In recent years, the conservation of tropical forests has received worldwide publicity whereas effective forest management, particularly for timber extraction, has attracted little attention and gained some notoriety. The overall aim of the present paper was to examine how environmental micro-variation in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve of Belize can influence species distribution and thereby inform management strategy. The paper deals first with the background to forest management in Belize, then considers the methodology used in the present study and fin~~ly assesses the preliminary results. The specific objectives are: (1) to assess the effects of changing scale on the variability of selected individual soil properties in forest plots within the same vegetation class; and (2) to examine the variation in soil properties and tree species distribution, and to integrate environmental and ecological data over a range of scales. BACKGROUND Whereas the global and regional distribution of tropical forests is broadly governed by climatic and altitudinal variation, individual forest tracts need to consider a range of other, locally important factors to explain species distribution and change. With very high species diversity, tropical forests present a major challenge in the attempt to unravel controlling factors in distribution and growth (Swaine et aI. 1987). Research that attempts to explain diversity has looked at species distribution according to a range of factors, with a general recognition that soil fertility plays a significant if ill defined role (Swaine 1996).

The objective of this document is to illustrate the ways in which Geographical Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and mapping can play a role in the development and management of marine aquaculture. The perspective is global. The approach is to employ example applications that have been aimed at resolving many of the important issues in marine aquaculture. The underlying purpose is to stimulate the interest of individuals in the government, industry and educational sectors of marine aquaculture to make more effective use of these tools. A brief introduction to spatial tools and their use in the marine fisheries sector precedes the example applications. The most recent applications have been selected to be indicative of the state of the art, allowing readers to make their own assessments of the benefits and limitations of use of these tools in their own disciplines. Also published in Chinese and Spanish.

Over the last two decades there has been increasing recognition that problems in oceanography and fisheries sciences and related marine areas are nearly all manifest in the spatio-temporal domain. Geographical Information Systems (GIS), the natural framework for spatial data handling, are being recognized as powerful tools with useful applications

In Indian context.

Geographic Information Systems: Case Studies in Environmental Monitoring provides detailed remote sensing and GIS methods, algorithms and technology comparisons focusing on a wide range of environmental applications. The geoinformation technologies are demonstrated through templated case studies detailing real world use of the techniques and clarifying methods, tools and practical solutions to environmental mapping and monitoring. The book utilizes remote sensing and geospatial data from the most recently launched satellites,and applies the latest geospatial data approaches and analysis software tools (both commercial and open source). Geographic Information Systems: Case Studies in Environmental Monitoring is a comprehensive reference for researchers, academics and technicians in the fields of geospatial science & technology, remote sensing, and environmental science; or those processing and analyzing geospatial data for monitoring and modelling. - Focuses on global, templated case studies of GIS applications to environmental monitoring - Includes methodologies allowing readers to recreate techniques and models and workflows that can be used in their own work - Covers a plethora of topics in applied geosciences, providing environmental and geographical applications of practical interest