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Soils will play a central role in mediating the impact of climate change on natural and managed ecosystems. The book addresses the various responses of soil processes and properties to environmental change and highlights their contribution to the proper understanding of ecosystem behaviour.Topics include: Soil hydrology; landscape evolution; salinisation; desertification; soil nitrogen dynamics; soil carbon; soil microbiology; soil erosion; crop modelling. ... Read more

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Major international, interdisciplinary research programmes arenow underway to increase our understanding of how the Earth Systemoperates and how it is changing through the effects of humanactivities. Although understanding and predictive capacity are stilllimited, scientists already agree that significant global changes mustbe expected in the next 50 years that will affect the capacity of theEarth to sustain life. Governments, business and industry have, therefore, come to recognizethat scientific knowledge about the changing global environment-- as yet incomplete but rapidly evolving -- is becomingindispensable for wise long-term policy making, the goal being todesign preventive, adaptive and remedial measures. Thus global change science and policy making are engaged in a processof forming a new partnership that is taking shape as further insightsevolve. Effective continuous interactions between the partnersrequires mutual understanding: decision-makers need to understand theunique potential but also the limitations of the results of scientificresearch in progress while scientists must take into account thepriorities and constraints of policy-makers in designing andimplementing policies that will promote long-term sustainability oflife on this planet. This book contributes in a unique manner to this mutual understanding:It gives an overview of the ongoing relevant research focusing on thetwo major international programmes, the InternationalGeosphere-Biosphere Programme and the World Climate ResearchProgramme. These are described in terms understandable to theinterested lay reader. The results of the latest review of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are included. This isfollowed by an analysis of the response process that is in progresswith respect to governments -- singly and multilaterally-- by business and industry and by public interest groups. Thisprocess is leading to interactive structures, assessment proceduresand legislation, nationally and internationally. Business and industryare changing from mere watchfulness to recognition of newopportunities for products and processes. Six interviews withprominent figures from business and government circles in theNetherlands provide a vivid illustration of the questions at issue.The appendices provide overviews of methods for incorporating theresults of global change science into policy-making and development oflong lasting projects. Adaptation to climate change serves as anexample. Thus, for the first time, one book describes both ongoingresearch work in global change and the response processes that theresearch results are evoking. It is of interest to all stake-holdersin the scientific community as well as to decision-makers in industry,business and government. ... Read more

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One of major challenges facing Earth's science in the nextdecade and beyondis the development of an accurate longterm observational data set to study global change. Toaccomplish this, a wide range of observations willberequired to provide both new measurements, not previouslyachievable and measurements with a greater degreee ofaccuracy and resolution than the ones which are presentlyand currently available.Among the parametersthat are currently retrieved fromsatellite vertical sounding observations, temperature andmoisture profiles are the most important for thedescriptionof the thermodynamic state of the medium. Other parameters,like those describing the cloud fields, the surface state orthe conditions close to the surface are also key parametersformeteorology and climatology.A new generation of high spectral atmosphericsounders inthe infrared has recently been designed to provide both newand more accurate data about the atmosphere, land and oceansforapplication to climate studies. Among the importantobservations that these instruments should contribute to theclimate data set are day and night global measurements of:atmospheric temperature profiles; relativehumidityprofiles; cloud field parameters; total ozone burden oftheatmosphere; distribution of minor atmospehric gases(methane, carbonmonoxide and nitrous oxide). ... Read more

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There is ever increasing concern about both the ozone depletion in the stratosphere and the increase in the ozone concentration in the troposphere. As a consequence, there is growing interest in total ozone surface and satellite observations, surface UV measurements and the interpretation of results to assess potential impacts of UV radiation enhancement on man and the biosphere. The volume analyses problems of total ozone and UV-B variability. Further, it treats tropospheric ozone changes as well as the responsible factors, such as air pollution, chemical and photochemical reactions coupled with air transport. Some key problems of numerical modelling are also discussed. Another subject is the development of remote sensing techniques to retrieve minor optically active components of the atmosphere. ... Read more

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In regard to global change, emphasis is generally placed on the increase in global temperature, but large changes in the distribution of precipitation are also likely to occur. Such changes have been redorded in the past by paleoclimatological studies or in the field of climatology. Different approaches to monitoring and forecasting the evolution of climate-scale precipitation are reviewed by paleoclimatologists, hydrologists, satellite meteorologists, and climate modellers. ... Read more

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Globally, forest vegetation and soils are both major stores of terrestrial organic carbon, and major contributors to the annual cycling of carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere. Forests are also a renewable resource, vital to the everyday existence of millions of people, since they provide food, shelter, fuel, raw materials and many other benefits. The combined effects of an expanding global population and increasing consumption of resources, however, may be seriously endangering both the extent and future sustainability of the world's forests. About thirty chapters cover four main themes: the role of forests in the global carbon cycle; effects of past, present and future changes in forest land use; the role of forest management, products and biomass on carbon cycling, and socio-economic impacts. ... Read more

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Climate is the most important component of the Earth's environment and climatic fluctuations have a strong impact on water supplies, vegetation, energy use etc. Thus our understanding of the climatic system is of utmost importance. Leading experts in the field of climate modelling and paleoclimatology present the most recent methods for reconstructing past climatic variations and for modelling the climatic system and its evolution. The first of three parts is devoted to the climatic system and the physical basis for its modelling; the second summarizes the evolution of the global atmosphere, the ocean, the continents, the biosphere, and the ice sheets during recent climatic cycles; the last part focusses on the understanding of past and future climatic changes. ... Read more

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The current climatic changes mean increasing environmental stress on plants: gaseous pollutants such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone and oxides of nitrogen, together with the impacts of flooding and submergence, drought and cold. The physiological, biochemical and molecular biological bases of injury to plants and their adaptations to this stress are discussed in this volume. The importance of the combined effects of more than one type of stress is emphasized, e.g. increased ultraviolet (UVB) radiation exacerbating injury from drought or offsetting beneficial effects of increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The prospects for improving tolerance to environmental stress by genetic engineering are assessed and some examples of recent progress described. ... Read more

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A profound knowledge of the past climate is vital for our understanding of global warming. The past 2000 years are both the period which is of most relevance to the next century and that for which there is the most evidence. High-resolution proxy records for this period are available from a variety of sources. Five sections consider dendroclimatology, ice cores, corals, historical records, lake varves, and other indicators. The final two sections cover the histories of various forcing factors and attempt to bring together records from a variety of sources and provide explanations. ... Read more

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Fifty million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was a warm sea, bounded by lush vegetation of the warm-temperate shores of Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Wind and storms were rare because Atlantic weather systems had not developed but, as today, polar day length added a hostile element to this otherwise tranquil climate.With the aid of scientists from all the countries close to the Arctic Circle, this book describes the palaeontology, the statistical analysis of vegetational features, comparisons with atmospheric, marine, and geological features and some of the first models of plant migration developed from newly constructed databases. ... Read more

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Presented here are authoritative and up-to-date assessments of the homogenous and heterogenous chemical and physical processes occuring in the troposphere and stratosphere, especially during the "ozone hole" event. The book begins with an overview of atmospheric chemistry, followed by reviews of relevant homogenous reactions in the gas phase and the microphysics and physical chemistry of heterogenous processes that occur on, or in aerosols, rain and ice. Low temperature laboratory studies are compared with related fieldwork measurements, particularly in relation to the formation and composition of polar stratospheric clouds. Also discussed are measurements in glacial ice. Finally chemical modelling of the troposphere and stratosphere, including heterogenous processes, is reviewed. ... Read more

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Polar ice cores have provided tremendous advances in our knowledge of past climate change. They also contain an archive of geochemical data, which can certainly delineate some of the forcing factors that govern climate change. However, our ability to interpret these data is severely curtailed by lack of knowledge of the processes governing the transfer of chemical species from the air to the snow. This book outlines the potential and problems of ice core chemistry and discusses the processes involved in air-snow transfer. It gives the state of current knowledge and an agenda for future research. ... Read more

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The ocean plays a central role for the climate of the earth.Storage andtransport by the oceanic circulation control thetemporal evolution ofclimate change resulting from theincrease of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and affectmagnitude and regional distribution of those changes.Oninterannual and longer time scales the ocean is furthermore,through interaction with the atmosphere, a source ofimportant natural climatevariability. Chemical andbiological processes in the ocean also arestrongly coupledto climate change, particularly through the global carboncycle. This book contains a series of lectures discussingthecomplex processes and interactions that link the oceanto the climate system, and covers topics from the fields ofphysical, chemical and biological oceanography as well asmeteorology. The focus is on modelingocean circulationdynamics, hydrological processes in the atmosphere, tropicalocean-atmosphere interactions, and the oceanic carbon cycle. ... Read more

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Key biogeochemical events in the ocean take place in less than a second, are studied in experiments lasting a few hours, and determine cycles that last over seasons or even years. Models of the controlling processes thus have to take into account these time scales. This book aims at achieving consensus among these controlling processes at all relevant time scales. It helps understand the global carbon cycle including the production and breakdown of solved organic matter and the production, sinking and breakdown of particles. The emphasis on considering all time scales in submodel formulation is new and of interest to all those working in global ocean models and related fields. ... Read more

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Some 115 thousand years ago the world as we know it todayshifted into amuch colder glacial mode which culminatedwith huge ice sheets reaching asfar south as New York,Berlin and St. Petersburg. The numerical climate models,used to predict the next century climate, were as yet unableto explain what happened.The reader of the book gains a detailed picture of what isknown on the most important episodes of the pastclimatehistory, what to expect during the transition into aglacialclimate mode, and which aspects and elements of theclimate system seem mostsusceptible to change. The climatemodelers will realize that the long term history of naturalclimate variations may hold important clues to the mechanismof climate changes which should be taken in account ifthenear future CO2 rich climate have to be predicted with anydegree ofreliability. ... Read more

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Methane plays many important roles in the earth's environment. It is a potent "greenhouse gas" that warms the earth; controls the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere (OH) indirectly affecting the cycles and abundances of many atmospheric trace gases; provides water vapor to the stratosphere; scavenges chlorine atoms from the stratosphere, terminating the catalytic ozone destruction by chlorine atoms, including the chlorine released from the man-made chlorofluorocarbons; produces ozone, CO, and CO2 in the troposphere; and it is an index of life on earth and so is present in greater quantities during warm interglacial epochs and dwindles to low levels during the cold of ice ages. By all measures, methane is the second only to CO2 in causing future global warming. The book presents a comprehensive account of the current understanding of atmospheric methane, and it is an end point for summarizing more than a decade of intensive research on the global sources, sinks, concentrations, and environmental role of methane. ... Read more

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Individuals, international organizations and states are calling for the world to confront climate change. Efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol have produced intractable disputes and are deemed inadequate. This volume adopts two constructivist perspectives - norm-centred and discourse - to explore the social construction of climate change from a broad, theoretical level to particular cases. The contributors contend that climate change must be understood from the context of social settings, and that we ignore at our peril how power and knowledge structures are generated. They offer a greater understanding of why current efforts to mitigate climate change have failed and provide academics and policy makers with a new understanding of this important topic. ... Read more

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