Geosphere-Biosphere Interactions and Climate

Geosphere-Biosphere Interactions and Climate brings together many of the world's leading environmental scientists to discuss the interaction between the geosphere/biosphere and climate. The volume was first published in 2002 and arises from a working group of the prestigious Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. The chapters give an excellent summary of the understanding of the climate and environment by understanding Earth's past, human influence on the climate, a description of climate and its relation to the Earth's surface, ocean, and atmosphere, and future predictions of climate variability. This volume will be invaluable for researchers and graduate students in climate studies who wish to gain a multidisciplinary perspective of our current understanding of the interaction between the geosphere/biosphere and climate. "It is written clearly and accessibly...This edited volume is uniquely multidisciplinary and is far better written and organized than typical hardcover collections of papers from climate workshops...It succeeds in providing our climate science community with a valuable and engaging current view of our understanding of how the Earth's coupled climate system functioned in the past and how we may expect it to behave in the near future." Bulletin of the AMS "The authors of the chapters are all highly respected scientists, and this volume thus represents a valuable integration of scientific thinking and research." Choice "The contributions span the full range of information and utility... The book offers a wonderful chance for a glimpse of some distinguished scholars and their interpretations of the current biophysical status of the Earth." The Quarterly Review of BiologyForeword; Introduction L. O. Bengtsson and C. U. Hammer; 1. The Antarctic ozone hole: a man-caused chemical instability in the stratosphere - what should we learn from it? P. J. Crutzen; 2. Feedbacks and interactions between global change, atmospheric chemistry, and the biosphere M. O. Andraea; 3. Atmospheric CO2 variations: response to natural and anthropogenic earth system forcings I. Fung; 4. Modelling and evaluating terrestrial biospheric exchanges of water, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the global climate system M. Heimann; 5. Carbon futures W. S. Broecker; 6. Global climate change in the human perspective S. H. Schneider; 7. Earth system models and the global biogeochemical cycles D. Schimel; 8. The role of CO2, sea-level and vegetation during the Milankovitch-forced glacial-interglacial cycles A. Berger; 9. Non-linearities in the earth system: the ocean's role T. F. Stocker; 10. Simulations of the climate of the Holocene: perspectives gained with models of different complexity J. E. Kutzbach; 11. Interactions of climate change and the terrestrial biosphere I. C. Prentice; 12. The record of paleoclimatic change and its greenhouse implications W. R. Peltier; 13. Long-term stability of earth's climate: the faint young sun problem revisited J. F. Kasting; 14. Physical and chemical properties of the glacial ocean J. C. Duplessy; 15. Ice core records and relevance for future climate variations J. Jouzel; 16. Towards a new approach to climate impact studies W. Steffen; 17. Future research objectives M. Heimann; 18. Research objectives of the World Climate Research Programme H. Grassl; Index.