Seagrasses are a vital and widespread but often overlooked coastal marine habitat. This volume provides a global survey of their distribution and conservation status.

This Research Topic is the second volume of "The Adaptive Value of Languages: Non-Linguistic Causes of Language Diversity". Please see the first volume here.The goal of this Research Topic is to shed light on the non-linguistic causes of language diversity and, specifically, to explore the possibility that some aspects of the structure of languages may result from an adaptation to the natural and/or human-made environment. Traditionally, language diversity has been claimed to result from random, internally-motivated changes in language structure. Ongoing research suggests instead that different factors that are external to language can promote language change and ultimately account for aspects of language diversity. Accordingly, linguistic complexity has been found to correlate with features of the social environment, such as the absence of cross-cultural exchanges or the number of native speakers. Likewise, language structure could be influenced by the physical environment, as the effect of dry climates on tone seemingly shows. Finally, core properties of human languages, like duality of patterning, have been argued to result from iterative learning and cultural evolution, as research in village sign languages illustrates. On the whole this means that some aspects of languages could be an adaptation to ecological, social, or even technological niches. Eventually, certain gene alleles, provided that they bias language acquisition or processing, may affect language change through iterated cultural transmission, and ultimately, to language structure.

"Packaging today is a potent visual symbol of our 'throw-away' culture; a culture which likes its fresh fruit shrink-wrapped and every product presented in a shiny new package. Towering landfill sites, decimated forests and the ever present hole in the ozone layer, all attest to the destructive effects of the modern world's insatiable consumerist appetites. Our attitudes to packaging need to change, and to aid this process, it must be the responsibility of the designer to recognise, through a systemic approach, environmental issues at the very inception of the design idea." "This resource book explains the systems by which improvements can be made in the pre-production, manufacture and distribution of a packaging product - illustrating the results of these improvements with a collection of superb packs, the quality and efficiency of which are enough to encourage any design professional or student to start 'thinking green'."--Jacket

Maps and text present a guide to the historical development and current state of the world's religions.