The plains vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus) is a remarkable rodent of the Neotropic given several peculiar aspects of its biology, some of them quite unique among rodents or even among mammals. This book gathers specialists studying plains vizcachas from very different approaches, including paleontology, systematics, morphology, physiology, development and conservation. It is divided in two Parts, 1) Evolutionary History, and 2) Morphology, Development and Physiology. It will surely be a required reading for any researcher working with caviomorph rodents, mastozoology of the Neotropics or internal anatomy and physiology of mammals.

The system of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is one of the great river systems of southwestern Asia. It comprises the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which follow roughly parallel courses through the heart of the Middle East. The lower portion of the region that they run through is known as Mesopotamia, was one of the cradles of civilisation.

The mammal fauna of the Brazilian Amazon is one of the most diverse on Earth with over 450 known species. Bringing together more than 70 of the world’s top experts on Amazonian mammals, this book unites, for the first time, up-to-date data on the current state of knowledge on the ecology of all groups of non-rodent mammals in the Brazilian Amazon, analyses the effectiveness of current conservation programmes and identifies research and conservation priorities for the future.

This book focuses on eco-evaluation system monitoring and sensing, carbon-water modeling, mapping, and disaster prediction. It is the 3rd book on tropical peatland issues, following 1st "Tropical Peatland Ecosystem" and 2nd "Tropical Peatland Eco-management" publications. Tropical peatland is also a wetland, mangrove, and rainforest. With this nature, two major key elements of tropical peatland are water and forest. This book introduces the relationship and interaction among water, oxygen, and nutrients as well as aspects of the forest as the driving force of carbon stock and the carbon cycle. Eco-evaluation system is key to conserving, managing, and restoring tropical peatlands, however comprehensive system for Eco-evaluation in the Tropics is not yet established. This book reviews and proposes Eco-evaluation methods in the Tropics Ecosystem, focusing mainly on the peatland ecosystem and others, covering Social Capital such as Credit, Bonds, National Accounting, etc.

This book about the sustainability of marine and terrestrial ecosystems in southern Africa provides a synthesis of the research program Science Partnerships for the Adaptation to Complex Earth System Processes (SPACES II, 2018-2022). It addresses the scientific, social, and economic issues related to climate change, its potential impacts on the various ecosystems, adaptations, and management interventions for enhancing systems resilience in Southern Africa.

The system of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is one of the great river systems of southwestern Asia. It comprises the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which follow roughly parallel courses through the heart of the Middle East. The lower portion of the region that they run through is known as Mesopotamia, was one of the cradles of civilisation.

This book applies a social ecological systems (SES) lens to conservation-based development in Patagonia, bringing together authors with historical, contemporary, and future-oriented perspectives in order to increase understanding of the social and environmental implications of nature-based tourism and other forms of conservation-based territorial development. By focusing on Patagonia (as a region) and its various forms of conservation-based development, this book contributes one of the first collections of South American based lessons and will be valuable to researchers and practitioners, both locally and around the world, seeking to better understand complex interconnections between social and ecological environments, and pursue a similar path to resilience and sustainability.

Mangrove ecosystems are being increasingly threatened by human activities. Their biotic productivity supplies food and other resources to the human populations that inhabit or make use of them. This volume highlights the results of a ten-year German / Brazilian research project, called MADAM, in one of the largest continuous mangrove areas of the world, located in northern Brazil. Based on the analysis of the ecosystem dynamics, management strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of mangroves are presented and discussed. Beyond the scientific results, this book also provides guidelines for the development of international cooperation projects.

This book is a compilation of case studies that provide useful knowledge and lessons that derive from on-the-ground activities and contribute to policy recommendations, focusing on the relevance of social-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) to ecosystem restoration. Building on the concept of SEPLS, the Satoyama Initiative promotes landscape approaches as integrative area-based strategies to bring together diverse stakeholders aiming to balance multiple objectives, including conservation and development, for the benefit of biodiversity and human well-being. Many of the SEPLS case studies from the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) offer rich evidence to help guide restoration efforts while advancing relevant knowledge and practices. The book highlights how the efforts in managing SEPLS can contribute to ecosystem restoration and sustainable development, looking at the strategies and approaches by which multiple stakeholders express, negotiate, and embrace their plural value perspectives of nature to restore ecosystems within a landscape or seascape. It begins with an introductory chapter followed by twelve case studies and a synthesis clarifying the relevance of the case study findings to policy and academic discussions. This book will be of interest to scholars, policymakers and professionals in the field related to sustainable development, especially on SDGs 15 and 17.

Armenia is a small landlocked mountainous country located in the Southern Caucasus. It is a typical mountainous country, having its lowest point of 375m above sea level and culminating at 4095m with an average altitude of 1850m, where the landscapes and ecosystems form a complex multi-functional system. In general, the ecosystems of Armenia are characterized by a number of peculiarities, which all together contribute to formation of rich and unique biodiversity. On the small territory of Armenia (less than 30 thousand km2) there are about 3800 species of vascular plants (about a half of the whole Caucasian flora), 428 species of soil and water algae, 399 species of mosses, 4207 species of fungi, 464 species of lichens, 549 species of vertebrates and about 17200 species of invertebrates. The biodiversity of Armenia is notable for high endemism: about 500 species of fauna (about 3% of the fauna) and 147 species of flora (3.8% of total flora) are considered endemics. Such a high level of endemism is typical only for some of the large islands. Due to the huge variety of climates (from dry subtropics to cold alpine) and soil conditions all the main Caucasian ecosystems (besides humid subtropics) are represented in Armenia – deserts and semi-deserts, steppes, meadow-steppes, forests and open woodlands, sub-alpine and alpine vegetation as well as intrazonal ecosystems. Therefore Armenia is a biodiversity hotspot both within the Caucasian ecoregion and around the globe. This book compiles, summarizes and analyzes data on flora, fauna and mycobiota of Armenia, with a special focus on the impact of forecasted climate change on biodiversity and ecosystems of the region.

This fifth volume in the Ecology and Ethics series integrates key concepts of the previous four volumes by addressing biocultural conservation through novel educational methods. In Field Environmental Philosophy (FEP), the authors undertake two complementary tasks. First, they address a problematic facet of education as an indirect driver of a global change and biocultural homogenization. Second, they contribute to solve the former problems by introducing the FEP method as well as other educational approaches from around the world that value and foster conservation of biological and cultural diversity. A particular emphasis is therefore on the integration of sciences, arts, humanities, and ethics into educational practices that involve the participation of local communities with their diverse forms of ecological knowledge and practices.

This edited volume scrutinizes how pre-Columbian human societies have shaped and transformed lowland South America – contributing to biological and landscape diversity. This geographic area has supported human populations since at least the transition from the Pleistocene to Holocene, but the nature and scale of these interactions are matters of debate and their legacy to modern lowland environments is not fully understood.

This book deals with restoring degraded peatlands to help mitigate global warming, to which SDG 15 and SDG 13 are directly related. The book analyzes peatland degradation and restoration of the Indonesian peatland ecosystem through the integrated lens of resilience, vulnerability, adaptation, and transformation. It sheds light on what constitutes "resilience" of the peat swamp forest, digs deeper into local knowledge in developing the studies on institutions, governance, and ecological conditions that support the resilience of the peat swamp forest to elaborate on the idea of transformation in today's degraded peatlands.

This book is one in a series of four volumes introducing peatland conservation and restoration in Indonesia. It focuses on local governance, in particular on regional and local perspectives in Riau, the most peat-destructed province of Indonesia. The book fills a vital gap in the existing literature that overlooks social science and humanities perspectives. Written by authors from different disciplines and backgrounds (including scholars and NGO activists), the approaches to the topic are various and unique, including analysis of GPS logs, social media, geospatial assessments, online interviews (conducted due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and more conventional questionnaires and surveys of community members. The chapters cover an interdisciplinary understanding of peatland destruction and broadly offer insights into environmental governance. While presenting combined studies of established fieldwork methodologies and contemporary technology such as drones and geospatial information, the book also explores the potential of long-distance research with rural communities through online facilitation, which was brought about by Covid-19, but that may have long­term implications.