Vegetation-Climate Interaction
How Plants Make the Global Environment
This book offers a readable and accessible account of the way in which the world's plant life partly controls its own environment. Starting from the broad patterns in vegetation which have classically been seen as a passive response to climate, the authors build up from the local scale - with microclimates produced by plants - to the regional and global scale. The influence of plants (both on land and in the ocean) in making clouds, haze and rain are considered, along with plant effects on the composition of greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere. Broad global feedbacks that either stabilize or destabilize the earth's environment will be explored, in the context of environmental change in the recent geological past, and in the near future. Common contentions and misconceptions about the role of vegetation or forest removal in the spread of deserts will also be considered.
1;Contents;5 2;Preface to the Second Edition;10 3;Preface to the First Edition;11 4;Foreword;12 5;Figures;14 6;Tables;19 7;Abbreviations and acronyms;20 8;About the author;21 9;1 The climate system;22 10;2 From climate to vegetation;47 11;3 Plants on the move;86 12;4 Microclimates and vegetation;116 13;5 The desert makes the desert: climate feedbacks from the vegetation of arid zones;139 14;6 Forests;170 15;7 Plants and the carbon cycle;197 16;8 The direct carbon dioxide effect on plants;237 17;Bibliography;277 18;Index;280
ISBN | 9783642008818 |
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Artikelnummer | 9783642008818 |
Medientyp | E-Book - PDF |
Auflage | 2. Aufl. |
Copyrightjahr | 2009 |
Verlag | Springer-Verlag |
Umfang | 281 Seiten |
Sprache | Englisch |
Kopierschutz | Digitales Wasserzeichen |