Understanding the earth system : global change science for application

✍ Scribed by Cornell S.E., Prentice I.C., House J.I., Downy C.J. (eds.)

• Publisher: Cambridge university press
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Edition: draft
• Category: Library

✦ Table of Contents

Understanding the Earth System......Page 1
Contents......Page 5
List of editors page......Page 7
List of scientific editorial team members......Page 8
List of contributing authors......Page 10
Foreword......Page 13
Preface......Page 15
Acknowledgements......Page 23
List of units......Page 25
1.1 The Earth system and the ‘problematic human’......Page 27
1.2 Conceptualizing the ‘human dimension’ from an Earth system perspective......Page 32
1.3 Social science perspectives on the Earth system......Page 42
1.4 Creating usable and useful integrated research about the Earth system......Page 56
2.1 Observing and studying climate......Page 65
2.2 Fundamentals of climatology......Page 68
2.3 Fundamentals of terrestrial ecosystem science......Page 79
2.4 The global carbon cycle......Page 86
2.5 Prognosis......Page 90
3.2 Climate perturbations......Page 98
3.3 Methods for observing and understanding the past......Page 100
3.4 How climate has altered in the past......Page 104
3.5 Response of climate change to forcing......Page 105
3.6 Case studies of climate perturbations and responses......Page 111
3.7 Natural perturbations as a guide to the future behaviour of the Earth system......Page 120
4.1 Introduction......Page 128
4.2 Land–atmosphere biogeophysical feedbacks......Page 131
4.3 Carbon-cycle feedbacks......Page 134
4.4 Nitrous oxide feedbacks......Page 136
4.5 Methane feedbacks......Page 137
4.6 Fire feedbacks......Page 141
4.7 Human feedbacks......Page 145
5.1 Introduction......Page 155
5.2 Horses for courses: no model is ‘best’......Page 158
5.3 Understanding observations......Page 165
5.4 Predicting future global change......Page 171
5.5 A perspective on future model developments......Page 177
5.6 The outlook for Earth system science......Page 179
6.1 Introduction......Page 186
6.2 Measuring and modelling potential impacts of climate change......Page 189
6.3 Evidence for impacts of climate change in the recent past......Page 206
6.4 Global-scale impacts of future climate change......Page 210
6.5 Adaptation in practice......Page 218
6.6 Key messages......Page 220
7.1 Introduction: from human perturbation to biosphere management......Page 228
7.2 How big a mitigation effort is required?......Page 230
7.3 How has the biosphere influenced climate change in the recent past?......Page 235
7.4 Mitigation potential in the forest sector......Page 240
7.5 Mitigation potential in the agricultural sector......Page 243
7.6 Mitigation in the bioenergy sector......Page 245
7.7 Critical issues in land-based mitigation......Page 251
7.8 Opportunities and priorities for action......Page 262
8.2 Some unresolved issues......Page 271
8.3 Envisioning the future......Page 276
8.4 Concluding remarks......Page 280
List of acronyms......Page 283
Glossary......Page 287
Index......Page 289