282 research outputs found

    Breaking together: a freedom-loving response to collapse

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    The collapse of modern societies has already begun. That is the conclusion of two years of research by the interdisciplinary team behind the book 'Breaking Together'. How did it come to this? Because monetary systems caused us to harm each other and nature to such an extent it broke the foundations of our societies. So what can we do? This book describes people allowing the full pain of our predicament to liberate them into living more courageously and creatively. They demonstrate we can be breaking together, not apart, in this era of collapse. Professor Jem Bendell argues that reclaiming our freedoms is essential to soften the fall and regenerate the natural world. Escaping the efforts of panicking elites, we can advance an ecolibertarian agenda for both politics and practical action in a broken world. Endorsing the text, the founder of Schumacher College, Satish Kumar, remarked: “this is a prophetic book.

    New Frontiers in the Application of Stable Isotopes to Ecological and Ecophysiological Research

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    This Research Topic aims to present cutting-edge applications of stable isotope methods to animal and plant ecology and ecophysiology.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/biology_books/1020/thumbnail.jp

    XVI Agricultural Science Congress 2023: Transformation of Agri-Food Systems for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

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    The XVI Agricultural Science Congress being jointly organized by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) during 10-13 October 2023, at hotel Le Meridien, Kochi, is a mega event echoing the theme “Transformation of Agri-Food Systems for achieving Sustainable Development Goals”. ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute takes great pride in hosting the XVI ASC, which will be the perfect point of convergence of academicians, researchers, students, farmers, fishers, traders, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders involved in agri-production systems that ensure food and nutritional security for a burgeoning population. With impeding challenges like growing urbanization, increasing unemployment, growing population, increasing food demands, degradation of natural resources through human interference, climate change impacts and natural calamities, the challenges ahead for India to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations are many. The XVI ASC will provide an interface for dissemination of useful information across all sectors of stakeholders invested in developing India’s agri-food systems, not only to meet the SDGs, but also to ensure a stable structure on par with agri-food systems around the world. It is an honour to present this Book of Abstracts which is a compilation of a total of 668 abstracts that convey the results of R&D programs being done in India. The abstracts have been categorized under 10 major Themes – 1. Ensuring Food & Nutritional Security: Production, Consumption and Value addition; 2. Climate Action for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems; 3. Frontier Science and emerging Genetic Technologies: Genome, Breeding, Gene Editing; 4. Livestock-based Transformation of Food Systems; 5. Horticulture-based Transformation of Food Systems; 6. Aquaculture & Fisheries-based Transformation of Food Systems; 7. Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable AgriFood Systems; 8. Next Generation Technologies: Digital Agriculture, Precision Farming and AI-based Systems; 9. Policies and Institutions for Transforming Agri-Food Systems; 10. International Partnership for Research, Education and Development. This Book of Abstracts sets the stage for the mega event itself, which will see a flow of knowledge emanating from a zeal to transform and push India’s Agri-Food Systems to perform par excellence and achieve not only the SDGs of the UN but also to rise as a world leader in the sector. I thank and congratulate all the participants who have submitted abstracts for this mega event, and I also applaud the team that has strived hard to publish this Book of Abstracts ahead of the event. I wish all the delegates and participants a very vibrant and memorable time at the XVI ASC

    Course Manual on Fundamentals of Artificial Reefs for Improving Marine Fisheries in India

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    Artificial reefs are set on the seabed to enhance the growth of marine floral and faunal benthic communities which simulate natural settings for promoting fish aggregations and provide the base for the propagation of resident populations within sheltered structures. They are being used in several parts of the world to promote habitat recovery and enhance reef-dependant resources. The advantage of artificial reefs is in developing fishing grounds close to shore, easily accessible to traditional and non-destructive fishing methods, ensuring the sustainability of both, the habitat, and the resources therein

    Novel Wastewater Treatment Applications Using Polymeric Materials

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    This reprint focuses on the effective removal of organic and inorganic pollutants from water and wastewater using unique freestanding polymeric-based methods. It also examines innovative green methods for efficiently reusing various solid waste products. In addition, several new eco-friendly hybrid materials are being reviewed in order to alleviate the problem of water pollution in novel, rapid, and efficient methods

    Hydrodynamics of bivalve offshore aquaculture

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    Without sustainable offshore aquaculture it is impossible to achieve food security for coastal communities. Growing populations in coastal zones, amounting to approximately 40% of the entire human population, exert high pressure on coastal ecosystems and natural resources, and furthermore increase the need for additional food sources. In coastal zones, marine-based nutrients offer great potential to meet this demand. With sustainability in mind, extractive species like mussels and oysters, which require no additional food, are becoming increasingly more important. Therefore, researchers, industry representatives, and policymakers alike are seeking to utilize offshore areas for shellfish aquaculture. To successfully grow shellfish in offshore areas, it is vital to understand the complex interaction of offshore aquaculture systems with waves and currents. Modelling these interactions facilitates the development of aquaculture structures that can withstand these high-energy environments. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the complex flow around offshore shellfish aquaculture systems and their interaction with waves and currents. The literature review reports on the hydromechanic drivers with a focus on the forces, motion, and wave-structure interaction of bivalve aquaculture systems to lay a sound basis for the analysis and interpretation of the results. From there, a lack of information regarding the motions and forces of bivalve aquaculture components in steady and oscillatory flow as well as a lack of guidance as to how the complex surface of mussel dropper lines should be modelled is identified. To address these gaps of knowledge, physical experiments with live blue mussels (Mytilus edulis), substitute surrogate models, a newly designed aquaculture system, and naturally floating islands were conducted. The results of these experiments, published in four journal manuscripts, provide insights regarding the hydrodynamic coefficients for mussel dropper lines and its influencing parameters. Furthermore, the procedural design and creation as well as the hydrodynamic fit of a surrogate structure are shown. Wave and current tests with the novel aquaculture system and the comprehensive analysis of the hydrodynamic interaction of waves and floating natural islands in a large-scale facility provide insights regarding the motion and forces. Combined, the results enhance the understanding of the hydrodynamic processes around bivalve offshore aquaculture structures

    The ecological, economic and social profile of boat based recreational fisheries of Port Dickson

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    This thesis examines the social, economic and environment aspects of boat based recreational fishery in the marine district of Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. It identifies the primary fishing techniques used and species and volumes harvested and compared with the artisanal fishermen who also fished in the same waters. The Port Dickson District’s waters supported an important recreational fisheries industry, with 30 landing points utilised for that purpose. Anglers fished from boats rented from fishermen and commercial boat operators, kelong (privately owned fishing platforms), purpose built public jetties and breakwaters. Data was collected at these recreational fishing landing points indicated that activity was dominated by shore angling and boat angling. A wide range of species were caught include some such as the cobia (Rachycentron canadum) that did not appear in official fisheries statistics. The main bait types that were used included live prawn, squid, small fish and pumpum (polychete worms) as bait. The use of artificial bait or lures was almost non-existent. The paper describes a method for estimating the value of recreational fishery in Port Dickson based on fishing effort derived from interviews and discussions with recreational fishes. The investigation indicated that boat fishing in Port Dickson involved 10,066 anglers with a total fishing effort of 23,048 person-day with expenditures that amounted to RM1,490,062. Annualised catch volume, the total boat-based recreational fisheries catch is estimated to have amounted to 592 tonnes, which is not far from 2018 artisanal fisheries catch of 670 tonnes. In many landing points, recreational fisheries was found to be a major contributor to the local economy. The relationship of existing recreational fishing patterns in relation to the Port Dickson District’s natural capital was explored and discussed, especially in relation to the ability of the fishers to identified hitherto unknown habitats. The uptake by boat based recreational fisheries undermines the assumptions on which existing fisheries management regimes, which is based entirely on artisanal fishing catch, is also discussed. However, it is important to note that the findings of the under-represents the economic value of off this activity as the research does not investigate the value generated through a range of related economic supply chain activities. The study described the potential value of less visible activities in coastal areas, the need to develop appropriate modelling tools with which take account of this value and the significant role of novel approaches to measuring this value

    Bioactive Molecules from Extreme Environments II

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    This Special Issue, as a continuation of the previous Special Issue, “Bioactive Molecules from Extreme Environments” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs/special_issues/Extreme_Environments accessed on 4 November 2021), includes 10 research articles and 2 reviews, providing a wide overview of the chemical biodiversity offered by different marine organisms inhabiting extreme environments to be used for biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. The six articles in this Special Issue are focused on the polar regions, which represent an untapped source of marine natural products and are still largely unexplored compared to more accessible sites. Many of these articles refer to Antarctica, which is the coldest and most inaccessible continent on the Earth, where extreme temperatures, light and ice have selected biological communities with a unique suite of bioactive metabolites. The marine organisms of Arctic and Antarctic environments are a reservoir of natural compounds, exhibiting huge structural diversity and significant bioactivities that could be used in human applications

    Urban Ecosystem Services

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    The school of thought surrounding the urban ecosystem has increasingly become in vogue among researchers worldwide. Since half of the world’s population lives in cities, urban ecosystem services have become essential to human health and wellbeing. Rapid urban growth has forced sustainable urban developers to rethink important steps by updating and, to some degree, recreating the human–ecosystem service linkage. Assessing, as well as estimating the losses of ecosystem services can denote the essential effects of urbanization and increasingly indicate where cities fall short. This book contains 13 thoroughly refereed contributions published within the Special Issue “Urban Ecosystem Services”. The book addresses topics such as nature-based solutions, green space planning, green infrastructure, rain gardens, climate change, and more. The contributions highlight new findings for landscape architects, urban planners, and policymakers. Important future cities research is considered by looking at the system connectivity between the social and ecological sphere—via varying forms of urban planning, management, and governance. The book is supported by methods and models that utilize an urban sustainability and ecosystem service-centric focus by adding knowledge-base and real-world solutions into the urbanization phenomenon
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