Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Ecosystems

E-bok

Engelska, 2007

515 kr

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Beskrivning

Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Ecosystems takes a look at how farmers manage, maintain, and benefit from biodiversity in agricultural production systems. The volume includes the most recent research and developments in the maintenance of local diversity at the genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. Chapters cover the assessment and farmer management practices for crop, livestock, aquatic, and associated diversity (such as pollinators and soil microorganisms) in agricultural ecosystems; examine the potential role of diversity in minimizing pest and disease pressures; and present studies that exemplify the potential nutritional, ecosystem service, and financial values of this diversity under changing economic and environmental conditions. The volume contains perspectives that combine the thinking of social and biological scientists.Inappropriate or excessive use of inputs can cause damage to biodiversity within agricultural ecosystems and compromise future productivity. This book features numerous case studies that show how farmers have used alternative approaches to manage biodiversity to enhance the stability, resilience, and productivity of their farms, pointing the way toward improved biodiversity on a global scale. As custodians of the world's agricultural biodiversity, farmers are fully invested in ways to create, sustain, and assist in the evolution and adaptation of a variety of plant and animal species. Thus this text is mandatory reading for conservationists, environmentalists, botanists, zoologists, geneticists, and anyone interested in the health of our ecosystem.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2007-05-29
Språk:Engelska
Filformat:EPUB
Kopieringsskydd:LCP
ISBN:9780231510004
Förlag:Columbia University Press

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Mer om författaren

Devra I. Jarvis is senior scientist, Agricultural Biodiversity and Ecosystems, in the Diversity for Livelihoods Programme at Bioversity International (As of December 1, 2006, the International Plant Genetics Resources Institute (IPGRI) changed its name to Bioversity International) in Rome. Having earned a Ph.D. in quaternary palynology from the University of Washington, Seattle, she is responsible for Bioversity's work on developing practices that use local crop genetic diversity to maintain and improve productivity, resilience, and resistance in production systems. She is the principal author of A Training Guide for In Situ Conservation On-Farm, which has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. Before joining Bioversity in 1996, Jarvis worked for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), first in China, where she was responsible for monitoring and evaluating WFP's development programs, and then in Uganda, where she was Chief of WFP's Emergency and Relief Programme for Sudanese, Rwandan, and Zairian refugees.Christine Padoch is the Matthew Calbraith Perry Curator of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden. She is an anthropologist and was associate scientific coordinator of the People, Land Management, and Environmental Conservation (PLEC-UNU) Programme. She is also the author and editor of a number of books, including Conservation of Neotropical Forests: Working from Traditional Resource Use and People of the Tropical Rain Forest.H. D. Cooper is senior programme officer for implementation and technical support at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal. He coordinated the development of the CBD's program of work on agricultural biodiversity and the preparation of the Food and Agriculture Organization's report The State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. He is editor of the book Broadening the Genetic Base of Crop Production and lead author of the Biodiversity Synthesis report and the chapters on food and cultivated systems of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessement.