E-Book Overview
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.
E-Book Content
Vegetation-Climate Interaction How Vegetation Makes the Global Environment
Jonathan Adams
Vegetation-Climate Interaction How Vegetation Makes the Global Environment
4y Sprin g e r
Published in association with
Praxis Publishing Chichester, UK
PR
Dr Jonathan Adams Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences Department of Biological Sciences Rutgers University Newark New Jersey USA
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D.
ISBN 978-3-540-32491-1 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer is part of Springer-Science + Business Media (springer.com) Library of Congress Control Number: 2007923289 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with t