Vegetation and climate interactions in semi-arid regions

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-VII

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2. Overview

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Desertification and global change

      • M. M. Verstraete, S. A. Schwartz

      Pages 3-13

   3. The role of land use planning in semi-arid areas

      • B. R. Roberts

      Pages 15-21

   4. The El Niño / Southern Oscillation and Australian vegetation

      • N. Nicholls

      Pages 23-36

3. Measurement

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37

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   2. Extrapolation of ‘point’ measurements of evaporation: some issues of scale

      • F. X. Dunin

      Pages 39-47

   3. Towards a better model of the effect of prostrate vegetation cover on wind erosion

      • J. F. Leys

      Pages 49-58

   4. The potential contribution of satellite remote sensing to the understanding of arid lands processes

      • M. M. Verstraete, B. Pinty

      Pages 59-72

   5. Sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the soil-plant environment

      • O. T. Denmead

      Pages 73-86

4. Modelling

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. The simulation and prediction of drought

      • B. G. Hunt

      Pages 89-103

   3. Vegetation-atmosphere interaction in homogeneous and heterogeneous terrain: some implications of mixed-layer dynamics

      • M. R. Raupach

      Pages 105-120

   4. Sensitivity of the land surface to sub-grid scale processes: implications for climate simulations

      • A. J. Pitman

      Pages 121-134

   5. Predicting evaporation at the catchment scale using a coupled canopy and mixed layer model

      • H. A. Cleugh

      Pages 135-148

   6. Developing an interactive biosphere for global climate models

      • A. Henderson-Sellers

      Pages 149-166

5. Management

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 167-167

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   2. Historical perspectives on some vegetation and soil changes in semi-arid New South Wales

      • P. B. Mitchell

      Pages 169-182

   3. Available soil moisture as a basis for land capability assessment in semi arid regions

      • D. A. Thomas, V. R. Squires

      Pages 183-189

   4. Land management in semi-arid environments of New South Wales

      • John Pickard

      Pages 191-208

The chapters in this section place the problems of vegetation and climate interactions in semi-arid regions into the context which recur throughout the book. First, Verstraete and Schwartz review desertification as a process of global change evaluating both the human and climatic factors. The theme of human impact and land management is discussed further by Roberts whose review focuses on semi-arid land-use planning. In the third and final chapter in this section we return to the meteorological theme. Nicholls reviews the effects of El Nino/Southern Oscillation on Australian vegetation stressing, in particular, the interaction between plants and their climatic environment. Vegetatio 91: 3-13, 1991. 3 A. Henderson-Sellers and A. J. Pitman (eds). Vegetation and climate interactions in semi-arid regions. © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Desertification and global change 2 M. M. Verstraete! & S. A. Schwartz ! Institute for Remote Sensing Applications, CEC Joint Research Centre, Ispra Establishment, TP 440, 1-21020 Ispra (Varese), Italy; 2 Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109-2143, USA Accepted 24. 8. 1990 Abstract Arid and semiarid regions cover one third of the continental areas on Earth. These regions are very sensitive to a variety of physical, chemical and biological degradation processes collectively called desertification.

• Greenhouse gas
• Scale
• Southern Oscillation
• Vegetation
• biosphere
• environment
• moisture
• satellite

`I can certainly recommend this collection. The undergraduate student should certainly find this a very useful reference text but the general reader will find much to interest and inform.'
International Journal of Climatology, 12

` This book is an impressive and truly interdisciplinary collection of outstading scientific contributions on various aspects of semi-arid lands. Even though this book is strongly focused on the semi-arid lands of Australia, agronomists, ecologists, and climatologists from all over the world will find it of great interest. They will not be disappointed. '
Acta Oecologica, 14:1

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