All life is chemical. That fact underpins the developing field of ecological stoichiometry, the study of the balance of chemical elements in ecological interactions. This long-awaited book brings this field into its own as a unifying force in ecology and evolution. Synthesizing a wide range of knowledge, Robert Sterner and Jim Elser show how an understanding of the biochemical deployment of elements in organisms from microbes to metazoa provides the key to making sense of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. After summarizing the chemistry of elements and their relative abundance in Earth's environment, the authors proceed along a line of increasing complexity and scale from molecules to cells, individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. The book examines fundamental chemical constraints on ecological phenomena such as competition, herbivory, symbiosis, energy flow in food webs, and organic matter sequestration. In accessible prose and with clear mathematical models, the authors show how ecological stoichiometry can illuminate diverse fields of study, from metabolism to global change. Set to be a classic in the field, Ecological Stoichiometry is an indispensable resource for researchers, instructors, and students of ecology, evolution, physiology, and biogeochemistry. From the foreword by Peter Vitousek: ? "[T]his book represents a significant milestone in the history of ecology. . . . Love it or argue with it--and I do both--most ecologists will be influenced by the framework developed in this book. . . . There are points to question here, and many more to test . . . And if we are both lucky and good, this questioning and testing will advance our field beyond the level achieved in this book. I can't wait to get on with it."

This textbook is designed for undergraduate courses in chemical engineering and related disciplines such as biotechnology, polymer technology, petrochemical engineering, electrochemical engineering, environmental engineering, safety engineering and industrial chemistry. The chief objective of this text is to prepare students to make analysis of chemical processes through calculations and also to develop in them systematic problem-solving skills. The students are introduced not only to the application of law of combining proportions to chemical reactions (as the word ‘stoichiometry’ implies) but also to formulating and solving material and energy balances in processes with and without chemical reactions. The book presents the fundamentals of chemical engineering operations and processes in an accessible style to help the students gain a thorough understanding of chemical process calculations. It also covers in detail the background materials such as units and conversions, dimensional analysis and dimensionless groups, property estimation, P-V-T behaviour of fluids, vapour pressure and phase equilibrium relationships, humidity and saturation. With the help of examples, the book explains the construction and use of reference-substance plots, equilibrium diagrams, psychrometric charts, steam tables and enthalpy composition diagrams. It also elaborates on thermophysics and thermochemistry to acquaint the students with the thermodynamic principles of energy balance calculations. Key Features : • SI units are used throughout the book. • Presents a thorough introduction to basic chemical engineering principles. • Provides many worked-out examples and exercise problems with answers. • Objective type questions included at the end of the book serve as useful review material and also assist the students in preparing for competitive examinations such as GATE.

Originally published in 1985, this textbook provides a thorough and comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics in stoichiometry and thermodynamics with special emphasis on applications to metallurgical processes. This book will be welcomed as a text for courses in elementary and advanced thermodynamics and stoichiometry.

Ecological stoichiometry concerns the way that the elemental composition of organisms shapes their ecology. It deals with the balance or imbalance of elemental ratios and how that affects organism growth, nutrient cycling, and the interactions with the biotic and abiotic worlds. The elemental composition of organisms is a set of constraints through which all the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles must pass. All organisms consume nutrients and acquire compounds from the environment proportional to their needs. Organismal elemental needs are determined in turn by the energy required to live and grow, the physical and chemical constraints of their environment, and their requirements for relatively large polymeric biomolecules such as RNA, DNA, lipids, and proteins, as well as for structural needs including stems, bones, shells, etc. These materials together constitute most of the biomass of living organisms. Although there may be little variability in elemental ratios of many of these biomolecules, changing the proportions of different biomolecules can have important effects on organismal elemental composition. Consequently, the variation in elemental composition both within and across organisms can be tremendous, which has important implications for Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. It has been over a decade since the publication of Sterner and Elser’s book, Ecological Stoichiometry (2002). In the intervening years, hundreds of papers on stoichiometric topics ranging from evolution and regulation of nutrient content in organisms, to the role of stoichiometry in populations, communities, ecosystems and global biogeochemical dynamics have been published. Here, we present a collection of contributions from the broad scientific community to highlight recent insights in the field of Ecological Stoichiometry.

The aim of this book is to provide an overview on the importance of stoichiometry in the materials science field. It presents a collection of selected research articles and reviews providing up-to-date information related to stoichiometry at various levels. Being materials science an interdisciplinary area, the book has been divided in multiple sections, each for a specific field of applications. The first two sections introduce the role of stoichiometry in nanotechnology and defect chemistry, providing examples of state-of-the-art technologies. Section three and four are focused on intermetallic compounds and metal oxides. Section five describes the importance of stoichiometry in electrochemical applications. In section six new strategies for solid phase synthesis are reported, while a cross sectional approach to the influence of stoichiometry in energy production is the topic of the last section. Though specifically addressed to readers with a background in physical science, I believe this book will be of interest to researchers working in materials science, engineering and technology.

The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the importance of stoichiometry in the biomedical field. It proposes a collection of selected research articles and reviews which provide up-to-date information related to stoichiometry at various levels. The first section deals with host-guest chemistry, focusing on selected calixarenes, cyclodextrins and crown ethers derivatives. In the second and third sections the book presents some issues concerning stoichiometry of metal complexes and lipids and polymers architecture. The fourth section aims to clarify the role of stoichiometry in the determination of protein interactions, while in the fifth section some selected experimental techniques applied to specific systems are introduced. The last section of the book is an attempt at showing some interesting connections between biomedicine and the environment, introducing the concept of biological stoichiometry. On this basis, the present volume would definitely be an ideal source of scientific information to researchers and scientists involved in biomedicine, biochemistry and other areas involving stoichiometry evaluation.