Natural and Semi-Natural Grassland Ecosystems (NSG) represent high-value biodiversity hotspots for biodiversity of the European continent, as well as an invaluable cultural heritage forged through millennia of human-nature interactions. While pristine natural European grasslands result mainly from constrained specific climatic and soil conditions, semi-natural grasslands largely result from the activities of humans and their livestock (e.g. grazing, mowing, burning) during millennia of low-intensity land use. European NSG, their biodiversity, and the cultural heritage they represent are highly threatened since the beginning of the 20th century in a context of multifactorial global change including environmental dimensions (climate change, habitat fragmentation, pollution, biological invasions) and land-use changes with the accelerating of socio-economic evolution of agricultural practices (intensification or abandonment) and urbanization.

Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene, Five Volume Set presents a currency-based, global synthesis cataloguing the impact of humanity’s global ecological footprint. Covering a multitude of aspects related to Climate Change, Biodiversity, Contaminants, Geological, Energy and Ethics, leading scientists provide foundational essays that enable researchers to define and scrutinize information, ideas, relationships, meanings and ideas within the Anthropocene concept. Questions widely debated among scientists, humanists, conservationists, politicians and others are included, providing discussion on when the Anthropocene began, what to call it, whether it should be considered an official geological epoch, whether it can be contained in time, and how it will affect future generations. Although the idea that humanity has driven the planet into a new geological epoch has been around since the dawn of the 20th century, the term ‘Anthropocene’ was only first used by ecologist Eugene Stoermer in the 1980s, and hence popularized in its current meaning by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. Presents comprehensive and systematic coverage of topics related to the Anthropocene, with a focus on the Geosciences and Environmental science Includes point-counterpoint articles debating key aspects of the Anthropocene, giving users an even-handed navigation of this complex area Provides historic, seminal papers and essays from leading scientists and philosophers who demonstrate changes in the Anthropocene concept over time

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses the implications of these conceptual advances to management and policy. The third assesses several major challenges confronting global rangelands in the 21st century. This book will compliment applied range management textbooks by describing the conceptual foundation on which the rangeland profession is based. It has been written to be accessible to a broad audience, including ecosystem managers, educators, students and policy makers. The content is founded on the collective experience, knowledge and commitment of 80 authors who have worked in rangelands throughout the world. Their collective contributions indicate that a more comprehensive framework is necessary to address the complex challenges confronting global rangelands. Rangelands represent adaptive social-ecological systems, in which societal values, organizations and capacities are of equal importance to, and interact with, those of ecological processes. A more comprehensive framework for rangeland systems may enable management agencies, and educational, research and policy making organizations to more effectively assess complex problems and develop appropriate solutions.

A comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on global grasslands and the mitigating role that ecologists can play.

Discusses the benefits and risks, as well as the economic and socio-political realities, of rewilding as a novel conservation tool.

An overview of the wide range of spatial statistics available to analyse ecological data.