The period since World War II, and especially the last decade influenced by the International Biological Program, has seen enormous growth in research on the function of ecosystems. The same period has seen an exponential' rise in environmental problems including the capacity of the Earth to support man's population. The concern extends to man's effects on the "biosphere"-the film of living organisms on the Earth's surface that supports man. The common theme of ecologic research and environmental concerns is primary production the binding of sunlight energy into organic matter by plants that supports all life. Many results from the IBP remain to be synthesized, but enough data are available from that program and other research to develop a convincing sum mary of the primary production of the biosphere-the purpose of this book. The book had its origin in the parallel interests of the two editors and Gene E. Likens, which led them to prepare a symposium on the topic at the Second Biological Congress of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in Miami, Florida, October 24, 1971. Revisions of the papers presented at that symposium appear as Chapters 2, 8, 9, 10, and 15 in this book. We have added other chapters that complement this core; these include discussion and evaluation of methods for measuring productivity and regional production, current findings on tropical productivity, and models of primary productivity.

Ecology at the ecosystem level has both necessitated and benefited from new methods and technologies as well as those adapted from other disciplines. With the ascendancy of ecosystem science and management, the need has arisen for a comprehensive treatment of techniques used in this rapidly-growing field. Methods in Ecosystem Science answers that need by synthesizing the advantages, disadvantages and tradeoffs associated with the most commonly used techniques in both aquatic and terrestrial research. The book is divided into sections addressing carbon and energy dynamics, nutrient and water dynamics, manipulative ecosystem experiements and tools to synthesize our understanding of ecosystems. Detailed information about various methods will help researchers choose the most appropriate methods for their particular studies. Prominent scientists discuss how tools from a variety of disciplines can be used in ecosystem science at different scales.

Papers are concerned with the worldwide study of organic production on the land, in fresh waters, and in the seas, and the potentialities and uses of new as well as of existing natural resources. They examine the productivity of oceans, fresh water, grassland, desert, temperate forests and tundra.

This book contains 28 chapters with emphasis on the interactive nature of the relationships between the soil, plant, animal and environmental components of grassland systems, both natural and managed. It analyses the present knowledge and the future trends of research for combining the classical view of grasslands, as a resource for secure feeding of an increasing human population, with the more recent perspective of the contribution of grasslands to the mitigation of environmental impacts and biodiversity erosion as consequences of human society activities. The chapters are organized within five sections dealing with the different functions and the main ecosystem services expected from grasslands: (i) domestic herbivore feeding and animal production; (ii) the regulation of biogeochemical cycles and its consequences for the environment; (iii) dynamics of biodiversity hosted by grasslands; (iv) integration of grasslands within sustainable animal production systems; and (v) interactions of grassland areas with other land use systems at the landscape level.

The pulse of life with the seasons is a classic theme of biology, equally cap turing every man's curiosity about early and late milestones of every year's cycle and the critical physiologist's inquiry into life's subtle signals and responses. Natural historians of ancient and renaissance time as well as today have charted the commonsense facts behind inspired traditions of poetry and practical rules for growing food and fiber. This volume brings together several ways of organizing the basic principles of phenology. These find order in the otherwise overwhelming mass of detail that captures our fleeting attention, like the daily newspaper, and then tends to fade into the overstuffed archives of history. Is this order so obvious and understandable that there is no longer any scien tific challenge to "phenology" as a tradition? Or does apparent simplicity mask a complex and ultimately baffling obstacle to the understanding of seasonality in even those few indicator plants and animals we know best, not to men tion the less known species or races making up the rest of each major land scape unit or ecosystem? Denying both these hasty opinions, we think that this volume well illustrates a range of questions and answers-from soundly established (but not trivial) doctrine to exciting inquiry about how ecosystems are organized.

The handbook Global Environmental Change is intended to serve as a reliable and comprehensive resource to attend the needs of researchers, teachers, students, and professionals working in science and policy aspects relevant to environment and sustainability. Entries in the handbook are arranged by major section, and are extensively cross-referenced to allow users to find related titles in a user-friendly way. The handbook is available as a printed volume and as an on-line reference work.