This book addresses a wide variety of events and technologies concerning the sago palm, ranging from its botanical characteristics, culture and use to social conditions in the places where it is grown, in order to provide a record of research findings and to benefit society. It discusses various subjects, including the sago palm and related species; differentiation of species of starch-producing palm; habitat, morphological, physiological and growth characteristics; culture and management; productivity of carbon dioxide; starch extraction and manufacture; characteristics and utilization of starch; and cultural anthropological and folkloristic aspects. Problems such as food shortages due to increasing populations, global warming and climate change, and decreasing reserves of oil and other underground resources, have become more pressing in recent years. In the context of these problems, the book examines the role of the sago palm in sustainable food production, in the manufacture of other foodstuffs, as a raw material for ethanol and in the manufacture of biodegradable plastics. In addition to academics, this book will be useful to researchers and government officials working for international agencies, national governments, municipalities, and other research organizations; technicians, researchers, managers, entrepreneurs, and others working in industries such as agriculture, plant production, food production, manufacturing, chemical engineering, energy production, and distribution.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume shares new data relating to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), with emphasis on experiences in Eastern and Southern Africa. The book is a collection of research by authors from over 30 institutions, spanning the public and private sectors, with specific knowledge on agricultural development in the region discussed. The material is assembled to answer key questions on the following five topic areas: (1) Climate impacts: What are the most significant current and near future climate risks undermining smallholder livelihoods? (2) Varieties: How can climate-smart varieties be delivered quickly and cost-effectively to smallholders? (3) Farm management: What are key lessons on the contributions from soil and water management to climate risk reduction and how should interventions be prioritized? (4) Value chains: How can climate risks to supply and value chains be reduced? and (5) Scaling up: How can most promising climate risks reduction strategies be quickly scaled up and what are critical success factors? Readers who will be interested in this book include students, policy makers, and researchers studying climate change impacts on agriculture and agricultural sustainability.

The Gulf of Mexico is an open and dynamic marine ecosystem rich in natural resources but heavily impacted by human activities, including agricultural, industrial, commercial and coastal development. Nutrients and pollutants from coastal communities and dozens of rivers flow into the Gulf, including material from the Mississippi River watershed, which drains over one third of continental United States. The Gulf of Mexico has been continuously exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons for millions of years from natural oil and gas seeps on the sea floor, and more recently from oil drilling and production activities located in the water near and far from shore. Major accidental oil spills in the Gulf are infrequent; two of the most significant include the Ixtoc I blowout in the Bay of Campeche in 1979 and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. Unfortunately, baseline assessments of the status of habitats and biota in the Gulf of Mexico before these spills either were not available, or the data had not been systematically compiled in a way that would help scientists assess the potential short-term and long-term effects of such events.

This book aims to provide case studies and a general view of the main processes involved in the ecosystem shifts occurring in the high mountains, and to analyse the implications for nature conservation. Although case studies from the Pyrenees are preponderant, conclusions are aimed at any mountain range surrounded by highly populated lowland areas. The chapters give emphasis to approaches from environmental geography, functional ecology, biogeography, and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The introductory and closing chapters summarize the main challenges that nature conservation may face in mountain areas under the environmental shifting conditions.

This book presents the results from the Japanese Fisheries Research Agency’s 3-year intensive monitoring of radionuclides in a variety of fish, plankton, benthos, and their living environments after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) accident in March 2011. The book reveals the dynamics of contamination processes in marine and freshwater fish, mediated by the contamination of water, sediments, and food organisms; it also clarifies the mechanisms by which large variations in the level of contamination occurs among individual fish. Most importantly, the book includes a large amount of original measurement data collected in situ and for the first time assesses diffusion of radiocesium across the Pacific using both in situ data and a numerical simulation model. Also introduced are several new approaches to evaluate the impact of the release of radionuclides, including the measurement of radiation emission from an otolith section to identify the main period of contamination in fish. The FNPP accident represents a rare instance where the environmental radioactivity level was elevated steeply through atmospheric fallout and direct discharge of radioactive water into the sea over a short period of time. Replete with precise scientific data, this book will serve as an important resource for research in fields such as fishery science, oceanography, ecology, and environmentology, and also as a solid basis for protecting fisheries from damage resulting from harmful rumors among the general public.