Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America offers a road map for securing our energy future while safeguarding our heritage. Contributors show how science can help craft solutions to conflicts between wildlife and energy development by delineating core areas, identifying landscapes that support viable populations, and forecasting future development scenarios to aid in conservation design. The book frames the issue and introduces readers to major types of extraction quantifies the pace and extent of current and future energy development provides an ecological foundation for understanding cumulative impacts on wildlife species synthesizes information on the biological response of wildlife to development discusses energy infrastructure as a conduit for the spread of invasive species compares impacts of alternative energy to those of conventional development The final section calls for a shift away from site-level management that has failed to mitigate cumulative impacts on wildlife populations toward broad-scale planning and implementation of conservation in priority landscapes. The book concludes by identifying ways that decision makers can remove roadblocks to conservation, and provides a blueprint for implementing conservation plans. Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America is a must-have volume for elected officials, industry representatives, natural resource managers, conservation groups, and the public seeking to promote energy independence while at the same time protecting wildlife.

Bently Wigley, Victoria H. Zero

Despite the potential synergy that can result from basing management applications on results from research, there is a polarization of cultures between wildlife managers and wildlife researchers. Wildlife Science: Connecting Research with Management provides strategies for bridging cultural and communication gaps between these groups.Contributors p

This useful compendium demonstrates that researchers and scientists should follow their lead.

This open access book reviews the importance of ecological functioning within rangelands considering the complex inter-relationships of production agriculture, ecosystem services, biodiversity, and wildlife habitat. More than half of all lands worldwide, and up to 70% of the western USA, are classified as rangelands—uncultivated lands that often support grazing by domestic livestock. The rangelands of North America provide a vast array of goods and services, including significant economic benefit to local communities, while providing critical habitat for hundreds of species of fish and wildlife. This book provides compendium of recent data and synthesis from more than 100 experts in wildlife and rangeland ecology in Western North America. It provides a current and in-depth synthesis of knowledge related to wildlife ecology in rangeland ecosystems, and the tools used to manage them, to serve current and future wildlife biologists and rangeland managers in the working landscapes of the West. The book also identifies information gaps and serves as a jumping-off point for future research of wildlife in rangeland ecosystems. While the content focuses on wildlife ecology and management in rangelands of Western North America, the material has important implications for rangeland ecosystems worldwide.

In this original report, EIRP President Paul J. Saunders assesses over 100 academic studies and government reports on solar and wind power and presents five key findings. The paper does not encourage or discourage adoption of solar and wind power; instead, it presents information helpful for policymakers, stakeholders, and others interested in solar and wind development.

A book that emphasized the concept of wildlife habitat for a generation of students and professionals is now available to even more readers. "Habitat" is probably the most common term in ecological research. Elementary school students are introduced to the term, college students study the concept in depth, hunters make their plans based on it, nature explorers chat about the different types, and land managers spend enormous time and money modifying and restoring habitats. Although a broad swath of people now have some notion of what habitat is, the scientific community has by and large failed to define it concretely, despite repeated attempts in the literature to come to meaningful conclusions regarding what habitat is and how we should study, manipulate, and ultimately conserve it. Wildlife Habitat Conservation presents an authoritative review of the habitat concept, provides a scientifically rigorous definition, and emphasizes how we must focus on those critical factors contained within what we call habitat. The result is a habitat concept that promises long-term persistence of animal populations. Key concepts and items in the book include: • Rigorous and standard conceptual definitions of wildlife and their habitat. • A discussion of the essential integration of population demographics and population persistence with the concept of habitat. • The importance of carryover and lag effects, behavioral processes, genetics, and species interactions to our understanding of habitat. • An examination of spatiotemporal heterogeneity, realized through fragmentation, disruption to eco-evolutionary processes, and alterations to plant and animal assemblages. • An explanation of how anthropogenic effects alter population size and distribution (isolation), genetic processes, and species diversity (including exotic plants and animals). • Advocacy of proactive management and conservation through predictive modeling, restoration, and monitoring. Each chapter is accessibly written in a style that will be welcomed by private landowners and public resource managers at local, state, and federal levels. Also ideal for undergraduate and graduate natural resource and conservation courses, the book is organized perfectly for a one-semester class. Published in association with The Wildlife Society.

This novel text assembles some of the most intriguing voices in modern conservation biology. Collectively they highlight many of the most challenging questions being asked in conservation science today, each of which will benefit from new experiments, new data, and new analyses. The book's principal aim is to inspire readers to tackle these uncomfortable issues head-on. A second goal is to be reflective and consider how the field has reacted to challenges to orthodoxy, and to what extent have or can these challenges advance conservation science. Furthermore, several chapters discuss how to guard against confirmation bias. The overall goal is that this book will lead to greater conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity by harnessing the engine of constructive scientific scepticism in service of better results.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to the benefits and developments of wind energy, including energy storage and conversion methods, making it a must-read for those interested in sustainable energy. By going through this book, one can learn more about the usefulness of adopting renewable energies, particularly in light of the widespread use of wind-based devices. Here, we present an in-depth presentation of several developments in wind technological systems, focusing on applications and operational approaches. With the depletion of fossil fuel-based energy resources, the development of alternative sources of energy is becoming extremely crucial. Meanwhile, the planet is on the brink of an energy disaster due to the rapidly rising global need for energy. Additionally, the widespread usage of fossil fuel-based energy resources is aggravating global warming and harming the environment. However, there are reliable and eco-friendly substitutes to fossil fuels, for example wind and many other sustainable energies. Considering its low operational costs and easy accessibility, wind is among the most cost-effective and efficient renewable energies. With the increased use of wind energy, the need for storage has become critical. In addition to various storage procedures, fuel cells and batteries are two primary sources of compensation for RE systems. The wind technological system is on the cusp of development, but numerous improvements are required to make this technology overall cost-efficient. In this book, various energy storage and conversion methods for wind power applications are explored. Additionally, this work covers the costs associated with electrical output in wind-powered power plants as well as the financial and environmental plans that describe the installation of wind technology systems.

The 7-volume Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Second Edition maintains the reputation of the highly regarded original, presenting the most current information available in this globally crucial area of research and study. It brings together the dimensions of biodiversity and examines both the services it provides and the measures to protect it. Major themes of the work include the evolution of biodiversity, systems for classifying and defining biodiversity, ecological patterns and theories of biodiversity, and an assessment of contemporary patterns and trends in biodiversity. The science of biodiversity has become the science of our future. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning areas of both physical and life sciences. Our awareness of the loss of biodiversity has brought a long overdue appreciation of the magnitude of this loss and a determination to develop the tools to protect our future. Second edition includes over 100 new articles and 226 updated articles covering this multidisciplinary field— from evolution to habits to economics, in 7 volumes The editors of this edition are all well respected, instantly recognizable academics operating at the top of their respective fields in biodiversity research; readers can be assured that they are reading material that has been meticulously checked and reviewed by experts Approximately 1,800 figures and 350 tables complement the text, and more than 3,000 glossary entries explain key terms