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"Tropical dry forests (TDFs) constitute one of the most dominant forests, accounting for approximately 45% of all tropical forests. These forests are distributed over an extensive geographical range, spanning large areas of Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. TDFs occur in severe and extremely variable climate characterized by low annual rainfall and 5-6 months of the dry period within the annual cycle, and nutrient-poor soil. Due to extreme drought conditions, TDFs exhibit deciduousness and various other adaptative features (viz., fire resistance, desiccation tolerance, herbivore defence, high root:shoot ratio, longer seed viability) to establish in the severe environmental conditions, which makes these forests exceptionally critical. These forests are one of the most productive with high biodiversity, but unfortunately, due to persistent anthropogenic pressures in terms of burning, mining, indiscriminate forest cutting, lopping, and increased extraction of non-wood forest products, these forest communities have become one of the most endangered ecosystems. Disturbances in TDFs have resulted in fragmentation and ecosystem conversion, and therefore, these forests exhibit changes in their biomass and productivity. Anthropogenic pressure is rapidly becoming a growing concern globally due to its negative impacts on the structure and composition of the vegetation. In addition, due to their higher net primary productivity, these forests have a considerable effect on the global carbon cycle. Uncontrolled harvesting for gaining temporal benefits is a major cause of forest destruction and deforestation which may lead to major loss. Deforestation and clearing of forests have resulted in soil erosion, soil degradation and loss of biodiversity, socio-economic damages to food components, water and health, as well as the loss of people's cultural ethnicity. In order to assess the conservation status of TDFs, information is required on its distribution pattern, climate, structural and functional traits of the vegetation, phenology, strategies against drought, nutrient deficiency, and disturbances. This book discusses various issues, obstacles and opportunities for protection, regeneration and management of TDFs worldwide, as well as information gaps in the areas referred to above, which may be of critical significance in adapting and mitigating responses to the current climate change scenario. The book is intended to help in collection of detailed knowledge and to address the concerns from environmental scientists, forestry experts, planners, policymakers and the general public. Starting with a description of plant composition of worldwide TDFs, the book evaluates plant diversity, biomass dynamics, carbon storage, late history and current status of anthropogenic disturbances, distribution pattern of lichen communities, relevance of tree crown architecture, effects of forestry management practices, degradation and traditional land-use practices, impact of changing environment on carbon dynamics, estimating ecosystem services using a geospatial approach, productivity and carbon accumulation, habitat heterogeneity and its impact on organic matter, nutrient pool and nitrogen mineralization, phosphorus and litter decomposability traits. For re-development of TDFs, the book describes improved low-input tree establishment methods, impact of drought and plant mechanisms to mitigate drought stress, importance of serotiny related to delayed seed dispersal, and foraging efficiency of fine roots in relation to carbon dynamics in a changing environment"--

Tropical dry forests. --- Deforestation.

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This book focuses on systematics, biogeography, and evolution of arachnids, a group of ancient chelicerate lineages that have taken on terrestrial lifestyles. The book opens with the questions of what arachnology represents, and where the field should go in the future. Twelve original contributions then dissect the current state-of-the-art in arachnological research. These papers provide innovative phylogenomic, evolutionary and biogeographic analyses and interpretations of new data and/or synthesize our knowledge to offer new directions for the future of arachnology.

BioGeoBEARS --- Caatinga --- dispersal --- Galapagos --- Neotropical --- speciation --- spiders --- tropical dry forests --- vicariance --- coin spider --- Nephilidae --- phylogenomics --- biogeography --- dispersal probability --- Arthropoda --- circular reasoning --- investigator bias --- paleontology --- Arachnida --- tissue --- X-rays --- micro-CT --- cerebrum --- nervous system --- neuroanatomy --- imaging --- Araneae --- biodiversity --- community ecology --- elevation --- Pantepui --- species turnover --- Tetragnatha --- dynamic disperser --- intermediate dispersal model of biogeography --- GAARlandia --- Tetragnathidae --- taxonomy --- taxonomic crisis --- species concepts --- data management --- monographic research --- molecular phylogeny --- divergence time --- relict group --- Linyphiidae --- phylogeny --- Caribbean biogeography --- arachnid --- araneae --- Micrathena --- long distance dispersal --- distribution --- diversity --- Salticidae --- target sequencing --- reduced representation sequencing (RRS) --- spider phylogenomics --- deep phylogeny --- molecular dating --- ancestral range analysis --- endemics --- founder-event --- intermediate dispersal model --- n/a --- Research. --- Biology. --- Microbiology.

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The studies in this volume provide an ethnography of a plantation frontier in central Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Drawing on the expertise of both natural scientists and social scientists, the key focus is the process of commodification of nature that has turned the local landscape into anthropogenic tropical forests. Analysing the transformation of the space of mixed landscapes and multiethnic communities—driven by trade in forest products, logging and the cultivation of oil palm—the contributors explore the changing nature of the environment, multispecies interactions, and the metabolism between capitalism and nature. The project involved the collaboration of researchers specialising in anthropology, geography, Southeast Asian history, global history, area studies, political ecology, environmental economics, plant ecology, animal ecology, forest ecology, hydrology, ichthyology, geomorphology and life-cycle assessment. Collectively, the transdisciplinary research addresses a number of vital questions. How are material cycles and food webs altered as a result of large-scale land-use change? How have new commodity chains emerged while older ones have disappeared? What changes are associated with such shifts? What are the relationships among these three elements—commodity chains, material cycles and food webs? Attempts to answer these questions led the team to go beyond the dichotomy of society and nature as well as human and non-human. Rather, the research highlights complex relational entanglements of the two worlds, abruptly and forcibly connected by human-induced changes in an emergent and compelling resource frontier in maritime Southeast Asia. Chapters ‘Commodification of Nature on the Plantation Frontier’ and ‘Into a New Epoch: The Plantationocene’ are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Regional planning. --- Urban planning. --- Forestry management. --- Soil science. --- Soil conservation. --- Physical geography. --- Economic sociology. --- Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning. --- Forestry Management. --- Soil Science & Conservation. --- Earth System Sciences. --- Organizational Studies, Economic Sociology. --- Economic anthropology. --- Tropical dry forests. --- Dry forests --- Dry tropical forests --- Monsoon forests --- Monsoonal forests --- Tropical deciduous forests --- Tropical dry deciduous forests --- Forests and forestry --- Commerce, Primitive --- Economics, Primitive --- Economics --- Ethnology --- Economic sociology --- Socio-economics --- Socioeconomics --- Sociology of economics --- Sociology --- Geography --- Conservation of soil --- Erosion control, Soil --- Soil erosion --- Soil erosion control --- Soils --- Agricultural conservation --- Soil management --- Pedology (Soil science) --- Agriculture --- Earth sciences --- Forest administration --- Forest plants --- Forest resource administration --- Forest resource management --- Forest stewardship --- Forest vegetation management --- Forestry management --- Stewardship, Forest --- Vegetation management, Forest --- Ecosystem management --- Natural resources --- Cities and towns --- City planning --- Civic planning --- Land use, Urban --- Model cities --- Redevelopment, Urban --- Slum clearance --- Town planning --- Urban design --- Urban development --- Urban planning --- Land use --- Planning --- Art, Municipal --- Civic improvement --- Regional planning --- Urban policy --- Urban renewal --- Regional development --- State planning --- Human settlements --- Landscape protection --- Social aspects --- Control --- Prevention --- Conservation --- Management --- Administration --- Government policy