The Soils Of Ecuador

Download or read book The Soils of Ecuador written by José Espinosa and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to comprehensively discuss Ecuadorian soils. Richly illustrated, it provides information on the unique characteristics and distribution of these soils. Due to the influence of the Andes, which vastly modified the climate and parental materials, a relative small country like Ecuador has a wide variety of soil orders, rarely found in other countries. The country is divided into three distinctive regions by the Andes: The Coastal Plain, the Andean Highlands, and the Amazonia Region each with different soil development, influenced by the varying conditions in that region. It is also necessary to consider the Galapagos Islands as a separate region with a particular climate and parental material.

Download or read book Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of Ecuador written by Erwin Beck and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-24 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating work that provides a wealth of information on one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. This is the result of investigations by almost 30 groups of researchers from various disciplines. They performed ecosystem analyses following two gradients: an altitudinal gradient and a gradient of land use intensity and ecosystem regeneration following human use. Based on these analyses, this volume discusses these findings in a huge variety of subject areas.

Download or read book The Andean Cloud Forest written by Randall W. Myster and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book focused solely on Andean Cloud Forests (ACF) has never been published. ACF are high biodiversity ecosystems in the Neotropics with a large proportion of endemic species, and are important for the hydrology of entire regions. They provide water for large parts of the Amazon basin, for example. Here I take advantage of my many years working in ACF in Ecuador, to edit this book that contains the following sections: (1) ACF over space and time, (2) Hydrology, (3) Light and the Carbon cycle, (4) Soil, litter, fungi and nutrient cycling, (5) Plants, (6) Animals, and (7) Human impacts and management. Under this premise, international experts contributed chapters that consist of reviews of what is known about their topic, of what research they have done, and of what needs to be done in the future. This work is suitable for graduate students, professors, scientists, and researcher-oriented managers.

Download or read book Lost Crops of the Incas written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating, readable volume is filled with enticing, detailed information about more than 30 different Incan crops that promise to follow the potato's lead and become important contributors to the world's food supply. Some of these overlooked foods offer special advantages for developing nations, such as high nutritional quality and excellent yields. Many are adaptable to areas of the United States. Lost Crops of the Incas includes vivid color photographs of many of the crops and describes the authors' experiences in growing, tasting, and preparing them in different ways. This book is for the gourmet and gourmand alike, as well as gardeners, botanists, farmers, and agricultural specialists in developing countries.

Download or read book Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Water Energy Food and Sustainability (ICoWEFS 2021) written by João Rafael da Costa Sanches Galvão and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-08 with total page 947 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Water Energy Food and Sustainability – ICoWEFS 2021, a major forum to foster innovation and exchange knowledge in the water-energy-food nexus, embracing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, bringing together leading academics, researchers and industrial experts. It contains the work of authors from 33 countries.

Download or read book Vital Decomposition written by Kristina M. Lyons and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-17 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Colombia, decades of social and armed conflict and the US-led war on drugs have created a seemingly untenable situation for scientists and rural communities as they attempt to care for forests and grow non-illicit crops. In Vital Decomposition Kristina M. Lyons presents an ethnography of human-soil relations. She follows state soil scientists and peasants across labs, greenhouses, forests, and farms and attends to the struggles and collaborations between farmers, agrarian movements, state officials, and scientists over the meanings of peace, productivity, rural development, and sustainability in Colombia. In particular, Lyons examines the practices and philosophies of rural farmers who value the decomposing layers of leaves, which make the soils that sustain life in the Amazon, and shows how the study and stewardship of the soil point to alternative frameworks for living and dying. In outlining the life-making processes that compose and decompose into soil, Lyons theorizes how life can thrive in the face of the violence, criminalization, and poisoning produced by militarized, growth-oriented development.

Download or read book Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity and Environmental Change in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of South Ecuador written by Jörg Bendix and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary research unit consisting of 30 teams in the natural, economic and social sciences analyzed biodiversity and ecosystem services of a mountain rainforest ecosystem in the hotspot of the tropical Andes, with special reference to past, current and future environmental changes. The group assessed ecosystem services using data from ecological field and scenario-driven model experiments, and with the help of comparative field surveys of the natural forest and its anthropogenic replacement system for agriculture. The book offers insights into the impacts of environmental change on various service categories mentioned in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005): cultural, regulating, supporting and provisioning ecosystem services. Examples focus on biodiversity of plants and animals including trophic networks, and abiotic/biotic parameters such as soils, regional climate, water, nutrient and sediment cycles. The types of threats considered include land use and climate changes, as well as atmospheric fertilization. In terms of regulating and provisioning services, the emphasis is primarily on water regulation and supply as well as climate regulation and carbon sequestration. With regard to provisioning services, the synthesis of the book provides science-based recommendations for a sustainable land use portfolio including several options such as forestry, pasture management and the practices of indigenous peoples. In closing, the authors show how they integrated the local society by pursuing capacity building in compliance with the CBD-ABS (Convention on Biological Diversity - Access and Benefit Sharing), in the form of education and knowledge transfer for application.