This book presents a state-of-the-art assessment of the role of fresh water in global change. Included in its multi-disciplinary approach are examples and a discussion of both measurement and modelling techniques. Physical processes are comprehensively covered over a wide range, from the global scale down to the single plant. In addition, there are several chapters on the socio-economic impacts of climate change - an area of future concern where a new discipline is assuming increasing importance.
The book is an invaluable reference source for both senior students and researchers who wish...

One of the major findings in the 1992 IPCC report and the 1994 World Meteorological Organization's Ozone Assessment report was the identification of possible climatic effects over the last few decades resulting from anthropogenic ally-induced changes in atmospheric ozone. The initial quantitative estimates of their direct climatic effects indicate significant impacts, though large uncertainties exist and studies using general circulation models are needed. A point that needs to be addressed in particular is that atmospheric ozone differs from greenhouse gases in that it is formed and...

Anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has been recognized as the primary agent in global climate change.
The volume discusses the possibilities for limiting that increase by the long-term storage of carbon in soils, vegetation, wetlands and oceans. Each of these storage media is analysed in detail to elucidate those processes responsible for the uptake and release of carbon. Several chapters address the practical prospects for deliberate interventions aimed at adjusting the balance in favour of uptake over release, i.e. sequestration, while having regard to...

Key biogeochemical events in the ocean take place in less than a second, are studied in experiments lasting a few hours, and determine cycles that last over seasons or even years. Models of the controlling processes thus have to take into account these time scales. This book aims at achieving consensus among these controlling processes at all relevant time scales. It helps understand the global carbon cycle including the production and breakdown of solved organic matter and the production, sinking and breakdown of particles. The emphasis on considering all time scales in submodel formulation...

Methane plays many important roles in the earth's environment. It is a potent "greenhouse gas" that warms the earth; controls the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere (OH) indirectly affecting the cycles and abundances of many atmospheric trace gases; provides water vapor to the stratosphere; scavenges chlorine atoms from the stratosphere, terminating the catalytic ozone destruction by chlorine atoms, including the chlorine released from the man-made chlorofluorocarbons; produces ozone, CO, and CO2 in the troposphere; and it is an index of life on earth and so is present in greater quantities...

This book is the outcome of a NAill Advanced Study Institute on the contemporary glo bal carbon cycle, held in n Ciocco, Italy, September 8-20, 1991. The motivation for this ASI originated from recent controversial findings regarding the relative roles of the ocean and the land biota in the current global balance of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Consequently, the pur pose of this institute was to review, among leading experts in the field, the multitude of known constraints on the present day global carbon cycle as identified by the fields of meteorology, physical and biological oceanography,...

The ocean plays a central role in determining the climate of the earth. The oceanic circulation largely controls the temporal evolution of cli mate changes resulting from human activities such as the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and also affects the magnitude and regional distribution of those changes. On interannual and longer time scales the ocean is, through its interaction with the atmosphere, a source of important natural climate variations which we are only now beginning to recognise but whose cause has yet to be properly determined. Chem ical and biological processes...

This volume summarizes the present knowledge of the various ways in which continental ice and sea ice both respond to, and in turn control climate system evolution. Interdisciplinary as this field is the contributions come from glaciologists, physical oceanographers, atmospheric general circulaltion modellers, experts on the reconstruction of past climates using data from ice cores, paleoceanographers and palynologists. The focus is on the thermohaline circulation: the influence of the deep circulation of the oceans upon the long time scale oscillation of planetary climate.

The possible impacts of global warming on transboundary resources such as water and fish and the ability of regional organizations to deal with those impacts are closely examined. Using a historical approach, the ways in which regional organizations have responded to changes in the location and amount of resources are assessed. The book closes in suggesting that policymakers review the possible roles for regional organization in issues related to environmental change. If the climate changes, resources are likely to shift at local and regional levels, possibly leading to interstate conflicts.

This book is the culmination of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on The Mathematics of Models for Climatology and Environment which was held at Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain during 11-21 January 1995. One of the main goals of the ASI was to establish a bridge between mathematical modellers on the one hand and physical oceanographers and climatologists on the other. The book is divided into fourth parts containing a total of 16 chapters: Parts I, II and III are devoted to general models and Part IV to models related to some local problems. Most of the mathematical models here considered...