Search

The Brazilian coral reefs form structures significantly different from the well-known reef models, as follows: they have a growth form of mushroom-shaped coral pinnacles called'chapeirões'; they are built by a low diversity coral fauna rich in endemic species, with most of them relic forms dating back to the Miocene; and the nearshore bank reefs are surrounded by siliciclastic sediments. The reefs are distributed into four major sectors along the Brazilian coast: the northern, the northeastern, and the eastern regions, and the oceanic islands, but certain isolated coral species can be found in warmer waters in the embayment of the southern region. There are different types of bank reefs, fringing reefs, isolated'chapeirões'and an atoll present along the Brazilian coast. Corals, milleporids, and coralline algae build the rigid frame of the reefs. The areas in which the major coral reefs occur correspond to regions in which nearby urban centers are experiencing accelerated growth, and tourism development is rapidly increasing. The major human effects on the reef ecosystem are mostly associated with the increased sedimentation due to the removal of the Atlantic rainforest and the disposal of industrial and urban effluents. Fishing resources are seriously declining due to pollution and overfishing, and this reduction impacts artisanal fishers, who are impoverished and face food security risks. The effects of warming oceanic waters that have been affecting several reef areas with high-intensity coral bleaching did not show until the 2010 event, episodes of coral mass mortality in Brazilian reefs. However, since 2016, bleaching has increased, as has the mortality of milleporids. There are opportunities to develop purposeful biotechnologies that can support coral reef restoration and conservation. Reciprocally, preserved coral reef ecosystems containing peculiar genetic resources allow biotechnological opportunities to provide products and processes for economically and ecologically prosperous societies.

This book presents a solutions based approach to reducing and removing CO2 from the atmosphere transforming it into solid (crystalline) CaCO3 through the ability of marine organisms such as molluscs, crustacea, corals, and coccolithophore algae. The overwhelming advantage of this approach is that it promises enhanced climate mitigation in comparison to planting forests, industrial/engineering carbon capture and storage process. It also provides a sustainable food resource. Furthermore, it would improve the ocean's biodiversity at the same time as the excess atmospheric CO2 released by our use of fossil fuels is returned to the place it belongs - as a present day fossil, safely out of the atmosphere to the distant future. If the level of finance and global effort that are readily foreseen for forest management and flue gas treatments were applied to expansion of global shellfish cultivation, curative amounts of carbon dioxide could be permanently removed from the atmosphere within afew decades. The concept presented in this book could have a profound influence on the life of the planet.

This book explores a specific ecosystem in depth, in order to weave a story built on place and history. It incorporates the theme of a journey to help reveal the environment-human-health-food system-problem. While drawing on a historical approach stretching back to the American colonial era, it also incorporates more contemporary scientific findings. By crafting its story around a specific place, the book makes it easier for readers to relate to the content, and to subsequently use what they learn to better understand the role of food systems at the global scale.

This volume describes and explores the emerging discipline of conservation paleobiology, and addresses challenges faced by established and young Conservation Paleobiologist's alike. In addition, this volume includes applied research highlighting how conservation paleobiology can be used to understand ecosystem response to perturbation in near and deep time. Across 10 chapters, the book aims to (1) explore the goals of conservation paleoecology as a science, (2) highlight how conservation paleoecology can be used to understand ecosystems'responses to crises, (3) provide case studies of applications to modern ecosystems, (4) develop novel applications of paleontological approaches to neontological data, and (5) present a range of ecosystem response and recovery through environmental crises, from high-resolution impacts on organism interactions to the broadest scale of responses of the entire marine biosphere to global change. The volume will be of interest to paleoecologists, paleobiologists, and conservation biologists.

The aim of this open access book is to review and analyse the goods and services of bivalve shellfish. How they are defined, what determines the ecological functions that are the basis for the goods and services, what controversies in the use of goods and services exist, and what is needed for sustainable exploitation of bivalves from the perspective of the various stakeholders. The book is focused on the goods and services, and not on impacts of shellfish aquaculture on the benthic environment, or on threats like biotoxins; neither is it a shellfish culture handbook although it can be used in evaluating shellfish culture. The reviews and analysis are based on case studies that exemplify the concept, and show the strengths and weaknesses of the current applications. The multi-authored reviews cover ecological, economic and social aspects of bivalve goods and services. The book provides new insights for scientists, students, shellfish producers, policy advisors, nature conservationists and decision makers. This book is open access under the CC BY license.

This book arose out of teaching graduate and undergraduate classes in wildlife diseases. It, in some ways, chronicles my involvement in the inves- gation and diagnosis of diseases in free-ranging wildlife, primarily in western and northern Canada, since the 1960s. It also, perhaps, reflects the devel- ment of wildlife disease study as a discipline. Much of the earlier work in this field was purely descriptive, documenting the occurrence of various diseases in wild animals. I have chosen to retain references to some older and obscure information in this second edition because this body of work provides the foundation for a more analytical approach. The literature on health problems in free-ranging animals is expanding rapidly. I am gratified that the theor- ical and quantitative aspects of wildlife disease are receiving more attention than in the past, and that role of disease as a factor in population biology is being analyzed. My hope for the first edition of this book was that it would serve as an overview of the study of disease in wild animals and of methods that might be used to manage health problem. It was, and is, not intended to be a how-to book or an encyclopedic reference to the literature on disease; rather it is intended as a seed crystal around which the reader can build. The inquiries I have received about a second edition suggest that it has been useful.