In a society more concerned with how to cope with existential dread than how to make actionable changes to save the planet, a surprisingly large number of Americans identify as environmentalists. What can individual people do to lessen human impacts on the planet? This is not an easy question. Most research is focused on large-scale changes that go beyond anything an individual can accomplish, and people are left feeling defeated rather than inspired to make changes in their everyday lives. Change starts at home, and F Stuart Chapin, III has assembled a book for people who want to learn more about global changes and, more importantly, what they can do about them, starting today. Grassroots Stewardship approaches our current situation with an educated sense of hope and positivity. This book emphasizes actions by individuals, rather than governmental or corporate institutions, to trigger transformational change. Readers will learn what they can do to most significantly transform their communities and the planet with more sustainable pathways.

The individual is engaged in a struggle for existence (Darwin). That struggle may be of two kinds:The acquisition of the resources needed for establishment and growth from a sometimes hostile and meager environment and the struggle with competingneighbors of the same or different species. In some ways, we can define physiology and ecology in terms of these two kinds of struggles. Plant ecology, or plant sociology, is centered on the relationships and interactions of species within communities and the way in which populations of a species are adapted to a characteristic range of environments. Plant physiology is mostly concerned with the individual and its struggle with its environment. At the outset of this book, the authors give their definition of ecophysiology, arriving at the conclusion that it is a point of view about physiology. A point of view that is informed, perhaps, by knowledge of the real world outside the laboratory win dow. A world in which, shall we say, the light intensity is much greater than the 2s 1 200 to 500llmoi photons m- - used in too many environment chambers, and one in which a constant 20°C day and night is a great rarity. The standard conditions used in the laboratory are usually regarded as treatments. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this in principle; one always needs a baseline when making comparisons. The idea, however, that the laboratory control is the norm is false and can lead to misunderstanding and poor predictions of behavior.

The arctic region is predicted to experience the earliest and most pronounced global warming response to human-induced climatic change. This book synthesizes information on the physiological ecology of arctic plants, discusses how physiological processes influence ecosystem processes, and explores how climate warming will affect arctic plants, plant communities, and ecosystem processes. - Reviews the physiological ecology of arctic plants - Explores biotic controls over community and ecosystems processes - Provides physiological bases for predicting how the Arctic will respond to global climate change

The Arctic is one of the world’s regions most affected by cultural, socio-economic, environmental and climatic changes. This book offers key insights into the history, current state of knowledge and the future of sustainability, and sustainable development, research in the Arctic. Written by an international, interdisciplinary team of experts, i