ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: The copper-cobalt outcrops of Upper Katanga and north-western Zambia host a particular flora which comprises an estimated 750 species of which more than 400 are treated in this copper-cobalt field guide. The aim of this book, resulting from several years of intensive field work and study, is to bring together the basic knowledges permitting an easy approach to the identification of a great number of the species to be encountered. More than 400 species are illustrated with color photographs and/or drawings together with comments concerning synonyms, habit, description, ecology and distribution. Plant species are listed and colour-coded according to classification: Cyanoprocaryota, lichenized Fungi, Anthocerophyta, Marchantiophyta and Bryophyta (red edge), Lycophyta and Monilophyta (green edge), Magnoliopsida (blue edge) and Liliopsida (yellow edge). An index allows easy location either according to genus and species. An account of the research on copper-cobalt ecosystems carried out during the last ten years in southeastern D.R. Congo is also presented. The editors have spent more than twenty years in the area concerned and have collected more than 8,500 voucher specimens, including eleven species new to science (holotypes).

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Hyper-Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Selected Bio-Inspired Combinatorial Optimization Problems by Aleksandra Swiercz --- Chapter 2: Multi-Objective Hyper-Heuristics by Mashael Suliaman Maashi --- Chapter 3: Heuristics Techniques for Scheduling Problems with Reducing Waiting Time Variance by Satyasundara Mahapatra, Rati Ranjan Dash and Sateesh K. Pradhan --- Chapter 4: Efficient Heuristics for Scheduling with Release and Delivery Times by Nodari Vakhania --- Chapter 5: Advanced Particle Filter Methods by Roi Yozevitch and Boaz Ben-Moshe --- Chapter 6: On the Use of Hybrid Heuristics for Providing Service to Select the Return Channel in an Interactive Digital TV Environment by Marcos César da Rocha Seruffo, Ádamo Lima de Santana, Carlos Renato Lisboa Francês and Nandamudi Lankalapalli Vijaykumar

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Roles of the Environment in Plant Life-History Trade-offs by Yang Liu, Jeffrey L. Walck and Yousry A. El-Kassaby --- Chapter 2: Decoding the Transcriptome of Rice Seed During Development by Arunima Mahto, Iny Elizebeth Mathew and Pinky Agarwal --- Chapter 3: Transcriptome (ESTs) of Avocado “Native” Mexicano Early Seed Development Shows Abundance of Regulatory, Antioxidant and Defense Genes by Luis María Suárez-Rodríguez, Fernando Sánchez-Albarrán, Huber León-Corona and Rodolfo López-Gómez --- Chapter 4: Identification and Mapping of Phosphorylated Isoforms of the Major Storage Protein of Potato Based on Two- Dimensional Electrophoresis by Javier Bernal, María López-Pedrouso, Daniel Franco, Susana Bravo, Lucio García and Carlos Zapata --- Chapter 5: Seed Dormancy by Mustafa Yildiz, Ramazan Beyaz, Mehtap Gursoy, Murat Aycan, Yusuf Koc and Mustafa Kayan --- Chapter 6: Characterization of Genotype by Planting Date Effects on Runner-Type Peanut Seed Germination and Vigor Response to Temperature by Timothy L. Grey, Charles Y. Chen, Russell Nuti, Walter Scott Monfort and George Cutts III --- Chapter 7: Impact of Conditions of Water Supply on the Germination of Tomato and Pepper Seeds by Yekaterina Shapira, Edward Bormashenko, Gene Whyman, Bat- Chen Lubin and Elyashiv Drori --- Chapter 8: Metabolic Processes During Seed Germination by Awatif S. Ali and Alaaeldin A. Elozeiri --- Chapter 9: Free Radicals and Antioxidant System in Seed Biology by Fadime Eryılmaz Pehlivan --- Chapter 10: Anatomical and Chemical Insights into the White Clover (Trifolium repens L.) Seed Coat Associated to Water Permeability by Alberto Aníbal Galussi and María Esther Moya --- Chapter 11: Morphological Studies on Seeds of Scrophulariaceae s.l. and Their Systematic Significance by Balkrishna Ghimire, Go Eun Choi, Hayan Lee, Kweon Heo and Mi Jin Jeong --- Chapter 12: Seed Transmission of Tobamoviruses: Aspects of Global Disease Distribution by Aviv Dombrovsky and Elisheva Smith --- Chapter 13: Biology of Seed Vigor in the Light of -omics Tools by Isaac Oludayo Daniel --- Chapter 14: The Potential of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) Seeds for Development of Functional Foods by Chandra Shekhar Singh and Vinod Kumar Paswan --- Chapter 15: Genetic Improvement of Oilseed Crops Using Modern Biotechnology by Diego Villanueva-Mejia and Javier Correa Alvarez --- Chapter 16: Application of Mechanics to Plant Seeds as a Granular or Particulate Material by Michal Petrů and Ivan Mašín

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Tacit Knowledge Sharing: A Literature Review Applied to the Context of the Brazilian Judiciary by José Roberto Ferretti and Maria da Conceição L. Afonso --- Chapter 2: Knowledge Sharing and Human Resource Development in Innovative Organizations by Michael Beyerlein, Rachele Collins, Shinhee Jeong, Christi Phillips, Suravee Sunalai and Lei Xie --- Chapter 3: Network Market Orientation, Knowledge Management and Born Globals’ Competitiveness by Diego Monferrer Tirado and Marta Estrada Guillén --- Chapter 4: Knowledge Management Hybrid Strategy with People, Technology and Process Pillars by Ivy Chan --- Chapter 5: Knowledge Management for Informally Structured Domains: Challenges and Proposals by Karla Olmos-Sánchez and Jorge Rodas-Osollo --- Chapter 6: Performance Management by Causal Mapping: An Application Field of Knowledge Management by Sarah Kölbel, Wolfgang Ossadnik and Stefan Gergeleit --- Chapter 7: Intelligent Knowledge Retrieval from Industrial Repositories by Antonio Martin, Mauricio Burbano and Carlos León --- Chapter 8: Affective Technology Acceptance Model: Extending Technology Acceptance Model with Positive and Negative Affect by Angela Lee Siew Hoong, Lip Sam Thi and Mei-Hua Lin --- Chapter 9: The Impact of the Internet of Things to Value Added in Knowledge-Intensive Organizations by Maja Meško, Jana Suklan and Vasja Roblek --- Chapter 10: Knowledge Management Trends in Biotechnology in Brazil by Maria de Fátima Ebole Santana --- Chapter 11: Exploring the Impact of Online Clinical Guidelines on Individual Knowledge Management Behaviors and Individual Net Benefits by Shofang Chang, Tain-Junn Cheng and Chung-Hsien Chan --- Chapter 12: Knowledge-Based Assignment Model for Allocation of Employees in Engineering-to-Order Production by Matjaz Roblek, Maja Zajec and Benjamin Urh --- Chapter 13: An Examination of the Knowledge Management Process in the Emerging Chinese Hotel Industry by Tommy Wong, Linda French and Mark Wickham --- Chapter 14: Widening the Understanding of Risk Approaches by Comparing Definitions from Different Disciplines by Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff, Peter Wiedemann, Balázs Ádám, Joachim Schüz, Kristian Breum Ølgaard, Pernille Tanggaard Andersen, Steven Ndugwa Kabwama and Jesper Bo Nielsen

Description / Table of Contents: The Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project: Phase I Activities by a Global Community of Science (Cynthia Rosenzweig, James W Jones, Jerry L Hatfield, John M Antle, Alexander C Ruane, and Carolyn Z Mutter) --- AgMIP's Transdisciplinary Agricultural Systems Approach to Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (John M Antle, Roberto O Valdivia, Kenneth J Boote, Sander Janssen, James W Jones, Cheryl H Porter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, and Peter J Thorburn) --- AgMIP Climate Data and Scenarios for Integrated Assessment (Alexander C Ruane, Jonathan M Winter, Sonali P McDermid, and Nicholas I Hudson) --- Cropping Systems Modeling in AgMIP: A New Protocol-Driven Approach for Regional Integrated Assessments (Peter J Thorburn, Kenneth J Boote, John N G Hargreaves, Perry L Poulton, and James W Jones) --- Representative Agricultural Pathways and Scenarios for Regional Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation (Roberto O Valdivia, John M Antle, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Joost Vervoort, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ibrahima Hathie, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Richard Mulwa, Charles Nhemachena, Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Herath Rasnayaka, and Harbir Singh) --- Data Interoperability Tools for Regional Integrated Assessments (Cheryl H Porter, Chris Villalobos, Dean Holzworth, Roger Nelson, Jefffrey W White, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, Meng Zhang, Sander Janssen, Rob Knapen, James W Jones, Kenneth J Boote, John Hargreaves, and John M Antle) --- The AgMIP GRIDded Crop Modeling Initiative (AgGRID) and the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) (Joshua Elliott and Christoph Müller) --- The AgMIP Coordinated Climate-Crop Modeling Project (C3MP): Methods and Protocols (Sonali P McDermid, Alexander C Ruane, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Nicholas I Hudson, Monica D Morales, Prabodha Agalawatte, Shakeel Ahmad, L R Ahuja, Istiqlal Amien, Saseendran S Anapalli, Jakarat Anothai, Senthold Asseng, Jody Biggs, Federico Bert, Patrick Bertuzzi, Virender S Bhatia, Marco Bindi, Ian Broad, Davide Cammarano, Ramiro Carretero, Ashfaq Ahmad Chattha, Uran Chung, Stephanie Debats, Paola Deligios, Giacomo De Sanctis, Thanda Dhliwayo, Benjamin Dumont, Lyndon Estes, Frank Ewert, Roberto Ferrise, Thomas Gaiser, Guillermo Garcia, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Vellingiri Geethalakshmi, Edward Gerardeaux, Richard Goldberg, Brian Grant, Edgardo Guevara, Jonathan Hickman, Holger Hoffmann, Huanping Huang, Jamshad Hussain, Flavio Barbosa Justino, Asha S Karunaratne, Ann-Kristin Koehler, Patrice K Kouakou, Soora Naresh Kumar, Arunachalam Lakshmanan, Mark Lieffering, Xiaomao Lin, Qunying Luo, Graciela Magrin, Marco Mancini, Fabio Ricardo Marin, Anna Dalla Marta, Yuji Masutomi, Theodoros Mavromatis, Greg McLean, Santiago Meira, Monoranjan Mohanty, Marco Moriondo, Wajid Nasim, Lamyaa Negm, Francesca Orlando, Simone Orlandini, Isik Ozturk, Helena Maria Soares Pinto, Guillermo Podesta, Zhiming Qi, Johanna Ramarohetra, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Helene Raynal, Gabriel Rodriguez, Reimund Rötter, Vaishali Sharda, Lu Shuo, Ward Smith, Val Snow, Afshin Soltani, K Srinivas, Benjamin Sultan, Dillip Kumar Swain, Fulu Tao, Kindie Tesfaye, Maria I Travasso, Giacomo Trombi, Alex Topaj, Eline Vanuytrecht, Federico E Viscarra, Syed Aftab Wajid, Enli Wang, Hong Wang, Jing Wang, Erandika Wijekoon, Lee Byun-Woo, Yang Xiaoguang, Ban Ho Young, Jin I Yun, Zhigan Zhao, and Lareef Zubair) --- Uncertainty in Agricultural Impact Assessment (Daniel Wallach, Linda O Mearns, Michael Rivington, John M Antle, and Alexander C Ruane) --- Uncertainties in Scaling-Up Crop Models for Large-Area Climate Change Impact Assessments (Frank Ewert, Lenny G J van Bussel, Gang Zhao, Holger Hoffmann, Thomas Gaiser, Xenia Specka, Claas Nendel, Kurt-Christian Kersebaum, Carmen Sosa, Elisabet Lewan, Jagadeesh Yeluripati, Matthias Kuhnert, Fulu Tao, Reimund Rötter, Julie Constantin, Helene Raynal, Daniel Wallach, Edmar Teixeira, Balasz Grosz, Michaela Bach, Luca Doro, Pier Paolo Roggero, Zhigan Zhao, Enli Wang, Ralf Kiese, Edwin Haas, Henrik Eckersten, Giacomo Trombi, Marco Bindi, Christian Klein, Christian Biernath, Florian Heinlein, Eckart Priesack, Davide Cammarano, Senthold Asseng, Joshua Elliott, Michael Glotter, Bruno Basso, Guillermo A Baigorria, Consuelo C Romero, and Marco Moriondo) --- Statistical Analysis of Large Simulated Yield Datasets for Studying Climate Change Effects (David Makowski, Senthold Asseng, Frank Ewert, Simona Bassu, Jean-Louis Durand, Pierre Martre, Myriam Adam, Pramod K Aggarwal, Carlos Angulo, Christian Baron, Bruno Basso, Patrick Bertuzzi, Christian Biernath, Hendrik Boogaard, Kenneth J Boote, Nadine Brisson, Davide Cammarano, Andrew J Challinor, Sjakk J G Conijn, Marc Corbeels, Delphine Deryng, Giacomo De Sanctis, Jordi Doltra, Sebastian Gayler, Richard Goldberg, Patricio Grassini, Jerry L Hatfield, Lee Heng, Steven Hoek, Josh Hooker, Tony L A Hunt, Joachim Ingwersen, Cesar Izaurralde, Raymond E E Jongschaap, James W Jones, Armen R Kemanian, Christian Kersebaum, Soo-Hyung Kim, Jon Lizaso, Christoph Müller, Naresh S Kumar, Claas Nendel, Garry J O'Leary, Jorgen E Olesen, Tom M Osborne, Taru Palosuo, Maria V Pravia, Eckart Priesack, Dominique Ripoche, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Alexander C Ruane, Fredirico Sau, Mickhail A Semenov, Iurii Shcherbak, Pasquale Steduto, Claudio Stöckle, Pierre Stratonovitch, Thilo Streck, Iwan Supit, Fulu Tao, Edmar I Teixeira, Peter Thorburn, Denis Timlin, Maria Travasso, Reimund Rötter, Katharina Waha, Daniel Wallach, Jeffrey W White, Jimmy R Williams, and Joost Wolf) --- Crop Diseases and Climate Change in the AgMIP Framework (Ariena H C van Bruggen, James W Jones, Jose Mauricio C Fernandes, Karen Garrett, and Kenneth J Boote) --- Perspectives on Climate Effects on Agriculture: The International Efforts of AgMIP in Sub-Saharan Africa (Job Kihara, Dilys S MacCarthy, Andre Bationo, Saidou Koala, Jonathan Hickman, Jawoo Koo, Charles Vanya, Samuel Adiku, Yacob Beletse, Patricia Masikate, Karuturi P C Rao, Carolyn Z Mutter, Cynthia Rosenzweig, and James W Jones) --- Climate Change Impacts on West African Agriculture: An Integrated Regional Assessment (CIWARA) (Samuel G K Adiku, Dilys S MacCarthy, Ibrahima Hathie, Madina Diancoumba, Bright S Freduah, Joseph Amikuzuno, P C Sibiry Traore, Seydou Traore, Eric Koomson, Alhassane Agali, Jon I Lizaso, Dougbedji Fatondji, Myriam Adams, Lodoun Tigana, Daouda Z Diarra, Ousmane N'diaye, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Agricultural Systems in East Africa (Karuturi P C Rao, Gummadi Sridhar, Richard M Mulwa, Mary N Kilavi, Anthony Esilaba, Ioannis N Athanasiadis, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Projected Impacts of Climate Change Scenarios on the Production of Maize in Southern Africa: An Integrated Assessment Case Study of the Bethlehem District, Central Free State, South Africa (Yacob G Beletse, Wiltrud Durand, Charles Nhemachena, Olivier Crespo, Weldemichael A Tesfuhuney, Matthew R Jones, Mogos Y Teweldemedhin, Sunshine M Gamedze, Pontsho M Bonolo, Syanda Jonas, SueWalker, Patrick Gwimbi, Thembeka N Mpuisang, Davide Cammarano, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Crop-Livestock Intensification in the Face of Climate Change: Exploring Opportunities to Reduce Risk and Increase Resilience in Southern Africa by Using an Integrated Multi-modeling Approach (Patricia Masikati, Sabine Homann-Kee Tui, Katrien Descheemaeker, Olivier Crespo, Sue Walker, Christopher J Lennard, Lieven Claessens, Arthur C Gama, Sebastiao Famba, Andre F van Rooyen, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessments of the Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture: An Overview of AgMIP Regional Research in South Asia (Sonali P McDermid, Guntuku Dileepkumar, K M Dakshina Murthy, S Nedumaran, Piara Singh, Chukka Srinivasa, B Gangwar, N Subash, Ashfaq Ahmad, Lareef Zubair, and S P Nissanka) --- Impact of Climate Change on the Rice–Wheat Cropping System of Pakistan (Ashfaq Ahmad, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ghulam Rasul, Syed Aftab Wajid, Tasneem Khaliq, Fahd Rasul, Umer Saeed, Muhammad Habib ur Rahman, Jamshad Hussain, Irfan Ahmad Baig, Syed Asif Ali Naqvi, Syed Ahsan Ali Bokhari, Shakeel Ahmad, Wajid Naseem, Gerrit Hoogenboom, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Climate Change Assessment through Linking Crop Simulation with Economic Modeling — Results from the Indo-Gangetic Basin (Nataraja Subash, Babooji Gangwar, Harbir Singh, Guillermo Baigorria, Alok Kumar Sikka, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Integrated Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Maize Farms and Farm Household Incomes in South India: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu (Paramasivam Ponnusamy, Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Raji Reddy Danda, Lakshmanan Arunachalam, Dakshina Murthy, Sunandini Prema, Sreenivas Gade, Sonali P McDermid, and Roberto O Valdivia) --- Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka (Lareef Zubair, Sarath P Nissanka, W M W Weerakoon, Dumindu I Herath, Asha S Karunaratne, A S M Prabodha, M B Agalawatte, Rasnayaka M Herath, S Zeenas Yahiya, B V R Punyawardene, Janan Vishwanathan, Punya Delpitiya, A Erandika N Wijekoon, Janaka Gunaratna, Sewwandhi S K Chandrasekara, P Wickramagamage, K D N Weerasinghe, Champa M Navaratne, Ruchika S Perera, Asela I Gunesekara, G M Pradeep Kumara, Daniel Wallach, Roberto O Valdivia, and Sonali P McDermid) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The Brazil Experience (Eduardo D Assad, Fábio R Marin, Roberto O Valdivia, and Cynthia Rosenzweig) --- AgMIP Regional Activities in a Global Framework: The China Experience (Fulu Tao and Erda Lin) --- AgMIP Training in Multiple Crop Models and Tools (Kenneth J Boote, Cheryl H Porter, John Hargreaves, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Peter Thorburn, and Carolyn Mutter) --- Major Findings and Future Activities (Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel)

Description / Table of Contents: The “landscape Approach” is widely promoted as a way to reconcile biodiversity conservation with both commercial agriculture and local peoples’ demands for land. Landscape approaches imply a strong role for local communities in decision making and, therefore, local citizen science plays a role in determining landscape outcomes (Sayer et al., under review). Many claims and counter claims are made about the success and failure of local management in achieving good forest outcomes. There is significant uncertainty about the incentives for local people to manage forests for their global carbon storage and biodiversity values. Local people may be more concerned about immediate economic returns and less about the long term global environmental values of their forests. This Special Issue seeks to assemble papers that provide empirical evidence for the success of landscape and community managed initiatives to conserve biodiversity. We are seeking papers that report upon successful biodiversity conservation projects that have operated at a landscape scale and those that have been led by local communities. We are also interested in cases where these approaches were attempted but were less successful. Our ultimate goals is to identify the conditions under which these approaches have succeeded and those where they have been less successful.

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introductory Chapter: The Main Directions and Tasks of Pure and Applied Biogeography in Solving the Global Problems of Our Time by Levente Hufnagel --- Chapter 2: Are Historical Biogeographical Events Able to Promote Biological Diversification? by Julián A. Velasco --- Chapter 3: Ecological Responses to Climate Change at Biogeographical Boundaries by Melinda Pálinkás --- Chapter 4: A Synopsis of Global Mapping of Freshwater Habitats and Biodiversity: Implications for Conservation by Ryan A. McManamay, Natalie A. Griffiths, Christoper R. DeRolph and Brenda M. Pracheil --- Chapter 5: Plant Antiherbivore Defense in Diverse Environments by Alina Morquecho-Contreras, Carmen Zepeda-Gómez and Hermilo Sánchez-Sánchez --- Chapter 6: Vachellia (Acacia) karroo Communities in South Africa: An Overview by Mamokete Dingaan and Pieter J. du Preez --- Chapter 7: Ecological Biogeography of West Usambara Mountains: A Study on the Influence of Abiotic Factors to Spatial Distribution of Plant and Animal Species by Joel Loitu Meliyo, Kenneth F.G. Masuki, Balthazar M. Msanya, Didas N. Kimaro and Loth S. Mulungu

Description / Table of Contents: We have long moved on from a mere information age to the era of big data. Here, databases represent both the enormous potential for gaining knowledge of data collection and the alarming information excesses of digital culture. Furthermore, the term refers to concrete technologies and processes of gathering and accessing digital information. Media theory has to locate databases in between these very different conceptions. Marcus Burkhardt retraces the history of databases and asks how technical procedures of processing digital information determine what can be found how in databases and what knowledge can be gained through them. | Wir leben längst nicht mehr nur im Informationszeitalter, sondern in der Ära von Big Data. In dieser steht die Datenbank gleichzeitig für die riesigen Erkenntnispotenziale von Informationssammlungen wie für die bedrohlichen Informationsexzesse der digitalen Medienkultur. Zudem bezeichnet der Begriff konkrete Technologien und Verfahren der Sammlung und Bereitstellung von digitalen Informationen. Zwischen diesen sehr unterschiedlichen Auffassungen gilt es, Datenbanken medientheoretisch zu verorten. Marcus Burkhardt zeichnet die Geschichte der Datenbanken nach und fragt, wie technische Verfahren der Verwaltung digitaler Informationen bedingen, was auf welche Weise in Datenbanken gefunden und durch sie gewusst werden kann.

Description / Table of Contents: According to the 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects by UN DESA, urbanization could add another 2.5 billion people to the urban population by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. The largest urban growth will take place in India, China and Nigeria. This unprecedented increase in urban population not only poses challenges to providing urban jobs, housing, and infrastructure, but also exerts an increased pressure on urban land and sustainability. As land is a vital yet limited resource, sustainable management of urban land to cater to the needs of this growing urban population is seen as one of the key challenges for achieving an economically efficient, socially equitable, and environmentally safe society. A key tenet for sustainable economic development and smart growth is promoting sustainable urban land development and mitigating land use conflicts. While a large body of literature has dealt with both land use and sustainable development, the study of the interactive effects of these two remains limited. We also need more sophisticated empirical studies examining processes, mechanisms, institutions, equity, and sustainability of urban land use. We also encourage efforts to develop new theories, new concepts and new methods to understand the myriad ways in which urban land and sustainable development correlate each other. This special issue examines patterns, structure, and dynamics of urban land development and sustainability from multiple perspectives, in various contexts and at multiple dimensions (economic, social, political, developmental, environmental, etc.).

Description / Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Multi-Species Stand Classification: Definition and Perspectives by Ana Cristina Gonçalves --- Chapter 2: Effects of Experimental Sowing on Agroforestry Ecosystem Primary Production during Recovery from Agricultural Abandonment in a Semi-Arid Region of Central Western Spain by Jimmy-Edgar Alvarez-Diaz, María del Carmen Santa-Regina and Ignacio Santa-Regina --- Chapter 3: Methodological Considerations in the Study of Earthworms in Forest Ecosystems by Dylan Rhea-Fournier and Grizelle González --- Chapter 4: Characterizing Predictability of Fire Occurrence in Tropical Forests and Grasslands: The Case of Puerto Rico by Ana Carolina Monmany, William A. Gould, María José Andrade- Núñez, Grizelle González and Maya Quiñones --- Chapter 5: Remote Sensing and Forest Conservation: Challenges of Illegal Logging in Kursumlija Municipality (Serbia) by Miomir M. Jovanović and Miško M. Milanović --- Chapter 6: From Paper to Carbon Money: Financing Forest Conservation and Offset by Valny Giacomelli Sobrinho