Global Change and the Terrestrial Biosphere: Achievements and Challenges

By Herman H. Shugart

Global climate change challenges ecologists to synthesize what weknow to solve a problem with deep historical roots in ourdiscipline. In ecology, the question, "How doterrestrial ecosystems interact with the other earth systems toproduce planetary change?" has sufficient depth to bethe focal challenge. This central question is sharpenedfurther as the changes that we may be manifesting upon ourplanet's systems of land, sea, air and ice can have potentialconsequences for the future of human civilization.

This book provides the depth of the history of global ecologyand reviews the breadth of the ideas being studied today. Eachchapter starts with a brief narrative about a scientist whose worktraces forward into today's issues in globalecosystems. The discussions are framed in a growingrealization that we may be altering the way our planet functionsalmost before we have gained the necessary knowledge of how itworks at all.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1405185619
• ISBN13: 9781405185615
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 9.2"