[PDF] Water Balance Climate And Vegetation Form And Function eBook

Author : Pavel Kabat
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 565 pages
File Size : 19,5 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 3642189482

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A state-of-the-art overview of the influence of terrestrial vegetation and soils within the Earth system. The text deals especially with interactions between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere via the hydrological cycle and their interlinkage with anthropogenic activities. Measurements gathered in integrated field experiments in the Sahel, the Amazon, North America and South-east Asia confirm the importance of these interactions. Observations are complemented by modelling studies, including regional models that simulate flows and transport in river catchments, coupled land-cover and regional climate systems, and Earth-system and global circulation models. Water, nutrient and sediment fluxes in river basins are also discussed and are shown to be highly impacted and regulated by humans through land use, pollution and river engineering. Finally, the book discusses environmental vulnerability and methodologies for assessing the risks associated with regional and global climatic and environmental variability and change. The results reported in this book are based on the research work of many individual scientists and teams around the world associated with the objectives of the IGBP-BAHC and WCRP-GEWEX international research programmes.

Author : Peter S. Eagleson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 485 pages
File Size : 46,16 MB
Release : 2005-02-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 1139433407

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This volume investigates how the physical characteristics and productivity of forest communities are related to the climates and soils in which they are found. It will provide fascinating reading for graduate-level students and research scientists working in ecohydrology, hydroclimatology, forest ecology, and surface water hydrology.

Author : Derek Eamus
Publisher : CSIRO PUBLISHING
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 38,74 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Ecohydrology
ISBN : 0643068341

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A grasp of key elements of several disparate disciplines is required in order to fully understand the sustainable management of water. The authors, who have undertaken extensive field work and published widely take an international perspective on water in the environment in order to tackle issues of dryland salinity and water allocation.

Author : Elgene E. O. Box
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 40,76 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Science
ISBN : 9400986807

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This study arose out ofthe old question of what actually determines vegetation structure and distributions. Is climate the overriding control, as one would suppose from reading the more geographically oriented literature? Or is climate only incidental, as suggested by more site and/ or taxon-oriented writers? The question might be phrased more realistically: How much does climate control vegetation processes, structures, and distributions? It seemed to me, as an ambitious doctoral student, that one way to attempt an answer might be to try to predict world vegetation from climate alone and then compare the predicted results with actual vegetation patterns. If climatic data were sufficient to reproduce the world's actual vegetation patterns, then one could conclude that climate is the main control. This book represents an expanded, second-generation version of that original thesis. It presents world-scale vegetation and ecoclimatic models and a methodology for applying such models to predict vegetation and for evaluating model results. This approach also provides a means of geographical simulation of vegetation patterns and changes, which represent necessary data inputs in other fields such as atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemical cycling. It has been fairly well accepted that climatic and other environmental conditions are associated with the evolution of particular aspects of plant form (convergent evolution). The particular configurations of plant size, photosynthetic surface area and structure (e. g. sclerophylly, stomatal 'resistance'), and their seasonal variations represent what one can recognize fairly readily as distinct growth forms.

Author : Xixi Wang
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 12,36 MB
Release : 2024-01-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 0323915620

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Water-Soil-Vegetation Nexus and Climate Change presents a broad overview of the research needs and approaches regarding water-soil-vegetation nexus and climate change. It includes chapters discussing water budget and factors that affect hydrologic processes such as precipitation, runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration, soil water, and groundwater, in addition to a focus on consumptive (e.g., domestic and irrigation) and non-consumptive (e.g., eco-environmental) water uses, and water shortage. Throughout Water-Soil-Vegetation Nexus and Climate Change chapters specifically deal with the fundamental principles and also case studies, applications, and decision support tools, that can be usable for developing practical management measures in sustaining our eco-environment and society by maintaining an optimal water-soil-vegetation equilibrium. Written with water resources students and professors in mind, this book will provide the reader with further knowledge on the water-soil-vegetation nexus and its connection to climate change. Includes both principles and applications, providing the reader with options for both application types as needed Emphasizes the nexuses rather than individual processes, allowing the reader to understand the whole picture Presents case studies and decision support tools that can be used for developing practical management measures in changing climate

Author : Jake F. Weltzin
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 38,44 MB
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780816522477

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By the beginning of the twenty-first century, few people could deny the reality of global change. But while most alarm has been over increasing temperatures, other changes are occurring in precipitation patternsÑvariations that may be due in part to global warming but also to factors such as changes in atmospheric circulation and land surfaces. This volume provides a central source of information about this newly emerging area of global change research. It presents ongoing investigations into the responses of plant communities and ecosystems to the experimental manipulation of precipitation in a variety of field settingsÑparticularly in the western and central United States, where precipitation is already scarce or variable. By exploring methods that can be used to predict responses of ecosystems to changes in precipitation regimes, it demonstrates new approaches to global change research and highlights the importance of precipitation regimes in structuring ecosystems. The contributors first document the importance of precipitation, soil characteristics, and soil moisture to plant life. They then focus on the roles of precipitation amount, seasonality, and frequency in shaping varied terrestrial ecosystems: desert, sagebrush steppe, oak savanna, tall- and mixed-grass prairie, and eastern deciduous forest. These case studies illustrate many complex, tightly woven, interactive relationships among precipitation, soils, and plantsÑrelationships that will dictate the responses of ecosystems to changes in precipitation regimes. The approaches utilized in these chapters include spatial comparisons of vegetation structure and function across different ecosytems; analyses of changes in plant architecture and physiology in response to temporal variation in precipitation; experiments to manipulate water availability; and modeling approaches that characterize the relationships between climate variables and vegetation types. All seek to assess vegetation responses to major shifts in climate that appear to be occurring at present and may become the norm in the future. As the first volume to discuss and document current and cutting-edge concepts and approaches to research into changing precipitation regimes and terrestrial ecosystems, this book shows the importance of developing reliable predictions of the precipitation changes that may occur with global warming. These studies clearly demonstrate that patterns of environmental variation and the nature of vegetation responses are complex phenomena that are only beginning to be understood, and that these experimental approaches are critical for our understanding of future change.

Author : Luis Silveira
Publisher : EOLSS Publications
Page : 428 pages
File Size : 18,63 MB
Release : 2009-02-20
Category :
ISBN : 184826027X

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Groundwater theme is a component of Encyclopedia of Water Sciences, Engineering and Technology Resources in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. This theme presents a perspective of the field of groundwater and an overview of the important aspects of the subject such as, natural origin and distribution, characteristics under diverse climates and surrounding rocky environments, exploration and management, natural quality and human related sources of contamination, sustainable exploitation of resources, protection and current research trends. The content of the theme on Groundwater is organized with state-of-the-art presentations covering several topics: Origin, Distribution, Formation, and Effects; Typical Hydrogeological Scenarios; Transport Processes in Groundwater; Transport Phenomena and Vulnerability of the Unsaturated Zone; Groundwater Development; Groundwater Use and Protection; Groundwater Management: An Overview of Hydro-geology, Economic Values and Principles of Management; Special Issues in Groundwater, which are then expanded into multiple subtopics, each as a chapter. These three volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, Managers, and Decision makers and NGOs