Product Description

This book examines the differences and similarities in the earth system components - the ocean, atmosphere, and the land - between western portions of the northern and southern Western Hemispheres, past, present, and projected. The book carefully examines the physical and biological patterns and responses of given biomes, or ecological communities in the two regions. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship of physicial and biotic systems to biogeochemistry and the evolving biota patterns of land margins and surfaces. The text concludes with an assessment of the direct impact on humans on these biomes, giving full consideration to the land-use drivers of global change.

* Integrated view of earth system processes on the west coasts of North and South America

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1688803 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 365 pages

Synopsis
In many ways the Northern and Southern Hemispheres mirror one another in geologic, climatic and biological patterns. Both regions feature a progression from low to high latitudes or arid, semiarid, Mediterranean, temperate and subpolar-to-polar climates, and both have a corresponding match of functionally equivalent biotic systems. The latitudinal climatic gradients are controlled by equivalent ocean/atmospheric circulation patterns, and similar mountain ranges produce comparable climatic and hydrological patterns west to east. This book examines the differences, rather than the similarities, between the two hemispheres. These differences are important in understanding and predicting the earth system's response to global change. One fundamental consideration is the amount of vegetative cover present - as well as the propotions of any biome - in the land masses of the two regions. This hemispheric contrast in land-to-ocean mass may mean that the rates of change in climatic patterns, as a result of a global change, may vary. Further, a different rate of change of biotic patterns may also occur.