforestation, when the land is converted to other uses, however, some indigenous forest peoples, for example the 19th century Forest Finns rotate over the land and it does return to forest and this would be sustainable. Slash and burn techniques are used by civilians in search of land for living. The forest is first clear cut, and the material is burned. One of the forces behind this process is a result of overpopulation. These methods also occur as a result of commercial farming, the lumber is sold for profit, and the land, cleared of all remaining brush and suitable for agricultural development, is sold to farmers. Selection cutting – which can be done for timber harvesting or for ecological reasons, when so done it is often called ecoforestry. Clearcutting contrasts with selective cutting, such as high grading, in which only commercially valuable trees are harvested and this practice can reduce the genetic viability of the forest over time, resulting in poorer or less vigorous offspring in the stand. Clearcutting also differs from a system, by allowing revegetation by seedlings
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Snag (ecology)
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In forest ecology, a snag refers to a standing, dead or dying tree, often missing a top or most of the smaller branches. In freshwater ecology it refers to trees, branches, and other pieces of naturally occurring wood found sunken in rivers and streams, when used in manufacturing, especially in Scandinavia, they are often called dead wood and in Finland kelo wood. Snags are an important structural component in forest communities, making up 10-20% of all present in old-growth tropical, temperate. Snags and downed woody debris represent a large portion of the woody biomass in a healthy forest. In temperate forests, snags provide critical habitat for more than 100 species of bird and mammal, dead, decaying wood supports a rich community of decomposers like bacteria and fungi, insects, and other invertebrates. Snags are optimal habitat for primary cavity nesters such as woodpeckers which create the majority of cavities used by secondary cavity users in forest ecosystems, woodpeckers excavate cavities for more than 80 other species and the health of their populations relies on snags. Most snag-dependent birds and mammals are insectivorous and represent a portion of the insectivorous forest fauna. There are many instances in which birds reduced outbreak populations of forest insects, such as woodpeckers affecting outbreaks of southern hardwood borers, snag creation occurs naturally as trees die due to old age, disease, drought, or wildfire. A snag undergoes a series of changes from the time the tree dies until final collapse, snag persistence depends on two factors, the size of the stem, and the durability of the wood of the species concerned. Snag Forests, or Complex Early Seral Forests, are ecosystems that occupy potentially forested sites after a stand-replacement disturbance, water hunting birds like the osprey or kingfishers can be found near water, perched in a snag tree, or feeding upon their fish catch. Snags are important as sites for biofilm growth and for shelter, in Australia, the role of freshwater snags has been largely ignored until recently, and more than one million snags have been removed from the Murray-Darling basin. Large tracts of the reaches of the Murray-Darling system are now devoid of the snags that native fish like Murray cod require for shelter. The damage such wholesale snag removal has caused is clearly enormous, most snags in these systems are river red gum snags. As the dense wood of river red gum is almost impervious to rot it is thought some of the river red gum snags removed in past decades may have been several thousand years old. Also known as deadheads, partially submerged snags posed hazards to early riverboat navigation, if hit, snags punctured the wooden hulls used in the 19th century and early 20th century. Snags were, in fact, the most commonly encountered hazard, in the United States, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers operated snag boats such as the W. T. Preston in the Puget Sound of Washington State and the Montgomery in the rivers of Alabama to pull out, starting in 1824, there were successful efforts to remove snags from the Mississippi and its tributaries. Commercial enterprises market them abroad as dead wood or in Finland as kelo wood and they have been especially prized for their silver-grey weathered surface in the manufacture of vernacular or national romantic products
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Coarse woody debris
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Coarse woody debris or coarse woody habitat refers to fallen dead trees and the remains of large branches on the ground in forests and in rivers or wetlands. A dead standing tree is known as a snag and provides many of the functions as coarse woody debris. The minimum size required for woody debris to be defined as coarse varies by author, the amount of coarse woody debris is considered to be an important criterion for the evaluation and restoration of temperate deciduous forest. Coarse woody debris is important in wetlands, particularly in deltas where woody debris accumulates. Coarse woody debris comes from natural tree mortality, disease, and insects, as well as events such as fires, storms. Ancient, or old growth, forest, with its trees and woody remains lying where they fell to feed new vegetation, constitutes the ideal woodland in terms of recycling. In healthy temperate forests, dead wood comprises up to thirty per cent of all woody biomass, in old growth Douglas fir forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America, CWD concentrations were found to be from 72 metric tons/hectare in drier sites to 174 t/ha in moister sites. Australian native forests have mean CWD concentrations ranging from 19 t/ha to 134 t/ha, coarse woody debris and its subsequent decomposition recycles nutrients that are essential for living organisms, such as carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. However CWD itself is extremely scarce in physiologically important nutrients, to fulfill nutritional requirements of consumers, CWD must be first nutritionally enriched by transport of nutrients from outside of CWD. Thus CWD is important actor contributing to soil nutrients cycles, CWD, while itself not particularly rich in nitrogen, contributes nitrogen to the ecosystem by acting as a host for nonsymbiotic free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Scientific studies show that coarse woody debris can be a significant contributor to carbon sequestration. Trees store atmospheric carbon in their wood using photosynthesis, once the trees die, fungi and other saprotrophs transfer some of that carbon from CWD into the soil. This sequestration can continue in old-growth forests for hundreds of years, by providing both food and microhabitats for many species, coarse woody debris helps to maintain the biodiversity of forest ecosystems. Up to forty percent of all forest fauna is dependent on CWD, colonizing organisms that live on the remains of cambium and sapwood of dead trees aid decomposition and attract predators that prey on them and so continue the chain of metabolizing the biomass. One third of all woodland birds live in the cavities of dead tree trunks, woodpeckers, tits, chickadees, and owls all live in dead trees, and grouse shelter behind woody debris. Some plants use coarse woody debris as habitat, mosses and lichens may cover logs, while ferns and trees may regenerate on the top of logs. Large fragments of CWD that provide habitat for herbs, shrubs. CWD can also protect plants from herbivory damage by acting as barriers to browsing animals
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
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Pesticide
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Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The most common of these are herbicides which account for approximately 80% of all pesticide use, most pesticides are intended to serve as plant protection products, which in general, protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes, although pesticides have benefits, some also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,9 of the 12 most dangerous, the term includes substances intended for use as a plant growth regulator, defoliant, desiccant, or agent for thinning fruit or preventing the premature fall of fruit. Also used as substances applied to either before or after harvest to protect the commodity from deterioration during storage. Pesticides can be classified by target organism, chemical structure, biopesticides include microbial pesticides and biochemical pesticides. Plant-derived pesticides, or botanicals, have been developing quickly and these include the pyrethroids, rotenoids, nicotinoids, and a fourth group that includes strychnine and scilliroside. Many pesticides can be grouped into chemical families, prominent insecticide families include organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates. Organochlorine hydrocarbons could be separated into dichlorodiphenylethanes, cyclodiene compounds, and they operate by disrupting the sodium/potassium balance of the nerve fiber, forcing the nerve to transmit continuously. Their toxicities vary greatly, but they have phased out because of their persistence. Organophosphate and carbamates largely replaced organochlorines, both operate through inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, allowing acetylcholine to transfer nerve impulses indefinitely and causing a variety of symptoms such as weakness or paralysis. Organophosphates are quite toxic to vertebrates, and have in some cases replaced by less toxic carbamates. Thiocarbamate and dithiocarbamates are subclasses of carbamates, prominent families of herbicides include phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides, triazines, ureas, and Chloroacetanilides. Phenoxy compounds tend to selectively kill broad-leaf weeds rather than grasses, the phenoxy and benzoic acid herbicides function similar to plant growth hormones, and grow cells without normal cell division, crushing the plants nutrient transport system. Many commonly used pesticides are not included in these families, including glyphosate, Pesticides can be classified based upon their biological mechanism function or application method. Most pesticides work by poisoning pests, a systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption by the plant. With insecticides and most fungicides, this movement is usually upward and outward, increased efficiency may be a result
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Vegetation
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Vegetation is assemblages of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent. It is broader than the flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns, all are encompassed by the term vegetation. The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or an aspect of the assemblage. The contemporary use of vegetation approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements term earth cover, Natural vegetation refers to plant life undisturbed by humans in its growth and which is controlled by the climatic conditions of that region. The distinction between vegetation and flora was first made by Jules Thurmann, prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately, and still are in some contexts. Augustin de Candolle also made a distinction, but he used the terms station and habitation. Later, the concept of vegetation would influence the usage of the term biome, other concepts similar to vegetation are physiognomy of vegetation and formation. Departing from Linnean taxonomy, Humboldt established a new science, dividing plant geography between taxonomists who studied plants as taxa and geographers who studied plants as vegetation. The physiognomic approach in the study of vegetation is common among biogeographers working on vegetation on a world scale, the concept vegetation type is more ambiguous. For some authors, it includes, besides physiognomy, floristic, furthermore, the phytosociological approach in the study of vegetation relies upon a fundamental unit, the plant association, which is defined upon flora. An influential, clear and simple scheme for types of vegetation was produced by Wagner & von Sydow. Like all the systems, plant communities are temporally and spatially dynamic. Dynamism in vegetation is defined primarily as changes in species composition and/or vegetation structure, temporally, a large number of processes or events can cause change, but for sake of simplicity they can be categorized roughly as either abrupt or gradual. Abrupt changes are referred to as disturbances, these include things like wildfires, high winds, landslides, floods, avalanches. Their causes are external to the community—they are natural processes occurring independently of the natural processes of the community. Such events can change vegetation structure and composition very quickly and for time periods
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Topsoil
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Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top 2 inches to 8 inches. It has the highest concentration of matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earths biological soil activity occurs. Four elements constitute the composition of soil and those elements are mineral particles, organic matter, water, and air. The volume of top soil consists of 50 to 80 percent of these particles form the skeletal structure of most soils. This composition allows the soil to sustain its own weight, and other internal matter such as water, organic matter, another important element, varies on quantity on different soils. This provokes positive and negative effects or reactions on the soil, the strength of soil structure decreases with the presence of organic matter, creating weak bearing capacities. Organic matter condenses and settles in different ways under certain conditions, such as roadbeds, the skeletal structure becomes affected once the soil is dewatered. It decomposes and suffers wind erosion, plants generally concentrate their roots in and obtain most of their vital nutrients from this layer. Actual depth of the layer can be measured as the depth from the surface to the first densely packed soil layer known as subsoil. In soil classification systems, topsoil is known as the O Horizon or A Horizon, therefore, commercially available topsoil in the United Kingdom should be classified to British Standard BS3882 with the current version dated 2015. The topsoil should be sampled in accordance with the British Standard and European Norm BS EN12579,2013 Soil improvers, different types of plants vary in their nutrient needs and preferred soil conditions, many are strongly adapted to particular conditions. However, some general guidelines for desired levels of Topsoil nutrients have been made, the two common types of Topsoil are Bulk and Bagged Topsoil. The following table illustrates major differences between the two, alternatively the British Standard relates to other working values, This is for a multipurpose grade and certain levels can alter with regard to soil pH. These uses are limited to specific scenarios and acceptance should be on a case by case basis for construction projects. Topsoil is the resource for plants to grow and crops to thrive. The Carbon provides energy and Nitrogen is a builder and plants require them in a range of ratios to enable suitable growth. An optimum figure for Topsoil in the UK is a ratio of less than 20,1 and this ensures that the soil has a suitable energy reserve as well as tissue building material to enable the plants to thrive. A sawdust typically has a base and this a high C, N ratio while an Alfalfa Hay has a low carbonaceous content
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Aesthetics
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Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgements of sentiment. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as critical reflection on art, in modern English, the term aesthetic can also refer to a set of principles underlying the works of a particular art movement or theory, one speaks, for example, of the Cubist aesthetic. The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός, which in turn was derived from αἰσθάνομαι, for some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others insist that there is a significant distinction between these closely related fields. In practice, aesthetic judgement refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object, philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about art works, but has also to give a definition of what art is. Art is an entity for philosophy, because art deals with the senses. Hence, there are two different conceptions of art in aesthetics, art as knowledge or art as action, any aesthetic doctrines that guided the production and interpretation of prehistoric art are mostly unknown. Western aesthetics usually refers to Greek philosophers as the earliest source of aesthetic considerations. Plato believed in beauty as a form in which beautiful objects partake and he felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the elements of beauty were order, symmetry. From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a revolution into what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasized beauty as the key component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at absolute beauty. For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the experiences, a younger sister of logic. For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but similar human truth, however, beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. For Friedrich Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature, for Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the organon of philosophy concerning the relation between man and nature. So aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art, Friedrich von Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel also gave lectures on aesthetics as philosophy of art after 1800. For Hegel, all culture is a matter of absolute spirit coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering, the British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps
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Wildlife
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Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems, humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. Some animals, however, have adapted to suburban environments and this includes such animals as domesticated cats, dogs, mice, and gerbils. The global wildlife population has decreased by 52 percent between 1970 and 2014, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund, anthropologists believe that the Stone Age people and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plants and animals, for their food. In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by human hunters. Today, hunting, fishing, and gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in parts of the world. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are seen as a sport or recreation. Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bush meat, in November 2008, almost 900 plucked and oven-ready owls and other protected wildlife species were confiscated by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Malaysia, according to TRAFFIC. The animals were believed to be bound for China, to be sold in wild meat restaurants, most are listed in CITES which prohibits or restricts such trade.60. Many Amazon species, including peccaries, agoutis, turtles, turtle eggs, anacondas, armadillos, others in these informal markets, such as monkeys and parrots, are destined for the pet trade, often smuggled into the United States. Still other Amazon species are popular ingredients in traditional medicines sold in local markets, the medicinal value of animal parts is based largely on superstition. Many animal species have spiritual significance in different cultures around the world, for example, eagles, hawks and their feathers have great cultural and spiritual value to Native Americans as religious objects. In Hinduism the cow is regarded sacred, muslims conduct sacrifices on Eid-ul-Adha to commemorate the sacrificial spirit of Ibrahim in love of God. Camels, sheep, goats, and cows may be offered as sacrifice during the three days of Eid, many nations have established their tourism sector around their natural wildlife. South Africa has, for example, many opportunities for tourists to see the wildlife in its national parks. In South India the Periar Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park and Mudamalai Wildlife Sanctuary are situated around, India is home to many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries showing the diversity of its wildlife, much of its unique fauna, and excels in the range. This subsection focuses on forms of wildlife destruction. Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of man since our exodus from Africa 130,000 –70,000 years ago
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Arid Forest Research Institute
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Arid Forest Research Institute is a research institute situated in Jodhpur in Rajasthan. It operates under the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Arid Forest Research Institute has been established since 1988 to cater the forestry research needs of the arid and semi-arid region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the institute has an additional campus at Plot No.729 adjoining CAZRI. The institute also has three areas and a model nursery within the vicinity of the main campus. The institute is headed by the Director supported by a Group Coordinator and Coordinator, capacity Building and research training Nursery, seed and VAM technologies for arid zone tree species. Forest mensuration and growth & yield modeling in plantations, planting stock improvement, biotechnology and plant tissue culture. Rain water harvesting and soil-moisture conservation, IT Cell, Library, Model Nursery, GIS Lab, Community centre, Dispensary. Forestry research for conservation of biodiversity and enhancement of bio-productivity in Rajasthan, Gujarat, to develop techniques for rainwater harvesting in arid areas. To develop technology for afforestation on stress sites, eco-stabilisation of desert areas with emphasis on sand dune fixation. To develop techniques for production of high-quality planting material, provenance trial of important arid zone species. Research on non-wood forest products of the arid zone, tree improvement through tissue culture & genetic engineering
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Conservation biology
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It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management. The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology, wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas E. Lovejoy, and Jared M. Diamond. The meeting was prompted by the concern over deforestation, disappearing species. Conservation biology and the concept of biological diversity emerged together, helping crystallize the modern era of conservation science, the inherent multidisciplinary basis for conservation biology has led to new subdisciplines including conservation social science, conservation behavior and conservation physiology. It stimulated further development of genetics which Otto Frankel had originated first but is now often considered a subdiscipline as well. The rapid decline of established biological systems around the means that conservation biology is often referred to as a Discipline with a deadline. Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the ecology of rare or endangered species. Conservation biologists work in the field and office, in government, universities, non-profit organizations, the topics of their research are diverse, because this is an interdisciplinary network with professional alliances in the biological as well as social sciences. Those dedicated to the cause and profession advocate for a response to the current biodiversity crisis based on morals, ethics. Conscious efforts to conserve and protect global biodiversity are a recent phenomenon, natural resource conservation, however, has a history that extends prior to the age of conservation. Resource ethics grew out of necessity through direct relations with nature and this social dilemma with respect to natural resource management is often called the Tragedy of the Commons. From this principle, conservation biologists can trace communal resource based ethics throughout cultures as a solution to communal resource conflict. For example, the Alaskan Tlingit peoples and the Haida of the Pacific Northwest had resource boundaries, rules and these rules were guided by clan elders who knew lifelong details of each river and stream they managed. There are numerous examples in history where cultures have followed rules, rituals, Conservation ethics are also found in early religious and philosophical writings. There are examples in the Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Islamic, in the bible, through Moses, God commanded to let the land rest from cultivation every seventh year. Before the 18th century, however, much of European culture considered it a view to admire nature. Wilderness was denigrated while agricultural development was praised, however, as early as AD680 a wildlife sanctuary was founded on the Farne Islands by St Cuthbert in response to his religious beliefs. Natural history was a preoccupation in the 18th century, with grand expeditions
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Conservation (ethic)
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Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the world, its fisheries, habitats. Secondary focus is on conservation, including non-renewable resources such as metals, minerals and fossil fuels, and energy conservation. Those who follow the conservation ethic and, especially, those who advocate or work toward conservation goals are termed conservationists, the terms conservation and preservation are frequently conflated outside of the academic, scientific, and professional literatures. Both terms involve a degree of protection, but how that is protection is carried out is the key difference, Conservation is generally associated with the protection of natural resources, while preservation is associated with the protection of buildings, objects, and landscapes. Put simply, conservation seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks protection of nature from use, during the environmental movement of the early 20th century, two opposing factions emerged, conservationists and preservationists. More Utilitarian schools of conservation seek a proper valuation of local and global impacts of human activity upon nature in their effect upon human well being, now and to posterity. How such values are assessed and exchanged among people determines the social, political and this is a view common in the modern environmental movement. These movements have diverged but they have deep and common roots in the conservation movement, in the United States of America, the year 1864 saw the publication of two books which laid the foundation for Romantic and Utilitarian conservation traditions in America. The posthumous publication of Henry David Thoreaus Walden established the grandeur of unspoiled nature as a citadel to nourish the spirit of man, in common usage, the term refers to the activity of systematically protecting natural resources such as forests, including biological diversity. Carl F. Jordan defines the term as, biological conservation as being a philosophy of managing the environment in a manner that does not despoil, exhaust or extinguish. While this usage is not new, the idea of conservation has been applied to the principles of ecology, biogeography, anthropology, economy. The term conservation itself may cover the concepts such as diversity, genetic diversity. These are often summarized as the priority to respect diversity, especially by Greens, much recent movement in conservation can be considered a resistance to commercialism and globalization. Slow food is a consequence of rejecting these as moral priorities, distinct trends exist regarding conservation development. Thus countries like Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, etc, — a long time before there were national parks and national nature reserves. Protected areas in developing countries, where probably as many as 70–80 percent of the species of the live, still enjoy very little effective management. The Adopt A Ranger Foundation has calculated that worldwide about 140,000 rangers are needed for the areas in developing
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Conservation movement
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The early conservation movement included fisheries and wildlife management, water, soil conservation and sustainable forestry. Some say the movement is part of the broader and more far-reaching environmental movement. Chiefly in the United States, conservation is seen as differing from environmentalism in that it aims to preserve natural resources expressly for their sustainable use by humans. The conservation movement can be traced back to John Evelyns work Sylva, published as a book two years later, it was one of the most highly influential texts on forestry ever published. The field developed during the 18th century, especially in Prussia and these methods were first applied rigorously in British India from the early-19th century. This early ecological idea was in order to preserve the growth of teak trees. The first forestry officer was appointed in 1806 to regulate and preserve the trees necessary for shipbuilding and this promising start received a setback in the 1820s and 30s, when laissez-faire economics and complaints from private landowners brought these early conservation attempts to an end. Conservation was revived in the century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. Edward Percy Stebbing warned of desertification of India and this was the first case of state management of forests in the world. These local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated, in 1850, the British Association in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of Dr. Hugh Cleghorn a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement. He had become interested in forest conservation in Mysore in 1847, in the same year, Cleghorn organised the Madras Forest Department and in 1860 the Department banned the use shifting cultivation. Cleghorns 1861 manual, The forests and gardens of South India, in 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the Punjab. Sir Dietrich Brandis, a German forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burmas teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals and he introduced the taungya system, in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India and he formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The Imperial Forest School at Dehradun was founded by him, germans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis, Berthold Ribbentrop and Sir William P. D, schlich brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal Indian Forester in 1874, and he authored the five-volume Manual of Forestry on silviculture, forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students
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Close to nature forestry
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Close to nature forestry is a theory and practice that takes the forest as an ecosystem and manages it as such. It is based оn reduced human intervention, that should be directed to accelerate the processes that nature would do by itself more slowly and it aims at overcoming the divorce between forestalist and ecologist management systems of forest. As an important consequence, it concludes that if applied, it would render the segregation of forest lands into productive. Europe The Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Naturgemässe Waldwirtschaft was established in Germany in 1950, in recent years this association has increased a lot its membership. Another term often used to describe a close to nature approach to forest management, especially in Britain, because of a 1948 forest law, Slovenia has many forests managed according to the principles of close to nature forestry. In 1989 ANW promoted a meeting at Robanov Kot, in the Julian Alps, at present the organization headquarters are in the French region of Alsace. North America In the United States professor Thom McEvoy has published the book Positive Impact Forestry, as a more immediate precursor he makes reference to American forester and ecologist Aldo Leopold. The Ecoforestry Institute consists on educational, non profit and non governmental organizations operating in US and they propose a forestry based on ecological principles, very similar to those of Pro Silva. The sought after solution is not to segregate the territory into areas devoted to forestry or ecology. The management has to obtain healthy and stable forest systems that produce wood with a minimum human intervention, the products to obtain, other than wood, are fauna habitats, biodiversity, recreational, aesthetics, and water management. The human action has the object of accelerating natural processes, ProSilva recommends to use the uneven-aged forest system, in which the ages, and consequently sizes, of trees in a forest are different. It has the advantage to offer a stable structure regarding natural disasters and plagues and it provides a better soil protection, since there is a permanent tree cover. The Ecoforestry Institute, similarly to Pro Silva, recommends multi-aged, proposed thinning frequency is about ten years, and intensity low, in order to limit the ingress of excessive light, that could promote too much understory, or the growing of epicormic shoots. It has to be directed to favor the trees that show good prospect for the future, the operations have to be done in a way that will avoid soil compaction or damage to the trees that will remain standing. When foresters plant trees, they may use either native or introduced species and it may be that there is information available about the behavior of this species in the habitat, or the forester is ready to make a trial. From the ecological point of view, the species is considered as a threat. The introduced species risks being invasive, invasives displace local species, resulting in a reduction of biodiversity, a condition also to be expected if great extensions are forested using introduced species. Professor McEvoy is very clear and strict, introduced species can not be used at all working in a close to nature forestry system
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Ecology
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Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment. It is a field that includes biology, geography. Ecology includes the study of interactions that organisms have with other, other organisms. Ecosystems are composed of dynamically interacting parts including organisms, the communities make up. Ecosystem processes, such as production, pedogenesis, nutrient cycling. These processes are sustained by organisms with specific life history traits, biodiversity, which refers to the varieties of species, genes, and ecosystems, enhances certain ecosystem services. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history and it is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics, and ethology. An important focus for ecologists is to improve the understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function, Ecology is a human science as well. For example, the Circles of Sustainability approach treats ecology as more than the environment out there and it is not treated as separate from humans. Organisms and resources compose ecosystems which, in turn, maintain biophysical feedback mechanisms that moderate processes acting on living and non-living components of the planet, the word ecology was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel. Ecological thought is derivative of established currents in philosophy, particularly from ethics and politics, ancient Greek philosophers such as Hippocrates and Aristotle laid the foundations of ecology in their studies on natural history. Modern ecology became a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Evolutionary concepts relating to adaptation and natural selection became the cornerstones of modern ecological theory, the scope of ecology contains a wide array of interacting levels of organization spanning micro-level to a planetary scale phenomena. Ecosystems, for example, contain abiotic resources and interacting life forms, an ecosystems area can vary greatly, from tiny to vast. A single tree is of consequence to the classification of a forest ecosystem. Several generations of a population can exist over the lifespan of a single leaf. Each of those aphids, in turn, support diverse bacterial communities, biodiversity describes the diversity of life from genes to ecosystems and spans every level of biological organization. The term has several interpretations, and there are ways to index, measure, characterize
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Environmental protection
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Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual, organisation controlled or governmental levels, for the benefit of both the environment and humans. Due to the pressures of over consumption, population and technology and this has been recognized, and governments have begun placing restraints on activities that cause environmental degradation. Since the 1960s, activity of environmental movements has created awareness of the environmental issues. There is no agreement on the extent of the impact of human activity and even scientific dishonesty occurs. For instance, in India, Environment Improvement Trust has been working for environment & forest protection since 1998, a group of Green Volunteers get a goal of Green India Clean India concept. CA Gajendra Kumar Jain an Chartered Accountant is founder of Environment Improvement Trust in Sojat city a small village of State of Rajasthan in India, in developing countries, such as throughout Latin America, these agreements are more commonly used to remedy significant levels of non-compliance with mandatory regulation. The challenges that exist with these agreements lie in establishing baseline data, targets, due to the difficulties inherent in evaluating effectiveness, their use is often questioned and, indeed, the whole environment may well be adversely affected as a result. The key advantage of their use in developing countries is that their use helps to build environmental management capacity and this approach ideally supports a better exchange of information, development of conflict-resolution strategies and improved regional conservation. Many of the resources are especially vulnerable because they are influenced by human impacts across many countries. As a result of this, many attempts are made by countries to develop agreements that are signed by multiple governments to prevent damage or manage the impacts of human activity on natural resources. This can include agreements that impact factors such as climate, oceans, rivers and these agreements have a long history with some multinational agreements being in place from as early as 1910 in Europe, America and Africa. Some of the most well-known international agreements include the Kyoto Protocol, discussion concerning environmental protection often focuses on the role of government, legislation, and law enforcement. However, in its broadest sense, environmental protection may be seen to be the responsibility of all the people, decisions that impact the environment will ideally involve a broad range of stakeholders including industry, indigenous groups, environmental group and community representatives. Gradually, environmental decision-making processes are evolving to reflect this broad base of stakeholders and are becoming more collaborative in many countries, many constitutions acknowledge the fundamental right to environmental protection and many international treaties acknowledge the right to live in a healthy environment. Also, many countries have organizations and agencies devoted to environmental protection, there are international environmental protection organizations, such as the United Nations Environment Programme. Tanzania is recognised as having some of the greatest biodiversity of any African country, almost 40% of the land has been established into a network of protected areas, including several national parks. In year 1948, Serengeti was officially established as the first national park for wild cats in East Africa, in 1998 Environment Improvement Trust start working for environment & forest protection in India from a small city Sojat. Founder of Environment Improvement Trust is CA Gajendra Kumar Jain working with volunteers, division of the biosphere is the main government body that oversees protection
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Habitat conservation
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It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology. For much of history, nature had been seen as a resource, one that could be controlled by the government and used for personal. The idea was that only existed to feed animals and animals only existed to feed humans. The land itself had limited value only extending to the resources it could provide such as minerals, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries social views started to change and scientific conservation principles were first practically applied to the forests of British India. This was the first case of conservation management of forests in the world. Rather than focusing on the economic or material benefits associated with nature, humans began to appreciate the value of nature itself, however, land development from anthropogenic economic growth often causes a decline in the ecological integrity of nearby natural habitat. For instance, this was an issue in the rocky mountains of the USA. However, there is economic value in conserving natural habitats. Financial profit can be made from tourist revenue, particularly in the tropics where species diversity is high, the cost of repairing damaged ecosystems is considered to be much higher than the cost of conserving natural ecosystems. Measuring the worth of conserving different habitat areas is often criticized as being too utilitarian from a point of view. Habitat conservation is important in maintaining biodiversity, a part of global food security. There is evidence to support a trend of accelerating erosion of the resources of agricultural plants. An increase in similarity of agricultural plants and animals means an increased risk of food loss from major epidemics. Wild species of plants have been found to be more resistant to disease. A combination of seed banking and habitat conservation has been proposed to plant diversity for food security purposes. Events leading to habitat loss include climate change, catastrophic events such as volcanic explosions. Natural climate change, events have previously been the cause of many widespread, for example, some of the mass extinction events generally referred to as the Big Five have coincided with large scale such as the Earth entering an ice age, or alternate warming events. Other events in the big five also have their roots in natural causes, such as volcanic explosions and meteor collisions
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Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
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The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education is an autonomous organisation or governmental agency under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Headquartered in Dehradun, its functions are to conduct research, transfer the technologies developed to the states of India and other user agencies. The council has 9 research institutes and 4 advanced centres to cater to the needs of different bio-geographical regions. These are located at Dehradun, Shimla, Ranchi, Jorhat, Jabalpur, Jodhpur, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Allahabad, Chhindwara, Aizawl, Hyderabad, ICFRE is the largest organisation responsible for forestry research in India. ICFRE was created in 1986, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, to direct and manage research, ICFRE is headed by a Director General with headquarters at Dehradun. ICFRE became a council under the Ministry in 1991. The mandate of the ICFRE is to organise, direct and manage research and education in the sector, including in cooperation with FORTIP, UNDP. ICFRE established a National Bureau of Forest Genetic Resources Conservation, protection, regeneration, rehabilitation, revegetation of barren, waste, marginal and mined lands. Enhancing productivity of wood and non-wood forest produce per unit of area per unit time by application of scientific, Research on improved utilisation, recovery and processing of forest produce for value addition and employment generation. Ecological rehabilitation of all ecosystems, such as mountains, mangroves. Socio-economic and policy research for developing strategies towards attracting peoples participation in forest management, official website Ministry of Environment and Forests India. gov. in/moef National Portal of India dehradun. nic. in Indian Institute of Forest Management
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Outline of forestry
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Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. It is based оn reduced human intervention, that should be directed to accelerate the processes that nature would do by itself more slowly. It is a relationship of interdependence between humans and the systems in which the amount of biomass available from the forest increases with the health of its natural systems. Plantation forestry – industrial plantations are established to produce a volume of wood in a short period of time. Some plantations are managed by state authorities and others by paper. Donkey puncher was the operator of a steam donkey, a machine used in logging in the 19th and 20th centuries. Silviculture also focuses on making sure that the treatment of forest stands are used to preserve, an estimate of the value and possible uses of timber is an important part of the broader information required to sustain ecosystems. Diameter at breast height – measurement of a trees diameter standardized at 1, the term is sometimes used in a narrow sense to mean moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. However, in usage, the term may be used to indicate a range of forestry or silviculture activities. Wood is by far the dominant forest product, used for fuel, structural materials in the construction of buildings, or as a raw material, all non-wood products derived from forest resources are called non-timber forest products. H. R.11973 Transfer Act of 1905 - An Act Providing for the transfer of forest reserves from the Department of Interior to the Department of Agriculture
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Arbor Day
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Arbor Day is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant and care for trees. Today, many countries such an holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate, the Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world organized by its mayor in 1594. The place remains as Alameda de los Remedios and it is planted with lime. A humble granite marker and a bronze plate recall the event, the festival began on Carnival Tuesday with the ringing of two bells of the church, and the Middle and the Big. Tree plantations continued by Arroyada and Fuente de la Mora, afterwards, there was a feast, and did not miss the dance. The party and plantations lasted three days and he drafted a manifesto in defence of the trees that was sent to surrounding towns to spread the love and respect for nature, and also he advised to make tree plantations in their localities. The first American Arbor Day was originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on April 10,1872, an estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska. Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut was responsible for globalizing it when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered his Arbor Day, in that same year, the American Forestry Association made Northrop the Chairman of the committee to campaign for Arbor Day nationwide. He also brought his enthusiasm for Arbor Day to Australia, Canada, McCreight urged President Roosevelt to make a public statement to school children about trees and the destruction of American forests. On April 15,1907, Roosevelt issued an Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States about the importance of trees, pinchot wrote McCreight, we shall all be indebted to you for having made the suggestion. National Schools Tree Day is held on the last Friday of July for schools, many states have Arbor Day although only Victoria has Arbor Week, which was suggested by Premier Dick Hamer in the 1980s. Arbor Day has been observed in Australia since 20 June 1889, international Day of Treeplanting is celebrated in Flanders on or around 21 March as a theme-day/educational-day/observance, not as public holidays. Tree planting is sometimes combined with awareness campaigns of the fight against cancer, the Arbor Day is celebrated on September 21. However, schools nationwide celebrate this day with environment-related activities, namely tree planting, Arbour Day is celebrated on November 22. It is sponsored by the National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands, activities include an annual national Arbour Day Poetry Competition and tree planting ceremonies throughout the territory. Cambodia celebrates Arbor Day on July 9 with a planting ceremony attended by the king. Founded by Sir George W. Ross, later the Premier of Ontario and this predates the claimed founding of the day by Don Clark of Schomberg, Ontario for his wife Margret Clark in 1906
36.
Agroforestry
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Agroforestry or agro-sylviculture is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. It combines shrubs and trees in agricultural and forestry technologies to more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, ecologically sound. The theoretical base for agroforestry comes from ecology, via agroecology, from this perspective, agroforestry is one of the three principal land-use sciences. The other two are agriculture and forestry, Agroforestry has a lot in common with intercropping. Beyond these, there are specific to agroforestry. Agroforestry systems can be advantageous over conventional agricultural, and forest production methods and they can offer increased productivity, economic benefits, and more diversity in the ecological goods and services provided. Biodiversity in agroforestry systems is typically higher than in agricultural systems. With two or more interacting plant species in a land area, it creates a more complex habitat that can support a wider variety of birds, insects. Agroforestry was one of the most widely adopted adaptation strategies in the study, along with the use of improved crop varieties, Agroforestry represents a wide diversity in application and in practice. One listing includes over 50 distinct uses, the 50 or so applications can be roughly classified under a few broad headings. There are visual similarities between practices in different categories and this is expected as categorization is based around the problems addressed and the overall economic constraints and objectives. Parklands are visually defined by the presence of trees scattered over a large agricultural plot or pasture. The trees are usually of a species with clear regional favorites. Research with Faidherbia albida in Zambia showed that mature trees can sustain maize yields of 4.1 tonnes per hectare compared to 1.3 tonnes per hectare without these trees. Unlike other trees, Faidherbia sheds its leaves during the rainy crop growing season so it does not compete with the crop for light, nutrients. The leaves then regrow during the dry season and provide land cover, with shade applications, crops are purposely raised under tree canopies and within the resulting shady environment. For most uses, the crops are shade tolerant or the overstory trees have fairly open canopies. A conspicuous example is shade-grown coffee and this practice reduces weeding costs and improves the quality and taste of the coffee
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Dehesa
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Dehesa is a multifunctional agro-sylvo-pastoral system and cultural landscape of southern and central Spain and southern Portugal, where it is known as montado. Dehesas may be private or communal property, used primarily for grazing, they produce a variety of products including non-timber forest products such as wild game, mushrooms, honey, cork, and firewood. It is also used as habitat for the Spanish fighting bull. The tree component is oaks, usually holm and cork, other oaks, including melojo and quejigo, may be used to form dehesa, the species depending on geographical location and elevation. Dehesa is a system that provides not only a variety of foods, but also wildlife habitat for endangered species such as the Iberian lynx. Oaks are protected and pruned to produce acorns, which the famous black Iberian pigs feed on in the fall during the montanera. Ham produced from Iberian pigs fattened with acorns and air-dried at high elevations is known as Jamón ibérico, there is debate about the origins and maintenance of the dehesa, and whether or not the oaks can reproduce adequately under the grazing densities now forced upon the dehesa or montado. Goats, cattle, and sheep graze in dehesa. In a typical dehesa, oaks are managed to persist for about 250 years, if cork oaks are present, the cork is harvested about every 9 to 12 years, depending on the productivity of the site. The understory is usually cleared every 7 to 10 years, to prevent the takeover of the woodland by shrubs of the rose family, often referred to as jara. Oaks are spaced to maximize light for the grasses in the understory, water use in the soils, periodic hunts in the dehesa are known as the monteria. Groups attend a hunt at an estate, and wait at hunting spots for game to be driven to them with dogs. They usually pay well for the privilege, and hunt wild boar, the dehesa system has great economic and social importance on the Iberian peninsula because of both the large amount of land involved and its importance in maintaining rural population levels. The major source of income for dehesa owners is usually cork, high end ibérico pigs and sale of hunting rights also represent significant income sources. Cabañeros National Park List of types of formally designated forests Satoyama Silvopasture Wood pasture Fra, pp. 149–151 in Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes, eds. Ichikawa, K. Wong, B. Y. L. and Mulongoy, montreal, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Huntsinger, Lynn, Adriana Sulak, Lauren Gwin, and Tobias Plieninger, oak woodland ranchers in California and Spain, Conservation and diversification. In Advances in Geoecology, ed. S. F. A. Schnabel, joffre, R, Rambal, S, Ratte, JP
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Bamboo
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The bamboos /bæmˈbuː/ are evergreen perennial flowering plants in the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent, the absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering. Bamboos include some of the plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm within a 24-hour period, giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are of economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete. The word bamboo comes from the Kannada term bambu, which was introduced to English through Indonesian, the subfamily in its current sense belongs to the BOP clade of grasses, where it is sister to the Pooideae. The woody bamboos do not form a group, instead. Altogether, more than 1,400 species are placed in 115 genera, most bamboo are native to warm and moist tropical and warm temperate climates. However, many species are found in climates, from hot tropical regions to cool mountainous regions. In the Asia-Pacific region they occur across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin south to Northern Australia, and west to India, China, Japan, Korea, India, and Australia, all have several endemic populations. They also occur in numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, confined to tropical areas, from southern Senegal in the north to southern Mozambique. Bamboo is also native through Central America and Mexico, northward into the Southeastern United States, canada and continental Europe is not known to have any native species of bamboo. Recently, some attempts have been made to grow bamboo on a basis in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa. In the United States, several companies are growing, harvesting, bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates up to 91 cm in 24 hours. Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the late Cretaceous period, some of the largest timber bamboo can grow over 30 m tall, and be as large as 25–30 cm in diameter. However, the range for mature bamboo is species-dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. A typical height range that would cover many of the common bamboos grown in the United States is 4. 6–12 m, depending on species
39.
Community forestry
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It involves the participation and collaboration of various stakeholders including community, government and non-government organisations. The level of involvement of each of groups is dependent on the specific community forest project, the management system in use. It gained prominence in the mid-1970s and examples of community forestry can now be seen in countries including Nepal, Indonesia, Korea, Brazil, India. It has been considered one of the most promising options of combining forest conservation with development and community empowerment. Community forestry is defined by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations as any situation that intimately involves local people in forestry activity. Community forestry is deepened by SPERI via the concept of spirit forest where is source and space for maintaining livelihood identity, the second principal line of action is the implementation of pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility of the community forestry framework. In a 2016 review of community-based forestry, FAO estimated that almost one-third of the worlds forest area is some form of community-based management. Community forestry first came to prominence in the mid-1970s and has continued to evolve over the last few decades in a number of countries. There is a variety of stakeholders involved when considering community forestry. Participation from some of the levels of community, government and non-government organisations are essential in the projects success. While specific stakeholders vary between different community forestry projects the primary groups are as follows, Table 1. Common stakeholders involved with community forestry, in this situation, stakeholders came to conclusion to handover forest resources to local communities for conserving, managing and utilization by their own decision. Despite significant development, continued improvement in the collaboration between local governments and forest communities seems to be a key point for better community forest management, a wide range of futures scenarios have been put up to help the environmental decision process. A study conducted in the Brazilian Amazon determined that there are a number of challenges that must be faced when developing a management strategy for community forestry. These challenges are outlined in Table 2 and Figure 1 shows the impact each management challenge has on other obstacles, each of the challenges outlined in Table 1 must be addressed in order for a self-sustaining community forestry management program to be established. Challenges faced by stakeholders managing forests For a conservation program within a Community forest to succeed, governments with interest in forest conservation introduce statewide policies and legislations which have historically failed to deliver the desired outcomes such as in China, Nepal and Peru. Moreover, no single stakeholder by itself can ensure the success of such a program, though there is little research on the role of community forestry to wildlife conservation, some empirical studies suggests that it help in wildlife conservation. It is done by decreasing the human disturbance, increasing regeneration of forest, common land in Nepal is owned by the state which often does not have the capacity to monitor and manage the area
40.
Energy forestry
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Energy forestry is a form of forestry in which a fast-growing species of tree or woody shrub is grown specifically to provide biomass or biofuel for heating or power generation. Short rotation forestry are crops of Alder, Ash, Birch, Eucalyptus, Poplar, in comparison, burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric carbon unsustainably, by using carbon that was added to the earths carbon sink millions of years ago. This is a contributor to climate change. According to the FAO, compared to other crops, wood is among the most efficient sources of bioenergy in terms of quantity of energy released by unit of carbon emitted. Yields of some varieties can be as high as 12 oven dry tonnes every year, however, commercial experience on plantations in Scandinavia have shown lower yield rates. These crops can also be used in bank stabilisation and phytoremediation, in fact, experiments in Sweden with willow plantations have proved to have many beneficial effects on the soil and water quality when compared to conventional agricultural crops. Growing trees are relatively water intensive, the system of energy forestry has faced criticism over food vs. fuel, whereby it has become financially profitable to replace food crops with energy crops
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Mycoforestry
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Mycoforestry is an ecological forest management system implemented to enhance forest ecosystems and plant communities through the introduction of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi. Mycoforestry is considered a type of permaculture and can be implemented as a component of an agroforestry system. Mycoforestry can enhance the yields of crops and produce edible mushrooms. Mycoforestry is an alternative to the practice of clearcutting, which removes dead wood from forests, thereby diminishing nutrient availability, according to Paul Stamets, the first principle for the creation of a mycoforestry system is to utilize native fungal species. Implementing a mycoforestry system provides the potential of improving restoration efforts, however to utilize native fungal flora, first the relationships between present fungal species and growth substrate, and habitat need to be studied. This method keeps and will promote the functioning of the native ecosystem and it is assumed in a functioning forest ecosystem an underground mycelial network persists even if no fruiting bodies are visible. A period of disappearance of mushrooms from an area should not cause alarm, in order to trigger the formation of fruiting bodies, many fungal species require specific environmental conditions. Most species of fungi do not fruit year round, mycoforestry is an emergent scientific field and practice. Until broadly standardized protocols are created and perfected, the collection of current and historical ecological site conditions will improve the success of the project. Therefore, a survey of fungal relations at the site under both prime and poor conditions is beneficial to implementation of a mycoforestry system, the second principle is to promote saprotrophic fungi in the environment. Saprophytic fungi are crucial to mycoforestry systems because these are the primary composers breaking down wood and this can be accomplished through inoculation of wood debris at site. Spored oils can be used in chainsaws when problematic or invasive hardwood requires felling and this method is a simple means to inoculate a tree. Additionally plug spawn can be implemented and injected into wood mass again prompting colonization by the selected fungus, eventually repeated colonization efforts should not be necessary as many fungal life forms are strong and will spread and sustain in the soil on their own. In management of the system it is important that dead wood be in contact with the ground. This allows fungus to reach up from the soil and decompose fallen wood releasing nutrients at a quicker rate then if the wood is left standing. Additionally it is important to leave dead wood on site for decomposition back into the soil and this philosophy is similarly based to the fact that clear cutting of a forest reduces soil nutrients and thickness. The third principal is to implement species known to plant species. Utilizing mushroom species that attract insects could be a source of fish food
