David Merritt – författare

This is the first complete guide to the collection, processing and storage of wild collected seed. While the main focus is on Australian seeds, the procedures and protocols described within the book are of international standard and apply to users throughout the world.

The book provides a basic understanding to seed biology, evolution and morphology, and includes chapters on all aspects of harvesting, processing and storage of seeds. This will enable users to collect, process and store seed more efficiently, thus reducing loss of seed viability during the storage process with potentially huge savings in time, effort and expense in the rehabilitation and restoration industries.

With a strong emphasis on the species-rich Western Australian region, Australian Seeds features photographs of more than 1200 species showing clearly their size and shape. Comprehensive seed germination data enables users to know how long to allow for germination times and whether some form of pre-germination treatment is required and what this should be. This is of major importance to horticulturists and agriculturists planning crop and weed control programmes. It will also be a valuable resource to anyone interested in Australian flora.

Deep within galaxies like the Milky Way, astronomers have found a fascinating legacy of Einstein''s general theory of relativity: supermassive black holes. Connected to the evolution of the galaxies that contain these black holes, galactic nuclei are the sites of uniquely energetic events, including quasars, stellar tidal disruptions, and the generation of gravitational waves. This textbook is the first comprehensive introduction to dynamical processes occurring in the vicinity of supermassive black holes in their galactic environment. Filling a critical gap, it is an authoritative resource for astrophysics and physics graduate students, and researchers focusing on galactic nuclei, the astrophysics of massive black holes, galactic dynamics, and gravitational wave detection. It is an ideal text for an advanced graduate-level course on galactic nuclei and as supplementary reading in graduate-level courses on high-energy astrophysics and galactic dynamics. David Merritt summarizes the theoretical work of the last three decades on the evolution of galactic nuclei, the formation of massive black holes, and the interaction between black holes and stars. He explores in depth such important topics as observations of galactic nuclei, dynamical models, weighing black holes, motion near supermassive black holes, evolution of nuclei due to gravitational encounters, loss cone theory, and binary supermassive black holes. Self-contained and up-to-date, the textbook includes a summary of the current literature and previously unpublished work by the author. For researchers working on active galactic nuclei, galaxy evolution, and the generation of gravitational waves, this book will be an essential resource.