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Alpine treelines mark the low-temperature limit of tree growth and occur in mountains world-wide. Presenting a companion to his book Alpine Plant Life, Christian Körner provides a global synthesis of the treeline phenomenon from sub-arctic to equatorial latitudes and a functional explanation based on the biology of trees. The comprehensive text approaches the subject in a multi-disciplinary way by exploring forest patterns at the edge of tree life, tree morphology, anatomy, climatology and, based on this, modelling treeline position, describing reproduction and population processes, development, phenology, evolutionary aspects, as well as summarizing evidence on the physiology of carbon, water and nutrient relations, and stress physiology. It closes with an account on treelines in the past (palaeo-ecology) and a section on global change effects on treelines, now and in the future. With more than 100 illustrations, many of them in colour, the book shows alpine treelines from around the globe and offers a wealth of scientific information in the form of diagrams and tables.
Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 158. The world's largest positive temperature deviation from zonal mean temperatures lies within the realm of the Nordic Seas, comprising bodies of water variously referred to as the Norwegian Sea, the Iceland Sea, and the Greenland Sea. Its role as a mixing cauldron for waters entering from the North Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans, and its function as a major source of deep and abyss water, make our understanding of the Nordic Seas a crucial element in advancing the knowledge of climate dynamics in the Northern Hemisphere. In this context, its small extent (covering only 0.75% of the area of the world's oceans) and its unique location, which allows for accessibility and detailed exploration, are of special significance. The current book speaks to that significance specifically and also to assessing the region's present and future response to, and influence on, global climate change. It is the first such work since B. G. Hurdle's groundbreaking The Nordic Seas (published in 1986).
As human populations expand and have increasing access to technol ogy, two general environmental concerns have arisen. First, human pop ulations are having increasing impact on the earth system, such that we are altering the biospheric carbon pools, basic processes of elemental cycling and the climate system of the earth. Because of time lags and feedbacks, these processes are not easily reversed. These alterations are occurring now more rapidly than at any time in the last several million years. Secondly, human activities are causing changes in the earth's biota that lead to species extinctions at a rate and magnitude rivaling those of past geologic extinction events. Although environmental change is potentially reversible at some time scales, the loss of species is irrevo cable. Changes in diversity at other scales are also cause for concern. Habitat fragmentation and declines in population sizes alter genetic di versity. Loss or introduction of new functional groups, such as nitro gen fixers or rodents onto islands can strongly alter ecosystem processes. Changes in landscape diversity through habitat modification and frag mentation alter the nature of processes within and among vegetation patches. Although both ecological changes altering the earth system and the loss of biotic diversity have been major sources of concern in recent years, these concerns have been largely independent, with little concern for the environmental causes the ecosystem consequences of changes in biodiversity. These two processes are clearly interrelated. Changes in ecological systems cause changes in diversity.
Raymond S. Bradley provides his readers with a comprehensive and up-to-date review of all of the important methods used in paleoclimatic reconstruction, dating and paleoclimate modeling. Two comprehensive chapters on dating methods provide the foundation for all paleoclimatic studies and are followed by up-to-date coverage of ice core research, continental geological and biological records, pollen analysis, radiocarbon dating, tree rings and historical records. New methods using alkenones in marine sediments and coral studies are also described. Paleoclimatology, Second Edition, is an essential textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying climatology, paleoclimatology and paleooceanography worldwide, as well as a valuable reference for lecturers and researchers, appealing to archaeologists and scientists interested in environmental change. * Contains two up-to-date chapters on dating methods* Consists of the latest coverage of ice core research, marine sediment and coral studies, continental geological and biological records, pollen analysis, tree rings, and historical records* Describes the newest methods using alkenones in marine sediments and long continental pollen records* Addresses all important methods used in paleoclimatic reconstruction* Includes an extensive chapter on the use of models in paleoclimatology* Extensive and up-to-date bibliography* Illustrated with numerous comprehensive figure captions
Although climate change is a global problem, there is growing recognition of the need to look at its regional manifestations and management. This book takes such an approach to the Alpine region. The result of the ongoing Swiss research program Climate and Environment in the Alpine Region [Clear], it incorporates the work of an independent network of approximately fifty researchers from a variety of disciplines.
This book provides a unique, in-depth view of past, present and potential future climatic change in mountain regions, and in particular on the mechanisms which are responsible for this change. Other books which focus on environmental change in mountains focus more generally on the impacts of this change on mountain systems, rather than on the regional features of climatic change itself. The book enters into a high level of detail concerning results of international investigations which involve specialists from numerous climate-related disciplines. The book can be used in an academic and research context, for advanced graduate and doctoral students, as well as researchers working in various domains of relevance to climatic change issues. The book also has relevance in the context of future activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in terms of providing up-to-date knowledge of fundamental mechanisms and consequences of climatic change in mountain regions.
Mountain environments are often perceived to be austere, isolated, and inhospitable. In fact, these areas are of immense value to mankind, providing direct life support to close to 10 percent of the world's population and sustaining a wide variety of species - many of which are endemic to this environment. 'Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands' provides detailed account of the fragile and marginal physical and socio-economic systems which make up the world's mountain regions. Discussing the direct and indirect impacts of human interference on environmental ecosystems, it then turns to the social and economic consequences of such environmental change - both upon the mountain environment itself and upon the populations who depend on mountain resources for their economic sustenance. This book includes a review of possible implications for adaption and mitigation strategies in a global context. Working within a broad temporal scale, it draws upon paleoenvironmental records to document past changes which have occured in the absence of major anthropogenic influences, as well as utilising modelling as a means to assessing future environmental change.