Ecological climatology

Concepts and applications

Gordon Bonan

678 pages, parution le 19/06/2002

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Résumé

Ecological climatology is an interdisciplinary framework to understand the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems in the climate system. It examines the physical, chemical, and biological processes by which landscapes affect and are affected by climate. The central theme is that terrestrial ecosystems, through their cycling of energy, water, chemical elements, and trace gases, are important determinants of climate. The coupling between climate and vegetation is seen at spatial scales from stomata to vegetation geography and at time scales of near instantaneous to millennia. In particular, natural vegetation dynamics and human land uses and land management are important mechanisms of climate change. The boreal forest-tundra ecotone and the North African Sahel are examples of climate-ecosystem dynamics at the biogeographical spatial and temporal scale. Deforestation, desertification of drylands, cultivation of grasslands, reforestation following farm abandonment, and urbanization are case studies of how human uses of land alter climate.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Global climatology
3. Climate variability
4. Climate change
5. Hydrologic cycle
6. Soils
7. Surface energy fluxes
8. Surface climates
9. Leaves and plants
10. Populations, communities, and ecosystems
11. Vegetation dynamics
12. Climate-ecosystem dynamics
13. Agroecosystems
14. Urban ecosystems.

L'auteur - Gordon Bonan

Gordon Bonan is a scientist at the national center for atmospheric research, Colorado. His research interests include the ecological and hydrologiocal processes by which land affects climate and how natural and human-induced changes in landscapes affect climate.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cambridge University Press
Auteur(s)	Gordon Bonan
Parution	19/06/2002
Nb. de pages	678
Format	17,5 x 24,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	1518g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780521804769
ISBN13	978-0-521-80476-9