Books in Global change

Addressing climate change, land use, and atmospheric transformations, this portfolio supports climate scientists, ecologists, and policy experts. It features cutting-edge research, modelling techniques, and case studies on the impacts of global change, equipping researchers to develop adaptive strategies and policies for a resilient and sustainable future.

Global Ecology
1st Edition
Sven Erik Jørgensen
English
Global Ecology focuses on the perception of the biosphere or the ecosphere as a unified cooperative system with numerous synergistic effects, which describe the distinctive properties of this sphere. This book is subdivided into five parts dealing with diverse aspects in global ecology. The first part of the book provides comprehensive description of the biosphere, including its unique characteristics and evolution. This part also describes various spheres in the biosphere, such as the hydrosphere, noosphere, and pedosphere as well as their composition. The next part focuses on the global cycles, including calcium, carbon, iron, microbial nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, and water cycles. In addition, global balances and flows are explained. Presented in the third part are the results of the global cycles and flows as well as the patterns of the climatic factors and marine currents. There is also a part discussing the climate interactions, climatic changes, and its effect on the living organisms. The book concludes by covering the application of stoichiometry in the biosphere and in ecosystems. The book offers a comprehensive view of global ecology and ecological stoichiometry, which will aid in the processes of global ecology.
Carbon Capture and Storage
1st Edition
Steve A. Rackley
English
Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a technology aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels during industrial and energy-related processes. CCS involves the capture, transport and long-term storage of carbon dioxide, usually in geological reservoirs deep underground that would otherwise be released to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide capture and storage offers important possibilities for making further use of fossil fuels more compatible with climate change mitigation policies. The largest volumes of CO2 could be captured from large point sources such as from power generation, which alone accounts for about 40 per cent of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The development of capture technologies in the power generation sector could be particularly important in view of the projected increase in demand for electricity in fast developing countries with enormous coal reserves (IEA 2002a). Although, this prospect is promising, more research is needed to overcome several hurdles such as important costs of capture technology and the match of large capture sources with adequate geological storage sites. The book will provide a comprehensive, detailed but non-specialist overview of the wide range of technologies involved in carbon dioxide capture and sequestration.
Climate Change
Observed impacts on Planet Earth
1st Edition
Trevor Letcher
English
The climate of the Earth is always changing. As the debate over the implications of changes in the Earth's climate has grown, the term climate change has come to refer primarily to changes we've seen over recent years and those which are predicted to be coming, mainly as a result of human behavior. This book serves as a broad, accessible guide to the science behind this often political and heated debate by providing scientific detail and evidence in language that is clear to both the non-specialist and the serious student.
Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics
A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions
1st Edition
David G. Anderson + 2 more
English
The Middle Holocene epoch (8,000 to 3,000 years ago) was a time of dramatic changes in the physical world and in human cultures. Across this span, climatic conditions changed rapidly, with cooling in the high to mid-latitudes and drying in the tropics. In many parts of the world, human groups became more complex, with early horticultural systems replaced by intensive agriculture and small-scale societies being replaced by larger, more hierarchial organizations. Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics explores the cause and effect relationship between climatic change and cultural transformations across the mid-Holocene (c. 4000 B.C.).
Stable Isotopes as Indicators of Ecological Change
1st Edition
Volume 1
English
The 20th century has experienced environmental changes that appear to be unprecedented in their rate and magnitude during the Earth’s history. For the first time, Stable Isotopes as Indicators of Ecological Change brings together a wide range of perspectives and data that speak directly to the issues of ecological change using stable isotope tracers. The information presented originates from a range of biological and geochemical sources and from research fields within biological, climatological and physical disciplines covering time-scales from days to centuries. Unlike any other reference, editors discuss where isotope data can detect, record, trace and help to interpret environmental change.
Mountains: Witnesses of Global Changes
Research in the Himalaya and Karakoram: SHARE-Asia Project
1st Edition
Volume 10
Renato Baudo + 2 more
English
From an environmental point of view, mountains are particularly sensitive and important for monitoring the state of health of our planet. Only through distribution of meteoclimatic and atmospheric composition monitoring points in mountain regions, coupled with modelling simulations, will we be able to thoroughly analyze complex pollutant transport mechanisms and better understand imminent global changes. The Himalayan-Karakoram range. For its elevation and geographic location, represents one of the ideal places for studying long-range pollutant transport systems on a regional scale and for monitoring changes index by mechanisms that act on global scale through monsoon circulation.The Ev-K2-CNR committee with this book reached its objective of creating a unique opportunity for dialogue between major environmental scientists and experts, highlighting the close relationship between diverse themes with a common underlying thread: in-depth comprehension of the environmental phenomena which are determining the health of our planet.
Global Warming and Global Cooling
Evolution of Climate on Earth
1st Edition
Volume 5
O.G. Sorokhtin + 2 more
English
The theory of the Earth's climate evolution based on universal chemical-physical laws of matter-energy transformation is presented in the book. It shows how the process of Earth's core separation has led to formation and evolution of the hydrosphere and atmosphere. Having analyzed the processes of heat transfer in the atmosphere, the writers developed the adiabatic theory of the greenhouse effect, which was applied for analysis of climatic changes on the Earth. The influence of changes in climate on formation of mineral deposits and development of life on Earth was considered and presented based on modeling of typical climatic regimes. It shows that the anthropogenic effect on the Earth's global temperature is negligible in comparison with the effect of global forces of nature.
Global Climate Change and Response of Carbon Cycle in the Equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans and Adjacent Landmasses
1st Edition
Volume 73
Hodaka Kawahata + 1 more
English
To understand the global warming mechanism, global mapping of primary production was carried out under the GCMAPS program. The program was concerned with marine and terrestrial environmental changes, which affect carbon cycle on the regional and global scales. On the regional scale, warm phase of ENSO (El Niño / Southern Oscillation) has been shown to affect economic activities in many countries. The keyword for understanding mechanism of global warming is ‘primary productivity’. The earth observation satellites (EOS) like the ADEOS of Japan, and the SeaWiFS, Sea Star and Terra of the U.S.A. provided much required data for modeling and verification of primary production estimates on both land and ocean.The knowledge gained during the GCMAPS program has been documented in this book. Interpretation of the data suggests that global warming, which causes temperature and sea level rise, and changes in climate and ecosystems, is likely to have the largest influence on mankind. The first half of this book discuss changes in marine environments. Physical and chemical oceanographic properties of the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans are presented. Changes in partial pressure of carbon dioxide, flux and composition of settling particles and biological communities in the surface ocean have also been discussed. In addition to this, over hundred years of environmental records based upon coral skeletons are presented. Estimations of primary production and its utilization in validating satellite imagery data were conducted in the western North Pacific. Primary productivity estimates based upon the validated satellite imagery are presented on the global scale. Climate change modeling of primary production in global oceans is also presented.The latter half of this book deals with changes in terrestrial environments. Primary productivity estimates for different types of ecosystems (e.g., forest, grassland) are presented together with soil carbon dynamics. Also, biomass and productivity estimation and environmental monitoring based upon remote sensing techniques are presented with a model analysis of the relationship between climate perturbations and carbon budget anomalies in global terrestrial ecosystems. This book elucidates integrated aspects of the global carbon cycle involving marine and terrestrial environments.
The Climate of Past Interglacials
1st Edition
Volume 7
F. Sirocko + 3 more
English
Historically, climate fluctuations, such as the Little Ice Age, show that interglacial climate chage in not entirely stable, but responds to even subtle changes in radiative forcing. Through research, it has been made clear that even an abrupt change of climate within years is not just a theoretical possibility but has in fact happened in the prehistoric past. It is therefore clear that in principal it could happen again. Human civilaization has exploded under the mild and relatively stable climatic conditions that have prevailed over the last 11,000 years. This book focuses on revisiting the past and to study climate and environment in a suite of experiments where boundary conditions are similar but not identical to today so we can learn about the climate-environment system, its sensitivity, thresholds and feedback. The palaeoclimate community holds an important key to scientific information on climate change that provides a basis for appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The authors of this book have taken up this challenge and summarize their results in this special volume. It presents state-of-the-art science on new reconstructions from all spheres of the Earth System and on their synthesis, on methodological advances, and on the current ability of numerical models to simulate low and high frequency changes of climate, environment, and chemical cycling related to interglacials.
Driving Climate Change
Cutting Carbon from Transportation
1st Edition
Daniel Sperling + 1 more
English
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing global society. The debate over what to do is confounded by the uncertain relationship between increasing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and the impact of those changes on nature and human civilization. Driving Climate Change will provide professionals and students alike with the latest information regarding greenhouse emissions while presenting the most up-to-date techniques for reducing these emissions. It will investigate three broad strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: 1) reducing motorized travel, 2) shifting to less energy intensive modes, and 3) changing fuel and propulsion technologies. Findings will be presented by the leaders in the field with contributions from professors, researchers, consultants and engineers at the most prominent institutions - commercial, academic and federal - dealing with environmental research and policy.