community ecology: Ecological succession). Both
plant and animal ecology developed separately until American
biologists emphasized the interrelation of both plant and animal
communities as a biotic whole.
Photograph:Konrad Lorenz. Konrad Lorenz.
Hermann Kacher During the same period, interest in
population dynamics developed. The study of
population dynamics received special impetus in the early 19th
century, after the English economist
Thomas
Malthus called attention to the conflict between expanding
populations and the capability of Earth to supply food. In the
1920s the American zoologist Raymond Pearl, the American chemist
and statistician Alfred J. Lotka, and the Italian mathematician
Vito Volterra developed mathematical foundations
for the study of populations, and these studies led to experiments
on the interaction of predators and prey, competitive relationships
between species, and the regulation of populations. Investigations
of the influence of behaviour on populations were stimulated by the
recognition in 1920 of territoriality in nesting birds. Concepts of
instinctive and aggressive behaviour were developed by the Austrian
zoologist
Konrad Lorenz and the Dutch-born British
zoologist
Nikolaas Tinbergen, and the role of
social behaviour in the regulation of populations was explored by
the British zoologist Vero Wynne-Edwards. (
See
population ecology.)
While some ecologists were studying the dynamics of communities and
populations, others were concerned with energy budgets. In 1920
August Thienemann, a German freshwater biologist, introduced the
concept of trophic, or feeding, levels (
see trophic
level), by which the energy of food is transferred through
a series of organisms, from green plants (the producers) up to
several levels of animals (the consumers). An English animal
ecologist,
Charles Elton (1927), further developed
this approach with the concept of ecological
niches and pyramids of numbers. In the 1930s,
American freshwater biologists Edward Birge and Chancey Juday, in
measuring the energy budgets of lakes, developed the idea of
primary productivity, the rate at which food
energy is generated, or fixed, by
photosynthesis.
In 1942 Raymond L. Lindeman of the United States developed the
trophic-dynamic concept of ecology, which details the flow of
energy through the ecosystem. Quantified field studies of
energy flow through ecosystems were further
developed by the brothers Eugene Odum and Howard Odum of the United
States; similar early work on the cycling of
nutrients was done by J.D. Ovington of England and
Australia. (
See community ecology: Trophic pyramids
and the flow of energy;
biosphere: The flow of
energy and
nutrient cycling.)
The study of both energy flow and nutrient cycling was stimulated
by the development of new materials and
techniques radioisotope tracers, microcalorimetry, computer
science, and applied mathematics that enabled ecologists to
label, track, and measure the movement of particular nutrients and
energy through ecosystems. These modern methods (
see below
Methods in ecology) encouraged a new stage in the
development of ecology systems ecology, which is concerned
with the structure and function of ecosystems.
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relationships between organisms and their environment. Some of the
most pressing problems in human affairs expanding populations,
food scarcities, environmental pollution including global warming,
extinctions of plant and animal species, and all the attendant
sociological and political problems are to a great degree
ecological.
human ecology
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Long before the arrival of Christopher Columbus and before
the incursions of the Spanish explorers and conquistadores in
the 15th and 16th centuries, the Americas were home for
thousands of years to a variety of civilizations and empires.
As the understanding of agriculture improved and larger
populations could be supported, small settlements grew into
vast urban centres ruled by an aristocracy that was looked
to among other things for propitiation of the gods.
These civilizations waxed and waned (producing calendars and a
writing system as well as huge building complexes) according to
a natural order until the Spanish conquest. The resultant
colonization wrought many changes, notably an overlay of the
Spanish language, now the official language of most countries
lying south of the United States. But less obviously, it
brought cross-fertilization, a unique blending of local
cultures with that of remote Spain and later of Africa as well,
a melding that resulted in a distinctively Latin American style
that was apparent in everything from art, dance, music, and
literature to leadership. capital casebook equity
We invite you to explore the people, places, events, and
traditions that have shaped and continue to shape the
vibrant Hispanic culture that thrives today in South, Central,
and North America: people such as the gifted writer and
Nobelist Octavio Paz, the talented dancer and
choreographer Alicia Alonso, the celebrated
liberator Sim n Bol var, the
notorious dictator Augusto Pinochet, and the
brilliant business leader Roberto Crispulo
Goizueta; the various countries of Latin America;
historical events such as the Mexican War
(1846 48) and the Battle of Ayacucho
(1824); and cultural celebrations such as Cinco de
Mayo and the Day of the Dead. private investment in public
The Brezhnev era (1964 82) The Gorbachev era:
perestroika and glasnost Collapse of the Soviet Union
Post-Soviet Russia
The Yeltsin presidency (1991 99)
Economic reforms Political and social changes Ethnic relations and
Russia's near-abroad Foreign affairs
Rewriting history The Putin presidency Separatism The
oligarchs Political and economic reforms Additional
Reading Land
People General works From the
beginnings to 1700 The 18th century Russia from 1801 to 1904 Russia
from 1905 to 1917
Russia Land
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Graham Smith,
The Post-Soviet States: Mapping the Politics of
Transition (1999), explores Russia's transition into democracy,
particularly with respect to the states that now border the
country. Blair A. Ruble, Jodi Koehn, and Nancy E. Popson (eds.),
Fragmented Space in the Russian Federation (2001), combines
the efforts of Western and Russian geographers in a collective
monograph. Of similar origin and character is George J. Demko,
Gregory Ioffe, and Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya (eds.),
Population
Under Duress: The Geodemography of Post-Soviet Russia (1999).
Information about Russia's forests and deforestation is presented
in Friends of the Siberian Forests, Bureau for Regional Outreach
Campaigns, and Anatoly Lebedev,
The Wild East: Trees in Transit:
The Timber Trade Between Siberia, the Russian Far East, and
China (2001); Alexey Yu. Yaroshenko, Peter V. Potapov, and
Svetlana A. Turubanova,
The Last Intact Forest Landscapes of
Northern European Russia: Mapping of Intact Forest Landscapes in
Northern European Russia Using High-Resolution Satellite Images:
Methods and Results (2001); and Alexey Morozov,
Survey of
Illegal Forest Felling Activities in Russia (2000). Ecological
damage suffered during the Soviet period is discussed in Ze'ev
Wolfson ( Boris Komarov ),
The Geography of Survival: Ecology in
the Post-Soviet Era (1994); and Murray Feshbach,
Ecological
Disaster: Cleaning Up the Hidden Legacy of the Soviet Regime
(1995).
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Russia, flag of horizontally striped
white-blue-red national flag. Its width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3.
Franz Josef Land archipelago of 191 islands
in the northeastern Barents Sea, the northernmost territory of
Russia. It falls administratively into Arkhangelsk oblast
(province). The islands, with a land area of 6, 229 square miles
(16, 134 square km), consist of three groups. The easternmost
includes Rudolf Island, whose Fligeli Cape is the northernmost
point in Russia, and the large islands ...
Combating the Land Mine Scourge U.S.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher has called them "weapons of
mass destruction in slow motion"--the 110 million land mines buried
in 68 countries stretching from Cambodia to Costa Rica. The United
Nations has estimated that they kill or maim roughly 20, 000 people
each year. Most of the casualties are innocent civilians, many of
them children, because practically ...
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Britannica articles, specially written for elementary and high
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Russia in North America from
the America, discovery and colonization of
article The
expansion of Russia into North America began during the reign of
Peter the Great, the czar who ruled from 1689 to 1725. He was
determined to compete with other European nations in getting a
foothold in the New World. The expansion of the Siberian fur trade
motivated the explorations that eventually resulted in the
discovery of Alaska.
Land
Relief
Map/Still
Map/Still:The Midwest.
The Midwest. North of the Missouri River, in the glaciated section,
Missouri's landscape is characterized by gently rolling hills;
open, fertile plains; and well-watered prairie country. South of
the Missouri, except in the extreme southeastern corner of the
state and along the western boundary, the land is rough and hilly,
with some deep, narrow valleys and clear, swift streams. It is a
region abounding with caves and extraordinarily large natural
springs. Much of the land is 1, 000 to 1, 400 feet (300 to 425
metres) above sea level. Near the western border, however, the
elevation rarely exceeds 700 to 800 feet, and in southeastern
Missouri, a part of the alluvial plain of the Mississippi, it is
less than 500 feet. The St. Francois Mountains in the eastern
Ozarks exhibit igneous granite and rhyolite outcroppings, while the
rest of the state is underlain by sedimentary rocks, mainly
limestones, dolomites, sandstone, and shale. Missouri is
tectonically stable except for the southeastern portion, where
small earth tremors occur. The possibility of another devastating
earthquake of a magnitude comparable to those centred at New Madrid
in 1811 12 cannot be discounted.
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Encyclop dia Britannica articles, from the full 32 volume
encyclopedia Missouri constituent state of
the United States of America. To the north lies Iowa; across the
Mississippi River to the east, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee;
to the south, Arkansas; and to the west, Oklahoma, Kansas, and
Nebraska. With the exception of Tennessee, Missouri has more
neighbouring states than any other U.S. state. The area of Missouri
is 69, 697 square miles ...
North American Indian people of the Chiwere branch of the Siouan
language family. In their historic past the Missouri people,
together with the Iowa and the Oto, separated from the Ho-Chunk
(Winnebago) and moved southwest. The Missouri tribe settled at the
confluence of the Grand and Missouri rivers in what is now
Missouri, U.S., while the Oto continued to travel up the ...
flagship of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in World War II and scene of the
Japanese surrender. One of the four battleships of the Iowa class
that were completed during the war, the USS Missouri numbered among
the largest warships afloat, displacing 58, 000 tons, carrying a
main battery of nine 16-inch guns, and capable of a speed of 35
knots. The ship participated in combat ...
Missouri Plan method of selecting judges that
originated in the state of Missouri and subsequently was adopted by
other U.S. jurisdictions. It involves the creation of a nominating
commission that screens judicial candidates and submits to the
appointing authority (such as the governor) a limited number of
names of individuals considered to be qualified. The appointing
authority ...
Missouri River longest tributary of the
Mississippi River, formed by the confluence of the Jefferson,
Madison, and Gallatin rivers in the Rocky Mountain area of
southwestern Montana (Gallatin county), U.S., about 4, 000 feet (1,
200 m) above sea level. The Missouri flows eastward to central
North Dakota, where it turns southward across South Dakota to form
a section of the South ...
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Britannica articles, specially written for elementary and high
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Missouri The middle-of-the-road
state of Missouri stands nearly midcenter in the coterminous United
States. It shares its borders with eight states of the Midwest,
South, and Southwest Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
Missouri Compromise In February 1819 the slavery
issue in the United States was dramatically brought to everyone's
attention. People were awakened to the gravity of the issue, in the
words of elder statesman Thomas Jefferson, as though a fire
bell had rung in the night.
Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod
monebaggasse
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