Biodiversity and Environmental Biotechnology PDF Download

Author: P. Dwivedi
Publisher: Scientific Publishers
ISBN: 9388449789
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 585

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Book Description
This book embodies twenty four chapters. The methodology of tools and techniques has been given due place in these chapters. Figures, illustrations and examples are presented to elucidate the topics making the subject more interesting and knowledge-rich. The book covers a wide range of topics like phyto and microbial diversity; medical microbiology; application of plant tissue culture techniques, bioinfor-matics, bioprospecting and synthetic seed technology, etc in the study of biodiversity and its management. Further, topics such as transgenics, bioremediation, waste utilization and role of single cell proteins, biopesticides, organic farming, scope of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), biotechnological approach of curbing air pollutants, air pollution biomonitoring, sericulture, pharmacognosy, characterization of biodiversity through molecular approach, etc have also been covered in this book. Biodiversity and its management have roots in cultural practices and diversity, besides traditional knowledge.

Author: Ram Lakhan Singh
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811018669
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
This textbook on Environmental Biotechnology not only presents an unbiased overview of the practical biological approaches currently employed to address environmental problems, but also equips readers with a working knowledge of the science that underpins them. Starting with the fundamentals of biotechnology, it subsequently provides detailed discussions of global environmental problems including microbes and their interaction with the environment, xenobiotics and their remediation, solid waste management, waste water treatment, bioreactors, biosensors, biomining and biopesticides. This book also covers renewable and non-renewable bioenergy resources, biodiversity and its conservation, and approaches to monitoring biotechnological industries, genetically modified microorganism and foods so as to increase awareness. All chapters are written in a highly accessible style, and each also includes a short bibliography for further research. In summary this textbook offers a valuable asset, allowing students, young researchers and professionals in the biotechnology industry to grasp the basics of environmental biotechnology.

Author: M. R. Ahuja
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319093819
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
The purpose of this book is to assess the potential effects of biotechnological approaches particularly genetic modification on biodiversity and the environment. All aspects of biodiversity such as ecological diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity are considered. Higher organisms contain a specific set of linear DNA molecules called chromosomes and a complete set of chromosomes in an organism comprises its genome. The collection of traits displayed by any organism (phenotype) depends on the genes present in its genome (genotype). The appearance of any specific trait also will depend on many other factors, including whether the gene(s) responsible for the trait is/are turned on (expressed) or off, the specific cells within which the genes are expressed and how the genes, their expression and the gene products interact with environmental factors. The primary biotechnology which concerns us is that of genetic manipulation, which has a direct impact on biodiversity at the genetic level. By these manipulations, novel genes or gene fragments can be introduced into organisms (creating transgenics) or existing genes within an organism can be altered. Transgenics are a major area of concern, combining genes from different species to effectively create novel organisms. Current rates of disappearance of biological and cultural diversity in the world are unprecedented. Intensive resource exploitation due to social and economic factors has led to the destruction, conversion or degradation of ecosystems. Reversing these trends requires time to time assessment to integrate conservation and development.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309046831
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
The loss of the earth's biological diversity is widely recognized as a critical environmental problem. That loss is most severe in developing countries, where the conditions of human existence are most difficult. Conserving Biodiversity presents an agenda for research that can provide information to formulate policy and design conservation programs in the Third World. The book includes discussions of research needs in the biological sciences as well as economics and anthropology, areas of critical importance to conservation and sustainable development. Although specifically directed toward development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and decisionmakers in developing nations, this volume should be of interest to all who are involved in the conservation of biological diversity.

Author: Jeyabalan Sangeetha
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429759061
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This volume provides an enlightening and pragmatic approach to preserving biological diversity by gathering a wide range of peer-reviewed scientific content from biodiversity researchers and conservators from around the world. It brings comprehensive knowledge and information on the present status of conservation of biological diversity including floral, faunal, and microbial diversity. A detailed account of recent trends in conservation and applications under changing climate conditions, focusing mainly on agriculturally and industrially important microbes and their sustainable utilization, is presented as well. Over the past five decades, extensive research work has been done on many aspects of biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilization of biological resources. This book examines this crucial issue. Chapters discuss biodiversity concepts, benefits, and values for economic and sustainable development; explores applications and strategies for biodiversity preservation; and considers the role of biodiversity conservation in public awareness services and cultural significance. The volume also examines the process of evolution and the future of biodiversity in conjunction with climate change factors, with special reference to infectious diseases.

Author: Krishna R. Dronamraju
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812775013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 485

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Book Description
The principal message of this book is that thermodynamics and statistical mechanics will benefit from replacing the unfortunate, misleading and mysterious term "entropy" with a more familiar, meaningful and appropriate term such as information, missing information or uncertainty. This replacement would facilitate the interpretation of the "driving force" of many processes in terms of informational changes and dispel the mystery that has always enshrouded entropy. It has been 140 years since Clausius coined the term "entropy"; almost 50 years since Shannon developed the mathematical theory of "information"--Subsequently renamed "entropy." In this book, the author advocates replacing "entropy" by "information," a term that has become widely used in many branches of science. The author also takes a new and bold approach to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Information is used not only as a tool for predicting distributions but as the fundamental cornerstone concept of thermodynamics, held until now by the term "entropy." The topics covered include the fundamentals of probability and information theory; the general concept of information as well as the particular concept of information as applied in thermodynamics; the re-derivation of the Sackur-Tetrode equation for the entropy of an ideal gas from purely informational arguments; the fundamental formalism of statistical mechanics; and many examples of simple processes the "driving force" for which is analyzed in terms of information.

Author: Francesca Grifo
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781559635004
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The implications of biodiversity loss for the global environment have been widely discussed, but only recently has attention been paid to its direct and serious effects on human health. Biodiversity loss affects the spread of human diseases, causes a loss of medical models, diminishes the supplies of raw materials for drug discovery and biotechnology, and threatens food production and water quality. Biodiversity and Human Health brings together leading thinkers on the global environment and biomedicine to explore the human health consequences of the loss of biological diversity. Based on a two-day conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution, the book opens a dialogue among experts from the fields of public health, biology, epidemiology, botany, ecology, demography, and pharmacology on this vital but often neglected concern. Contributors discuss the uses and significance of biodiversity to the practice of medicine today, and develop strategies for conservation of these critical resources. Topics examined include: the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss emerging infectious diseases and the loss of biodiversity the significance and use of both prescription and herbal biodiversity-derived remedies indigenous and local peoples and their health care systems sustainable use of biodiversity for medicine an agenda for the future In addition to the editors, contributors include Anthony Artuso, Byron Bailey, Jensa Bell, Bhaswati Bhattacharya, Michael Boyd, Mary S. Campbell, Eric Chivian, Paul Cox, Gordon Cragg, Andrew Dobson, Kate Duffy-Mazan, Robert Engelman, Paul Epstein, Alexandra S. Fairfield, John Grupenhoff, Daniel Janzen, Catherine A. Laughin, Katy Moran, Robert McCaleb, Thomas Mays, David Newman, Charles Peters, Walter Reid, and John Vandermeer. The book provides a common framework for physicians and biomedical researchers who wish to learn more about environmental concerns, and for members of the environmental community who desire a greater understanding of biomedical issues.

Author: Roel Slootweg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521888417
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
First of its kind and unique in its blend of theoretical and practical approaches for mainstreaming biodiversity in impact assessment.

Author: Vandana Shiva
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781856492188
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Vandana Shiva has established herself as a leading independent thinker and voice for the South in that critically important nexus where questions of development strategy, the environment and the posititon of women in society coincide. In this new volume, she brings together her thinking on the protection of biodiversity, the implications of biotechnology, and the consequences for agriculture of the global pre-eminence of Western-style scientific knowledge. In lucid and accessible fashion, she examines the current threats to the planet's biodiversity and the environmental and human consequences of its erosion and replacement by monocultural production. She shows how the new Biodiversity Convention has been gravely undermined by a mixture of diplomatic dilution during the process of negotiation and Northern hi-tech interests making money out of the new biotechnologies. She explains what these technologies involve and gives examples of their impact in practice. She questions their claims to improving natural species for the good of all and highlights the ethical and environmental problems posed. Underlying her arguments is the view that the North's particular approach to scientific understanding has led to a system of monoculture in agriculture - a model that is not being foisted on the South, displacing its societies' ecologically sounder, indigenous and age-old experiences of truly sustainable food cultivation, forest management and animal husbandry. This rapidly accelerating process of technology and system transfer is impoverishing huge numbers of people, disrupting the social systems that provide them with security and dignity, and will ultimately result in a sterile planet in both North and South, In a policy intervention of potentially great significance, she calls instead for a halt, at international as well as local level, to the aid and market incentives to both large-scale destruction of habitats where biodiversity thrives and the introduction of centralised, homogenous systems of cultivation.

Author: Lakshman D. Guruswamy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The rate of extinction of biological species is greater today than at any time in the last 65 million years. Some predict that if this rate continues, two-thirds of all living species will disappear during the next century. Because reaching consensus on specific courses of action involves complex issues, any adequate response to this impending crisis must include coverage of many areas of inquiry and understanding. Protection of Global Biodiversity features essays by distinguished international experts who communicate with each other across disciplinary boundaries to address the challenge of formulating policies to protect biodiversity. Although the global community has recently adopted a Convention of Biological Diversity, the agreement sets forth only abstract goals. Contributors to this volume advance the Convention's initial steps by providing workable solutions that can be implemented regionally, nationally, and locally. The contributors--including natural, social, and political scientists; economists; lawyers; and environmentalists; and decisionmakers in business, agriculture, and government--have united to create a common discourse and to evaluate and propose strategies for halting this alarming loss of biodiversity. In recognizing the diverse aspects of this task--scientific, economic, institutional, moral, and legal--this book presents a new picture of emerging action. Contributors. S. James Anaya, Gregory Benford, Graciela Chichilnisky, S. Todd Crider, Yvonne Cripps, Robert T. Fraley, Anil K. Gupta, Lakshman D. Guruswamy, G. M. Heal, Brent Hendricks, Robert B. Horsch, Laura L. Jackson, Annie Lovejoy, Ariel E. Lugo, Jeffrey A. McNeely, Brian G. Norton, Elinor Ostrom, Peter H. Raven, John W. Reid, Walter V. Reid, Mark Sagoff, Roger A. Sedgo, R. David Simpson, Ana Sittenfeld, Christopher D. Stone, Gary H. Toenniessen