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Soils are known to be an enormous reservoir of carbon and represent an important and dynamic part of the global carbon cycle. However, this reservoir is under constant threat due to a combination of issues, including mismanagement, climate change and intensive agricultural production which has led to depletion of soil organic carbon. Understanding and fostering soil carbon sequestration reviews the wealth of research on important aspects of soil carbon sequestration, including its potential in mitigating and adapting to climate change and improving global food security. The collection explores our understanding of carbon sequestration in soils, detailing the mechanisms and abiotic factors that can affect the process, as well as the socioeconomic, legal and policy issues that can arise as a result of this use.

This volume ‘Agrochemicals in Soil and Environment: Impacts and Remediation'is a comprehensive collection of important literature on agrochemical contamination. The main focus of this book is to point out undesirable changes in biological, physical and chemical characteristics of agricultural soils and its impacts on global agricultural crop productivity. Soil is one of the important resources of basic needs for our sustenance but due to various anthropogenic activities like urbanization and industrialization, the soil is losing its basic quality characteristics. Soil microorganisms, water holding capacity, minerals, salts and nutrients are under the direct threat due to agrochemicals therefore, agricultural sector is facing a serious challenge. Lack of proper knowledge and luxurious applications of agrochemicals resulting into degradation and deterioration of soil quality, loss of soil and crop productivity and threatening the food security. Therefore, it is imperative to developindices, indicators and soil parameters for the monitoring and impact assessment of agricultural contaminants. Further, biotic and abiotic stresses and their tolerance mechanisms in plants in relation to the soil contaminants such as toxic pollutants, heavy metals, inorganic and organic matters, variety of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, agricultural runoffs and solid wastes, and chemical fertilizers are also highlighted in this volume. This book also discusses causes of reduced agriculture productivity and suggests sustainable measures such as plant-based technologies, bioremediation and nanotechnology, that can be used to overcome the crop losses. The book is interest to research students, teachers, agricultural scientists, agronomists, environmentalists as well as policy makers.

This book covers all aspects related to climate change and agriculture. The book discusses Global Climate Models (GCMs), Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and application of strategic management tool that includes RCP (Representative concentration Pathway), SSP (Shared Socio-economic Pathways) and SPA (Shared climate Policy Assumptions). The book provides information on how climate change, agricultural productivity and food security are interlinked. The impacts of climate change on food security are studied through different climatic drivers e.g., ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation) and SOI (Southern Oscillation Index). These drivers are responsible for the climatic extreme events hence early prediction of these drivers could help to design appropriate adaptive measures for the agriculture sector and could be considered as early warning tools for risk management. Similarly, climate change and process-based soil modeling as well as the role of soil microbes andclimate smart agriculture are discussed in this book. Climate change impacts on legume crop production and adaptation strategies are presented, with details about cereal crop modeling, perspectives of Camelina sativa as well as low input biofuel and oilseed crop, greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and mitigation strategies.

The new edition of Seeds contains new information on many topics discussed in the first edition, such as fruit/seed heteromorphism, breaking of physical dormancy and effects of inbreeding depression on germination. New topics have been added to each chapter, including dichotomous keys to types of seeds and kinds of dormancy; a hierarchical dormancy classification system; role of seed banks in restoration of plant communities; and seed germination in relation to parental effects, pollen competition, local adaption, climate change and karrikinolide in smoke from burning plants. The database for the world biogeography of seed dormancy has been expanded from 3,580 to about 13,600 species. New insights are presented on seed dormancy and germination ecology of species with specialized life cycles or habitat requirements such as orchids, parasitic, aquatics and halophytes. Information from various fields of science has been combined with seed dormancy data to increase our understanding of the evolutionary/phylogenetic origins and relationships of the various kinds of seed dormancy (and nondormancy) and the conditions under which each may have evolved. This comprehensive synthesis of information on the ecology, biogeography and evolution of seeds provides a thorough overview of whole-seed biology that will facilitate and help focus research efforts. - Most wide-ranging and thorough account of whole-seed dormancy available - Contains information on dormancy and germination of more than 14,000 species from all the continents – even the two angiosperm species native to the Antarctica continent - Includes a taxonomic index so researchers can quickly find information on their study organism(s) and - Provides a dichotomous key for the kinds of seed dormancy - Topics range from fossil evidence of seed dormancy to molecular biology of seed dormancy - Much attention is given to the evolution of kinds of seed dormancy - Includes chapters on the basics of how to do seed dormancy studies; on special groups of plants, for example orchids, parasites, aquatics, halophytes; and one chapter devoted to soil seed banks - Contains a revised, up-dated classification scheme of seed dormancy, including a formula for each kind of dormancy - Detailed attention is given to physiological dormancy, the most common kind of dormancy on earth

In the first edition of The Enzymes of Biological Membranes, published in four volumes in 1976, we collected the mass of widely scattered information on membrane-linked enzymes and metabolic processes up to about 1975. This was a period of transition from the romantic phase of membrane biochemistry, preoccupied with conceptual developments and the general properties of membranes, to an era of mounting interest in the specific properties of membrane-linked enzymes analyzed from the viewpoints of modem enzymology. The level of sophistication in various areas of membrane research varied widely; the structures of cytochrome c and cytochrome b5 were known to atomic detail, while the majority of membrane-linked enzymes had not even been isolated. In the intervening eight years our knowledge of membrane-linked enzymes ex­ panded beyond the wildest expectations. The purpose of the second edition of The Enzymes of Biological Membranes is to record these developments. The first volume describes the physical and chemical techniques used in the analysis of the structure and dynamics of biological membranes. In the second volume the enzymes and met­ abolic systems that participate in the biosynthesis of cell and membrane components are discussed. The third and fourth volumes review recent developments in active transport, oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis.

With one new volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of botany. The present volume in- cludes reviews on structural botany, taxonomy, geobotany, plant physiology, genetics, and floral ecology.

Seeds: Ecology, Biogeography, and Evolution of Dormancy and Germination differs from all other books on seed germination. It is an all-encompassing volume that provides a working hypothesis of the ecological and environmental conditions under which various kinds of seed dormancy have developed. It also presents information on the seed germination of more than 3500 species of trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous species, making this a valuable reference for anyone studying germination. This book delivers information on characteristics of each type of seed dormancy, how each type of dormancy is broken in nature, and what environmental conditions are required for germination after dormancy is broken. It explains how studies should be done to distinguish persistent from transient seed banks, and covers which species should be controlled, propagated, and conserved. Seeds gives the reader insight and guidelines for doing ecologically meaningful studies on the biogeography and evolution of seed dormancy and germination in order to better understand plant reproductive strategies, life history traits, adaptations to habitats, and physiological processes. Evolutionary/phylogenetic origins and relationships of various kinds of seed dormancy A world biogeographical perspective on seed dormancy and germination Ecophysiology of seeds with each type of dormancy Critical evaluation of methodology used in soil seed bank studies Germination ecology of plants with specialized habitat and life cycle types Genetic and maternal preconditioning effects on seed dormancy and germination Guidelines for doing ecologically-meaningful germination studies

Taking readers out of the laboratory and into the humid tropical forests, this comprehensive volume explores the most recent advances occurring in tropical plant ecophysiology. Drawing on the knowledge of leading practitioners in the field, this book synthesizes a broad range of information on the ways in which tropical plants adapt to their environment and demonstrate unique physiological processes. This book is arranged into four sections which cover resource acquisition, species interactions, ecophysiological patterns within and among tropical forest communities, and the ecophysiology of forest regeneration. These sections describe plant function in relation to ecology across a wide spectrum of tropical forest species and growth forms. How do different species harvest and utilize resources from heterogeneous tropical environments? How do patterns of functional diversity reflect the overwhelming taxonomic and morphological diversity of tropical forest plants? Such fundamental questions are examined in rich detail. To illuminate the discussions further, every chapter in this book features an agenda for future research, extensive cross referencing, timely references, and the integration of ecophysiology and the demography of tropical species where the data exist. Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology provides plant scientists, botanists, researchers, and graduate students with important insights into the behavior of tropical plants. Biologists and foresters interested in tropical ecology and plant physiological ecologists will also benefit from this authoritative and timely resource.