High mountains can be considered as particularly appropriate environments to detect effects ofclimate change on natural biocoenoses in a global scale for the following reasons: Firstly, ecosystems at the l- temperature limits of plant life are generally thought to be especially sensitive to climate change 1] 2] 3]. An already ongoing upward shift of vascular plants at high summits in the Alps, determined by the Austrian IGBP-research 4] 5] 6] 7] 8], is most likely a response to the atmospheric warming since the 19th century. Secondly, high mountains still comprise the most natural...

The book is conceived at two levels. An introductory one intended for undergraduate and/or environmental studies students and the other (in the appendix) for advanced students (graduate). The book is different from others on the same subject which are either too descriptive or too much specialized. Beside there are large sections on biogeochemistry not usually found in other textbooks. Whenever possible an approach based on entropy considerations is introduced. The book includes a quite classical introduction to the thermodynamics of ocean and atmosphere, then the circulation of the ocean and...