Vegetation-Climate Interaction How Vegetation Makes the Global Envir
I had wanted to write something like this book for many years, but would probably never have dared to attempt it unless I had been asked to by Clive Horwood at Praxis Publishing. As it is, this has been a rewarding experience for me personally, something
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Jonathan Adams
Vegetation-Climate Interaction How Vegetation Makes the Global Environment
4y Sprin g e r
Published in association with
Praxis Publishing Chichester, UK
PR
Dr Jonathan Adams Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences Department of Biological Sciences Rutgers University Newark New Jersey USA
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D.
ISBN 978-3-540-32491-1 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer is part of Springer-Science + Business Media (springer.com) Library of Congress Control Number: 2007923289 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. © Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2007 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project management: Originator Publishing Services Ltd, Gt Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface
xi
Foreword List of
xiii figures
xv
List of tables
xix
List of abbreviations and acronyms
xxi
About the author 1
2
The climate system 1.1 Why does climate vary from one place to another? 1.1.1 Why mountains are colder 1.2 Winds and currents: the atmosphere and oceans 1.3 The ocean circulation 1.3.1 Ocean gyres and the "Roaring Forties" (or Furious Fifties) 1.3.2 Winds and ocean currents push against one another . . . 1.4 The thermohaline circulation 1.5 The great heat-transporting machine 1.5.1 The "continental" climate 1.5.2 Patterns of precipitation From climate to vegetation 2.1 Biomes: the broad vegetation types of the world 2.2 An example of a biome or broad-scale vegetation type: tropical rainforest
xxiii 1 2 4 6 9 9 10 10 13 15 15 21 21 22
vi Contents 2.3 2.4 2.5
The world's major vegetation types Understanding the patterns What favors forest vegetation 2.5.1 Why trees need more warmth 2.5.2 Why trees need more water Deciduous or evergreen: the adaptive choices that plants make. . Cold-climate evergreenness The latitudinal bands of evergreen and deciduous forest Nutrients and evergreenness Other trends in forest with climate Non-forest biomes Scrub biomes Grasslands Deserts Biomes are to some extent subjective Humans altering the natural vegetation, shifting biomes "Predicting" where vegetation types will occur Species distributions and climate 2.18.1 Patterns in species richness
26 31 31 32 33 35 40 41 42 42 43 43 44
