The coastal and marine nitrogen cycle occupies a complex, central role within the biogeochemical cycles. Human interventions in the earth system have risen to unprecedented levels, strongly influencing the global nitrogen cycle. The nitrogen cycle in the open ocean compared to coastal ecosystems appears to have remained unharmed, although recent observations have shown increasing anthropogenic influence.

Cotton, as a commercial crop has gone through subsistence, ecological, exploitation, crisis and disaster phases of pest management, with insecticides on focus at the later three stages. Restructuring of pest-management strategies during the last few decades under the banner of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM)continued to give considerable and selective preference respectively, to the insecticides. Such an approach could only achieve the short-term benefits of reducing the pesticide usage and improving the profit accrued by the farmers.

Sustaining forest health is critical for sustaining livelihoods, conserving biodiversity, producing biomass and protecting watersheds and river valley systems Prof N H Ravindranath

Not just humans, climate change will also impact the microscopic world of bacteria, fungi and other microbial populations that support life on earth. "Microbes perform a number of critical functions for ecosystems... we are only starting to understand the impact that global climate change is having on them," said Kathleen Treseder of the University of California.

The hospitality industry is finding that "going green" saves money and prevents pollution. As a step in this direction, a few hotels in the Capital have introduced eco-friendly measures like using recycled paper and herbal soaps, planting trees around the property, non-toxic herbal pest control, noise filters...

Today, climate change is the most potentially dangerous
environmental threat facing human beings and other life forms. The impact of climate change will be particularly severe in the tropical areas such as South Asia. South Asian countries already face tremendous pressure due to increased population growth, urbanization, industrialization and other economic developments.

This technical paper addresses the issue of freshwater. Sealevel rise is dealt with only insofar as it can lead to impacts on freshwater in coastal areas and beyond. Climate, freshwater, biophysical and socio-economic systems are interconnected in complex ways. Hence, a change in any one of these can induce a change in any other. Freshwater-related issues are critical in determining key regional and sectoral vulnerabilities. Therefore,
the relationship between climate change and freshwater resources is of primary concern to human society and also has implications for all living species.

Mangrove forests are highly productive but globally threatened coastal ecosystems, whose role in the carbon budget of the coastal zone has long been debated. Here we provide a comprehensive synthesis of the available data on carbon fluxes in mangrove ecosystems.

Original Source

The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new U.S. government report says.

Long-term monitoring of distributed, multiple plots is the key to quantify macroecological patterns and changes. Here we examine the evidence for concerted changes in the structure, dynamics and composition of old-growth Amazonian forests in the late twentieth century. In the 1980s and 1990s, mature forests gained biomass and underwent accelerated growth and dynamics, all consistent with a widespread, long-acting stimulation of growth. Because growth on average exceeded mortality, intact Amazonian forests have been a carbon sink.

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