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Global Climate and Ecosystem Change

  • Book
  • © 1990

Overview

Editors:
  1. Gordon J. MacDonald

    1. University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA

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  2. Luigi Sertorio

    1. University of Turin, Turin, Italy

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series B: (NSSB, volume 240)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Climate Dynamics

    1. Global Climate Change

      • Gordon J. MacDonald
      Pages 1-95

    2. Modeling Climate Change

      • Dennis L. Hartmann
      Pages 97-140

  3. Ecosystem Change

    1. The Responses of Terrestrial Ecosystems to Global Climate Change

      • Michael J. Crawley
      Pages 141-164

    2. The Impact of Global Climate Change on Marine Ecosystems

      • Jacqueline M. McGlade
      Pages 165-184

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 245-252
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Keywords

About this book

Humankind's ever-expanding activities have caused environmental changes that reach beyond localities and regions to become global in scope. Disturbances to the atmosphere, oceans, and land produce changes in the living parts of the planet, while, at the same time, alterations in the biosphere modify the atmosphere, oceans, and land. Understanding this complex web of interactions poses unprecedented intellectual challenges. The atmospheric concentrations of natural trace gases-carbon dioxide (C0 ), methane (CH. ), nitrous oxide (N0), and lower-atmosphere ozone 2 2 (Os)-have increased since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Industrial gases such as the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are not part of the natural global ecosystem, are increasing at much greater rates than are the naturally occurring trace gases. All these gases absorb and emit infrared radiation and thus have the potential for altering global climate. The major terrestrial biomes are also changing. Although world attention has focused on deforestation, particularly in tropical areas, the development of agriculture, the diversion of water resources, and urbanization have all modified terrestrial ecosystems in both obvious and subtle ways. The terrestrial biosphere, by taking up atmospheric carbon dioxide, acts as a primary determinant of the overall carbon balance of the global ecosystem. Although the ways in which the biosphere absorbs carbon are, as yet, poorly understood, the destruction (and regrowth) of forests certainly alter this process.

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA

    Gordon J. MacDonald

  • University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Luigi Sertorio

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Global Climate and Ecosystem Change

  • Editors: Gordon J. MacDonald, Luigi Sertorio

  • Series Title: NATO Science Series B:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2483-4

  • Publisher: Springer New York, NY

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 1990

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-306-43715-1Published: 31 January 1991

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4899-2485-8Published: 29 June 2013

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4899-2483-4Published: 21 November 2013

  • Series ISSN: 0258-1221

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 252

  • Topics: Ecology, Environmental Management, Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics

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