The current rate and scale of environmental change around the world makes the detection and understanding of these changes increasingly urgent. Subsequently, government legislation is focusing on measurable results of environmental programs, requiring researchers to employ effective and efficient methods for acquiring high-quality data. Focusing on pollution issues and impacts resulting from human activities, Environmental Monitoring is the first to bring together the conceptual basis behind the complex and specific approaches to the monitoring of air, water, and land. Coverage includes integrated monitoring at the landscape level, as well as case studies of existing monitoring programs such as the Chesapeake Bay Program. The book also addresses the recent legislative focus on high-quality data results and conducting monitoring programs in different ecosystems and environmental media.

Tools, Techniques and Protocols for Monitoring Environmental Contaminants describes information on the strategic integration of available monitoring methods with molecular techniques, with a focus on omics (DNA, RNA and protein based) and molecular imprinted polymer and nanomaterial based advanced biosensors for environmental applications. It discusses the most commonly practiced analytic techniques, such as HPLC, MS, GCMS and traditional biosensors, giving an overview of the benefits of advanced biosensors over commonly practiced methods in the rapid and reliable assessment of environmental contaminants. As environmental contaminants have become one of the serious concerns in terms of their rapid growth and monitoring in the environment, which is often limited due to costly and laborious methods, this book provides a comprehensive update on their removal, the challenges they create for environmental regulatory agencies, and their diverse effects on terrestrial and aquatic environments.

This is the second of two high-level, data-rich volumes from the massive Smithsonian/MAB Biological Diversity Program documenting the latest findings on forest biodiversity. In original contributions, some three hundred scientists from over forty countries discuss socioeconomic aspects, ecological monitoring and assessment, forest dynamics, growth trends, dry forests, species richness of woody regeneration and of vascular plants, hurricane impact, tropical cloud forests, Landsat-TM satellite mapping, and quantitative ethnobotany. The book covers first the research and monitoring methodologies for the New World and then the results of individual research and integrated studies on all aspects of forest biodiversity in North and South America and the Caribbean.