Academic literature on the topic 'Physical Geography|Climate Change'

This paper reports from research examining eight Geography teachers’ own perceptions of their teaching professionalism, understood as Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), in relation to the topic of climate change. Apparently, Geography teachers with a strong academic profile in Physical Geography and natural science are more familiar to teach the sub-subject of weather formation in connection to climatic change, than Geography teachers with a strong academic profile in Human Geography and social science. The teachers orientated against Human Geography put emphasis on the more problem-oriented/discursive aspects of teaching climate change, some of them neglecting parts of the curriculum focused on weather formation. Most of the interviewed Geography teachers emphasize the collegial cooperation with science colleagues e.g. during professional development activities, when reflecting on their own teaching professionalism.

Climate change presents a risk to the composition, health, and vitality of Canada's forests and forest sector. Effects may be either negative or positive, and will interact in complex ways over many spatial and temporal scales depending on such factors as physical geography, forest type, and forest management practices. Given the apparent vulnerability of forests and the forest sector to climate change, it is prudent that forest and forest-based community managers begin to develop adaptive strategies to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits of climate change. A flexible planning framework that incorporates key principles of structured decision-making and risk management is presented as a practical way to integrate climate change adaptation into forest management planning. Key words: climate change, forest, impacts, adaptation, vulnerability, risk management, planning

Abstract. Regional seas are exceptionally vulnerable to climate change, yet are the most directly societally important regions of the marine environment. The combination of widely varying conditions of mixing, forcing, geography (coastline and bathymetry) and exposure to the open-ocean makes these seas subject to a wide range of physical processes that mediates how large scale climate change impacts on these seas' ecosystems. In this paper we explore these physical processes and their biophysical interactions, and the effects of atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial change on them. Our aim is to elucidate the controlling dynamical processes and how these vary between and within regional seas. We focus on primary production and consider the potential climatic impacts: on long term changes in elemental budgets, on seasonal and mesoscale processes that control phytoplankton's exposure to light and nutrients, and briefly on direct temperature response. We draw examples from the MEECE FP7 project and five regional models systems using ECOSMO, POLCOMS-ERSEM and BIMS_ECO. These cover the Barents Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, North Sea, Celtic Seas, and a region of the Northeast Atlantic, using a common global ocean-atmosphere model as forcing. We consider a common analysis approach, and a more detailed analysis of the POLCOMS-ERSEM model. Comparing projections for the end of the 21st century with mean present day conditions, these simulations generally show an increase in seasonal and permanent stratification (where present). However, the first order (low- and mid-latitude) effect in the open ocean projections of increased permanent stratification leading to reduced nutrient levels, and so to reduced primary production, is largely absent, except in the NE Atlantic. Instead, results show a highly heterogeneous picture of positive and negative change arising from the varying mixing and circulation conditions. Even in the two highly stratified, deep water seas (Black and Baltic Seas) the increase in stratification is not seen as a first order control on primary production. The approaches to downscaled experiment design and lessons learned from the MEECE project are also discussed.

A changing climate is anticipated to alter hydroclimatological and hydroecological processes across the UK and around the world. This paper builds on a series of reports commissioned in 2012 (Water Climate Change Impacts Report Card [WCCRC], 2012) and published in a special issue of Progress in Physical Geography in 2015 that interpreted and synthesised the relevant, peer-reviewed scientific literature of climate change impacts on the UK’s water environment. It aims to provide reliable, clear information about the potential impacts of climate change on hydrology and the water environment. We review new evidence since 2012 for historical and potential future changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration, river flows and groundwater levels, river and groundwater temperature/quality and, finally, aquatic ecosystems. Some new evidence exists for change in most of these hydrological components, typically in support of the spatial and temporal trends reported in WCCRC 2012. However, it remains the case that more research has been conducted on rainfall and river flows than evapotranspiration, groundwater levels, river and groundwater temperature, water quality or freshwater ecosystems. Consequently, there remains a clear disparity of robust evidence for historical and potential future change between the top and bottom of the hydroclimatological–hydroecological process chain. As was the case in WCCRC 2012, this remains a significant barrier to informed climate change adaptation in these components of the water environment.

Global climate change is one of the central issue of human progress. In the long run, climate change is likely cause a significant slowdown in economic growth. Education is one of the important decision-making tools to adress further climate change. Climate education requires a multidisciplinary approach that includes as the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, geography, biology, geophysics, etc.) and the social sciences (economics, law, etc.). Climate education in the Junior academy sciences of Ukraine (as a UNESCO center of science education) includes techniques within the framework of science education, that based on projects and active teaching, discussing problems in class, questioning: inquiry-based approaches to learning, research to investigate the hypotheses, which may be carried out through experiments, investigations, observations or documentary studies that will lead to solutions with the climate change. The goal of this educational activity is to develop environmental awareness, understanding of the physical aspects of the formation of natural phenomena such as the greenhouse effect, ocean currents and atmospheric circulation, other scientific knowledge and life skills. They are necessary for young people to understand the causes, consequences and mechanisms of climate change. The possibilities of integrating elements of science education on climate issues in the extracurricular education program are described in present paper. In the paper we describe as some examples and corresponding demonstrations of physical experiments as the possibilities of remote sensing to monitor climate change and factors affecting to them.

Most of Inner Mongolia is covered with natural grassland and is highly sensitive to global climate change because of the physical geography, the highly variable climate, and the complicated socioeconomic conditions. The climate is generally wetter in the east becoming drier towards the west of the region. Using a Pressure-State-Response model to select climate-related assessment indicators, a vulnerability assessment to climate change framework of counties in Inner Mongolia was built, which included three layers and 17 indicators. Climate change vulnerability of eight counties in the steppe area of Inner Mongolia was assessed from 1980 to 2009. The results showed that in the past 30 years, climate change vulnerability of eight counties has decreased with the decrease more pronounced after 2000. The lowest value for vulnerability was in 2008. The vulnerability of the western region was higher than that of the eastern region. Counties with a desert ecological system had a higher vulnerability than counties with steppe. Under the background of exposure increasing and sensitivity slightly decreasing, a continuing significant improvement in adaptive capacity is the key reason for a reduction invulnerability of the Inner Mongolia steppe area to climate change. The volatility of the climate on an inter-annual scale can cause changes in vulnerability between years. With the development of the rural economy and increases in national investment in the environment, the vulnerability of the Inner Mongolian steppe has been significantly reduced, but, overall, the vulnerability remains high. Most of the counties are moderately vulnerable, some counties are seriously vulnerable, even extremely vulnerable, and strong measures need to be adopted to strengthen the ability to adapt to climate change.

AbstractWe developed a blended (or hybrid) interactive course—Managing for a Changing Climate—that provides a holistic view of climate change. The course results from communication with university students and natural and cultural resource managers as well as the need for educational efforts aimed at the public, legislators, and decision-makers. Content includes the components of the physical climate system, natural climate variability, anthropogenic drivers of climate change, climate models and projections, climate assessments, energy economics, environmental policy, vulnerabilities to climate hazards, impacts of climate change, and decision-making related to climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. To convey most of the content, the course-development team created over 50 short videos (3–10 min each) in partnership with experts from a variety of academic, government, and industry institutions. The blended course has been offered as an upper-division, undergraduate course in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability and School of Meteorology (four times) and College of International Studies (in Italy, once) at the University of Oklahoma with over 100 total students. The course has also been presented online-only at no cost to the participants in four fall semesters with over 1,000 total registrations. Videos created for this course are freely available on the YouTube page of the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. This course and its associated materials comprise high-quality, formal climate training and education that can be adapted to other formal and informal education settings beyond the walls of the university.

Climate change is presently causing a multitude of impacts in various sectors. Studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN, and other agencies such as the Institute of Physical Geography, University College London show that there will be a significant impact on fresh water availability in the future due to climate change. The Cochin city region is an important port and commercial hub located on the south western coast of India. Average annual rainfall is 3,099 mm, yet there is an acute gap between the demand and supply of potable water. An assessment of the vulnerability of the city to various climate change parameters is important in formulating long-term strategies for sustainable development. This article examines the availability of water resources in the context of future requirements (2051), the expected impacts of climate change and its variability. Research highlights:99% of supply depends on monsoon fed rivers100 years temperature shows an increasing trend with significant increase in later years100 years rainfall shows increasing variability with significant increase in later yearsSensitivity analysis and the environmental water requirement (EWR) approach indicate a 33% drop in reservoir water availability due to a 19% deficit in rainfallBased on climate change, vulnerability CVI for water availability computed66% of population highly vulnerable.

Abstract Climate change is currently a topic of debate that is discussed not only within the physical science community but also by those in policy. Outside of these communities lies the American public, often not seeking out climate change research, but rather ingesting information interpreted by a third party, most likely through a political lens. Given the increased attention to natural disasters, one area of concern is the possible relationship between climate change and natural disasters. An assessment of the public’s opinion on this relationship has seen minimal research and none regarding college students. College students are a unique subset of the populace for their age, media sensitivity, and possible future in policy or research. This study surveyed college students in geography courses at Kent State University regarding their opinion of the effect of climate change on various natural disasters, while given examples of recently occurring natural disasters. The natural disasters included both atmospheric-related and nonatmospheric-related phenomena. The results show similar responses for those natural disasters that are atmospheric related. However, disparities exist between atmospheric-related and nonatmospheric-related natural disasters, illustrating a lack of knowledge between climate change and nonatmospheric natural disasters, especially tsunamis. Finally, females were found more likely to agree with the effect of climate change on natural disasters, while males were more likely to disagree.

The assessment of the potential impact of climate change on transport is an area of research very much in its infancy, and one that requires input from a multitude of disciplines including geography, engineering and technology, meteorology, climatology and futures studies. This paper investigates the current state of the art for assessments on urban surface transport, where rising populations and increasing dependence on efficient and reliable mobility have increased the importance placed on resilience to weather. The standard structure of climate change impact assessment (CIA) requires understanding in three important areas: how weather currently affects infrastructure and operations; how climate change may alter the frequency and magnitude of these impacts; and how concurrent technological and socio-economic development may shape the transport network of the future, either ameliorating or exacerbating the effects of climate change. The extent to which the requisite knowledge exists for a successful CIA is observed to decrease from the former to the latter. This paper traces a number of developments in the extrapolation of physical and behavioural relationships on to future climates, including a broad move away from previous deterministic methods and towards probabilistic projections which make use of a much broader range of climate change model output, giving a better representation of the uncertainty involved. Studies increasingly demand spatially and temporally downscaled climate projections that can represent realistic sub-daily fluctuations in weather that transport systems are sensitive to. It is recommended that future climate change impact assessments should focus on several key areas, including better representation of sub-daily extremes in climate tools, and recreation of realistic spatially coherent weather. Greater use of the increasing amounts of data created and captured by ‘intelligent infrastructure’ and ‘smart cities’ is also needed to develop behavioural and physical models of the response of transport to weather and to develop a better understanding of how stakeholders respond to probabilistic climate change impact projections.

With more than half of the world's population living in urban areas, it is important that the relationships between the urban environment and climate are better understood. The current research aims to continue the effort in assessing and understanding the urban environment through the use of a global climate model (GCM). Given the relative newness of the presence of an urban land type and model in a GCM, there are many more facets of the urban-climate relationship to be investigated. By comparing thirty-year ensembles of CAM4 coupled with CLM4 both with (U) and without (U_n) the inclusion of the urban land type, the sensitivity of the atmospheric model to urban land cover is assessed. As expected, largest differences tend to be in the Northern Hemisphere due to the location of most of the globe's densest and expansive cities. Significant differences in the basic climate variables of temperature and precipitation are present at annual, seasonal, and monthly scales in some regions. Seasonality to the urban influence also exists with the transition months of Spring and Fall having the largest difference in temperatures. Of the eleven regions defined by Oleson (2012), three were most impacted by the presence of urban land cover in the model—Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia.

Since urban attributes can vary greatly within one world continent, the sensitivity of regional climates to the urban type parameters is also explored. By setting all urban land cover to only one urban density type, the importance of city composition on climate, even within the same city, is highlighted. While preserving the distinct urban regional characteristics and the geographical distribution of urbanized areas, the model is run with homogeneous urban types: high density and tall building district. As with the default urban and excluded urban runs, a strong seasonality to the differences between the solo-high-density simulation and default urban (U_HD – U) and solo-tall-building-district-density simulation and default urban (U_TBD – U) exists. Overall, the transition and winter months are most sensitive to changes in urban density type.

For most of the 20th century, multiyear landfast sea ice (MLSI) existed in semi-permanent plugs across Nansen Sound and Sverdrup Channel and formed an incipient ice shelf in Yelverton Bay, Ellesmere Island in the northern CAA. Both plugs broke in 1962 and 1998, and several breakups within the last decade indicate that the plugs are becoming temporary seasonal features. The history of the plugs is reviewed using Canadian Ice Service ice charts, satellite imagery and a literature review. The weather systems associated with plug breakup events are related to a sequence of synoptic patterns, with most breakups occurring when low pressure centers over the Asian side of the Arctic Ocean and a warm pressure ridge develops over the QEI, creating warm temperatures, clear skies, and frequent wind reversals. The 2005 simultaneous breakup of the plugs was accompanied by the removal of 690 km2 of 55-60 year old MLSI from Yelverton Bay. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and ice cores taken in June 2009 provide the first detailed assessment of the remaining MLSI in Yelverton Inlet, which in turn provides ground-truthing of satellite scenes and air photos used to chart historical changes in the MLSI. The last of the Yelverton Bay MLSI was removed in August 2010. The removal of these MLSI features in recent years aligns with the larger trend of reductions in age and thickness of sea ice in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Natural disasters can be very devastating to the public during their impact phase. After a natural disaster impacts a region, the response and recovery phases begin immediately. Weather conditions may interrupt emergency response and recovery in the days following the disaster. This study analyzes the climatology of weather conditions during the response and recovery phases of hurricanes and tornadoes to understand how weather may impact both environment and societal needs. Using specific criteria, 66 tornadoes and 16 hurricane cases were defined. National Weather Service (NWS) recognized weather stations were used to provide temperature, precipitation, snowfall, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction data. Regional and temporal groups were defined for tornado cases, but only one group was defined for hurricanes. By applying statistical analysis to weather observations taken in the week following the disasters, a climatology was developed for the response and recovery phase. Tornado and hurricane post-disaster climate closely mimicked their synoptic climatology with cooler and drier weather prevailing in days 2-4 after a disaster until the next weather system arrived about 5 days later. Winter tornadoes trended to occur in the Southeast and were associated with more extreme temperature differences than in other regions and season. The results of this study may help governmental and non-governmental organizations prepare for weather conditions during the post-disaster phase.

A 147cm sediment core from Lake DV09, northern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada (75° 34'34"N, 89° 18'55"W) contains annually-laminated (varved) sediments, providing a 1600-year record of climate variability. A minerogenic lamina deposited during the annual thaw period and a thin deposit of organic matter deposited during the summer and through the winter, together form a clastic-organic couplet each year. The thinnest varves occur from AD800-1050, and the thickest from AD1100-1300, during the Medieval Warm Period. The relative sediment density is also highest during this period suggesting increased sediment transport energy. The coldest period of the Little Ice Age appears to be during the AD 1600s. Varve widths over the past century indicate climate warming in the region.

xvii, 205 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
Fire is a fundamental, transformative, yet poorly understood process in the Earth system; it can radically reorganize ecosystems, alter regional carbon and energy balances, and change global climate. Short-term fire histories can be reconstructed from satellite (seasonal- to interannual-scales), historical (decadal scales), or dendrochronological records (for recent centuries), but only sedimentary charcoal records enable an analysis of the complex interactions between climate, vegetation and people that drive fire activity over longer temporal scales. This dissertation describes the compilation, synthesis and analysis of a global paleofire dataset and its application to understanding past, current, and future changes in fire activity. Specifically, I co-led efforts to compile charcoal records around the world into a single database, and to conduct three meta-analyses to understand the controls on fire at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The first meta-analysis reconstructed global biomass burning since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 21,000 years ago. Results from this study demonstrated that global fire activity is low when conditions are cool and high when conditions are warm. This fundamental relationship between climate and fire is due in large part to associated changes in vegetation productivity. The second meta-analysis examined fire activity in North America during past abrupt climate changes and looked for evidence of continental-scale wildfires associated with a hypothesized comet impact ∼13,000 years ago. This analysis found a correlation between increased fire activity and abrupt climate change, but provided no evidence for continental-scale wildfires. A final meta-analysis disentangled the climate and human influences on global biomass burning during the past 2000 years; it found a close relationship between climate change and biomass burning until ∼1750 A.D., when human activities became a primary driver of global fire activity. Together, these three meta-analyses demonstrate that climate change is the primary control of global fire activity over long time scales. In general, global fire activity increases when the Earth's climate warms and decreases when climate cools. The paleofire data and analyses suggest that the rapid climate changes projected for coming decades will lead to widespread increases in fire frequency and biomass burning. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.
Committee in charge: Patrick Bartlein, Chairperson, Geography; Daniel Gavin, Member, Geography; W. Andrew Marcus, Member, Geography; Cathy Whitlock, Member, Geography; Ronald Mitchell, Outside Member, Political Science

Permafrost is an important component in Arctic environments and has been hypothesized to be diminishing due to global warming. A growing concern is that large quantities of stored organic carbon will be mobilized and released to the atmosphere as the potent greenhouse gas methane if the ground thaws. This could result in a massive positive feedback on the global climate change. To quantify this effect, the permafrost extent as well as carbon storages must be mapped. In this study, a Basal Temperature of Snow (BTS) survey is conducted in the Tarfala Valley in Northern Sweden and a model of the current permafrost extent in the region is produced. Additionally, the model explores how the permafrost extent will change under three climate change scenarios at +1°C, +2°C and +4°C. According to a statistical analysis, elevation is the only significant variable for permafrost occurrence in the Tarfala Valley. Currently, continuous permafrost (>0.8 probability) is present at elevations exceeding 1523 m a.s.l. and sporadic or patchy permafrost (<0.5 probability) dominates below 1108 m a.s.l. The permafrost in Northern Sweden is near the boundary of favorable conditions for permafrost, and the greatest decline in permafrost extent occurs during the initial warming. In the +1°C scenario, which will be reached in 20 years if current warming rate is sustained, 97.6% of the continuous permafrost in the Abisko and Tarfala area degrades. The areal extent of the zone with the lowest probability of permafrost occurrence increases from 59% to 90% in the same scenario. Under continued warming to +4°C compared to current ground temperatures, 98% of the study area will be covered by sporadic or patchy occurrences of permafrost.
Permafrost är en viktig komponent i arktiska miljöer och befaras minska i utbredning på grund av den globala uppvärmningen. En farhåga är att stora mängder bundet organiskt kol ska mobiliseras och släppas ut till atmosfären som den potenta växthusgasen metan om marken värms. Detta skulle kunna innebära stor positiv återkoppling på de globalt stigande temperaturerna. För att kvantifiera den effekten är det viktigt att kartlägga permafrostens utbredning såväl som mängde bundet kol i permafrostmarker. I den här studien utförs en undersökning av bastemperaturen av snötäcket (BTS) i Tarfaladalen i norra Sverige och en modellering av permafrostens nuvarande utbredning i regionen. Vidare modelleras hur permafrostens utbredning kommer att påverkas i framtiden under tre olika klimatförändringsscenarior vid +1°C, +2°C och +4°C. Enligt en statistisk analys är altitud den enda signifikanta variabeln för permafrostförekomst i Tarfaladalen. Vid nuvarande marktemperaturer är kontinuerlig permafrost (>0.8 probabilitet) utbredd på höjder över 1523 m ö.h. och sporadisk permafrost (0.5 - 0 probabilitet) dominerar under 1108. Permafrosten i norra Sverige är nära gränsen för dess gynnsamma förhållanden och den huvudsakliga förlusten av permafrost sker redan vid en blygsam markuppvärmning. I scenariot +1°C, som inträffar redan om 20 år om nuvarande uppvärmningstakt fortsätter, degraderas 97.6% av den kontinuerliga permafrosten i Abisko och Tarfalaområdet. Utbredningen av sporadisk permafrost, det vill säga zonen med lägst sannolikhet för permafrostförekomst, ökar i det scenariot från 59% till 90%. Vid fortsatt uppvärmning till +4°C jämfört med nuvarande marktemperaturer så kommer 98% av det studerade området endast innehålla sporadiska förekomster av permafrost.

The objective of the thesis was to explore the potential of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) as indicators of Holocene climate and environmental change in northern Sweden (Abisko region, 68°21'N, 18°49'E). A modern surface-sediment calibration set including 100 lakes was developed and lake-water pH, sedimentary organic content (assessed by loss-on-ignition) and temperature were identified as most powerful environmental variables explaining the variance within the diatom assemblages. Transfer functions based on unimodal species response models (WA-PLS) were developed for lake-water pH and mean July air temperature (July T), yielding coefficients of determination of 0.77 and 0.70, and prediction errors based on leave-one-out cross-validation of 0.19 pH units and 0.96 °C for lake-water pH and July T, respectively. The transfer functions were validated with monitoring data covering two open-water seasons (lake-water pH) and meteorological records covering the 20th century (July T). The good agreement between diatom-based inferences and measured monitoring data confirmed the prediction ability of the developed transfer functions.

Analysing a Holocene sediment core from a lake nearby Abisko (Vuoskkujávri), diatoms infer a linearly decreasing July T trend (1.5 °C) since 6,000 cal. BP, which compares well with inferences based on chironomids and pollen from the same sediment core. The lake-water pH inference shows a pattern of moderate natural acidification (c. 0.5 pH units) since the early Holocene, reaching present-day pH values at c. 5,000 cal. BP. By fitting fossil diatom samples to the modern calibration set by means of residual distance assessment within canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), the early Holocene (between 10,600 and 6,000 cal. BP) was identified as a problematic time-period for diatom-based inferences and, consequently, reconstructions during this period are tentative. Pollen-based inferences also show 'poor' fit between 10,600 and 7,500 cal. BP and chironomids probably provide the most reliable July T reconstruction at Vuoskkujávri, with 'poor' fit only during the initial part of the Holocene (between 10,600 and 10,250 cal. BP).

Possible factors confounding diatom-based July T inferences were investigated. Using detrended CCA (DCCA), Holocene sediment sequences from five lakes indicate that during the early Holocene, mainly physical factors such as high minerogenic erosion rates, high temperature and low light availability may have regulated diatom assemblages, favouring Fragilaria species. In all five lakes, diatom assemblages developed in a directional manner, but timing and scale of development differed substantially between lakes. The differences are attributed primarily to the geological properties of the lake catchments (with strong effects on lake-water pH), but other factors such as climatic change, vegetation, hydrologic setting and in-lake processes appear to regulate diatom communities in each lake differently. The influence of long-term natural acidification on diatom assemblages progressively declined during the Holocene with corresponding increase of the influence of climatic factors.

Since their development in the 1990s, gridded reanalysis data sets have proven quite useful for a broad range of synoptic climatological analyses, especially those utilizing a map pattern classification approach. However, their use in broad-scale, surface weather typing classifications and applications have not yet been explored. This research details the development of such a gridded weather typing classification (GWTC) scheme using North American Regional Reanalysis data for 1979-2010 for the continental United States.

Utilizing eight-times daily observations of temperature, dew point, pressure, cloud cover, u-wind and v-wind components, the GWTC categorizes the daily surface weather of 2,070 locations into one of 11 discrete weather types, nine core types and two transitional types, that remain consistent throughout the domain. Due to the use of an automated deseasonalized z-score initial typing procedure, the character of each type is both geographically and seasonally relative, allowing each core weather type to occur at every location, at any time of the year. Diagnostic statistics reveal a high degree of spatial cohesion among the weather types classified at neighboring locations, along with an effective partitioning of the climate variability of individual locations (via a Variability Skill Score metric) into these 11 weather types. Daily maps of the spatial distribution of GWTC weather types across the United States correspond well to traditional surface weather maps, and comparisons of the GWTC with the Spatial Synoptic Classification are also favorable.

While the potential future utility of the classification is expected to be primarily for the resultant calendars of daily weather types at specific locations, the automation of the methodology allows the classification to be easily repeatable, and therefore, easily transportable to other locations, atmospheric levels, and data sets (including output from gridded general circulation models). Further, the enhanced spatial resolution of the GWTC may also allow for new applications of surface weather typing classifications in mountainous and rural areas not well represented by airport weather stations.

This volume has traced the development of the Mediterranean landscape over very long timescales and has examined modern processes in a wide range of settings. Earlier chapters have explored tectonic processes and the evolution of the topography and biota, the nature and impact of Quaternary climate change, and natural hazards, as well as the increasing role of human activity in shaping geomorphological processes and ecosystems during the course of the postglacial period. A core theme in several chapters is the nature of the relationship between humans and the Mediterranean environment. Over the last one hundred years or so, and especially in the period since the Second World War, this relationship has changed dramatically. Resource exploitation, urban expansion, and rural depopulation have all taken place at unprecedented rates, with major impacts upon the quality of land, water, air, and ecosystems. The final part of this volume examines four key topics of environmental concern; its four chapters explore, respectively, land degradation, water resources, interactions between air quality and the climate system, and biodiversity and conservation. Where possible, it is important to place these issues within an appropriate historical perspective. Many components of the Mediterranean environment have responded in a sensitive way to past environmental changes, but the pressures on land and water resources have never been more intense. Improved monitoring networks and new modelling efforts are needed to predict more effectively the impact of climate and social change on all environmental systems and to help inform policymakers seeking a more sustainable use of the region’s resources. Chapter 20 examines the ecological aspects of land degradation and sets out new ideas on productivity dynamics. It explores some of the interactions between land use change, vegetation dynamics, grazing patterns and wildfires. The uneven geography of water resources and water use are highlighted in Chapter 21. Water resource issues have become an increasingly important factor in the geopolitics of the region against a background of climate change uncertainty, rising demand, and a diminishing resource base. Chapter 22 analyses the interactions between climate, air quality, and the water cycle.

Whilst about 12 per cent of the earth’s dry and ice-free land is covered by carbonate rocks (limestone, marble, and dolomite), the proportion is significantly higher in the landscapes that border the Mediterranean Sea. These rock types are especially widespread in the northern part of the region and limestones in particular reach great thicknesses in Spain, southern France, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, and Turkey and in many of the Mediterranean islands. Abundant precipitation in the uplands of the Mediterranean has encouraged solutional weathering of these carbonate rocks for an extended period. The region contains some of the deepest karst aquifers in the world, with many extending deep below present sea level (e.g. Bakalowicz et al. 2008). The regional fall in base level associated with the Messinian Salinity Crisis allowed the formation of very deep, multiphase karst systems in several parts of the Mediterranean basin (e.g. Mocochain et al. 2006). Thus, karst terrains and karstic processes are very significant components of the physical geography of the Mediterranean basin. Indeed, along with the climate and the vegetation, it can be argued that limestone landscapes (including limestone bedrock coasts) are one of the defining characteristics of the Mediterranean environment. Much of the northern coastline is flanked by mountains with bare limestone hillslopes (Figure 10.2) drained by short and steep river systems whose headwaters commonly lie in well-developed karst terrain. Karst terrains are also well developed in the Levant and in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria, while relict karst features can be identified in the low-relief desert regions of Libya and Egypt (Perritaz 2004) (Figure 10.1). Mediterranean karst environments are also associated with distinctive soils, habitats and ecosystems as described in Chapters 5, 6, and 23. The nature and evolution of the karst landscapes across the Mediterranean region displays considerable spatial variability due to contrasts in relief, bedrock composition and structure, climatic history, and other factors. The karst geomorphological system is distinguished from other systems (e.g. glacial, fluvial, coastal, and aeolian) because of the dominant role of dissolution which results in water flowing in a subterranean circulation system rather than in surface channels (Ford 2004).

By examining both contemporary processes and long-term records of change, this volume explores the climates, landscapes, ecosystems, and hazards that comprise the Mediterranean world. This is the only region on Earth where three continents meet and their interaction has produced a very distinctive physical geography. This book examines the landscapes and processes at the margins of the three continents and the distinctive marine environment between them. In broad terms, the physical geography of the Mediterranean is a product of long-term interplay between tectonic forces, climate change, river basin and marine processes, and biosphere dynamics, as well as the action of humans during the course of the Holocene. From the outset, it is important to keep in mind that this physical geography is an integration of energy, materials, and processes within a much wider global system. The Mediterranean is a zone of convergence and interaction. It is a meeting place not only for tectonic plates, but also for air masses, energy, and river flows from both temperate and tropical latitudes. The region also interacts directly with the global ocean, receiving cool North Atlantic waters in exchange for the warmer and saltier waters produced in the basins of the Mediterranean Sea. It is also a biodiversity hotspot; the Mediterranean has been a meeting place for plants, animals, and humans from three continents throughout much of its history. The chapters in Part I set out the physical and biological framework for the rest of the book and examine key debates about the evolution of the Mediterranean environment. They explore fundamental interactions between the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The scene is set for later chapters that focus more closely on particular aspects of the Mediterranean environment such as ecosystem dynamics, river basin systems, karst environments, natural hazards, and land degradation. Chapter 1 examines the role of tectonic processes in the development of the Mediterranean landscape and its marine basins. Also highlighted are the dramatic environmental changes and the geomorphological legacy associated with the Messinian Salinity Crisis of the Late Miocene. Chapter 2 focuses on the marine environment, both ancient and modern.

Biogeographers study the distributions of organisms and the systems those species inhabit. Biogeography can be viewed both as a form of geographical enquiry applied to plants and animals, and also as a biological science concerned with geography. Thus, biogeography is interdisciplinary, like other “composite” sciences such as geomorphology (Bauer 1996; Osterkamp and Hupp 1996). Veblen (1989) provided an overview of biogeography in the late 1980s. He commented on the nature of biogeography as practiced in academic geography programs, finding most similarity in approach and subject matter with ecologists and ecology. Three broad research orientations can be identified (K. R. Young 1995): ecological, evolutionary, and applied. Each orientation includes both theoretical frameworks and empirical foundations. Ecological approaches relate plant and animal distributions to current biological and physical processes, including interactions among species, precipitation and temperature regimes, and soil nutrient dynamics. Evolutionary approaches accommodate genetic and population changes in species over long time-periods, in addition to historical processes as affected by Earth history, plate tectonics, and climate change; these approaches have been labeled as “classical biogeography” (Veblen 1989). Complete biogeographical explanations often require detailed information on both ecological conditions and historical changes over centuries or millennia or even millions of years. Biogeographical approaches also are applied to the evaluation of important societal issues, for example through the study of nature reserves. Of practical and theoretical concern are situations where species or their distributions and abundances are modified by human influences. This is the part of biogeography closest to geography’s mainstream research interests in human–nature interrelations, and is called “cultural biogeography.” Some people characterize geography as the study of the Earth as modified by humans; in this case, biological geography (biogeography) would include the study of how species and living land cover have been altered by people. Species distributions can change over short and long time-scales (Hengeveld 1990; Dingle 1996). Biogeographers who study the shifting spatial distribution patterns of specific species of plants or animals often focus their research on biophysical factors that determine the range limits of the species and how those factors change through time. These controls include the effects of other organisms, the physical conditions of the environment, and disturbance.

Earth’s physical landscapes are framed initially by tectonism, reshaped by climate, garnished by plants and animals, and modified by human activity. Tectonism constructs the physical framework of the continents and ocean floors. Climate, the synthesis of weather, generates the surface processes that reshape this framework through erosion and sedimentation, and also provides the conditions necessary to support life. In various guises, tectonism and climate have played these roles from early in Earth history, although 90% of Earth time had passed before the continents began to acquire vascular plants and land animals. However, because Earth’s crust is ponderously mobile and climate depends ultimately on the variable receipt of solar radiation, tectonic and climatic forcing vary across time and space. Consequently, continents come to acquire distinctive suites of landscapes that reflect changing locational, tectonic, climatic, and biotic influences over time. South America exemplifies this concept—a continent whose distinctive qualities owe much to the roles played by tectonism and climate over time, including their impacts on landforms and biota. Tectonism and climate are interactive forces. By determining the distribution and shape of land masses and ocean basins, tectonism influences the relative importance of continentality and oceanicity to climate. Over time, tectonism also influences climate change by promoting uplift favorable to prolonged cooling and perhaps glaciation, by opening and closing seaways to ocean circulation, and by influencing atmospheric composition by the generation and consumption of crustal rocks. Though more subtle, climate may in turn affect tectonism by redistributing continental mass through erosion and deposition, thereby generating isostatic adjustments to crustal loading and unloading. Tectonism also influences plant and animal distributions directly, for example by providing linkages or barriers to migration, while climate and biota are intimately linked in the biome concept and the feedback effect of biomes on climatic processes. This chapter examines the interactive roles of tectonism and climate in changing the South American landscape over the 200 million years that have passed since the initial breakup of Pangea. It then discusses the implications of these changes for geomorphology and biogeography, and concludes with a brief evaluation of the pace of landscape change.

This chapter traces the history of vegetation change in the Mediterranean area in response to climate variability over the last 65 million years (Myr), with particular emphasis on the most recent part of the record. Compared to other continental areas of the globe, the Mediterranean region is somewhat unusual in the abundance of palaeobotanical information (especially palynological) that is available. This is a function of its geological setting, which in some cases has led to the relatively undisturbed accumulation of thick sedimentary sequences in tectonic and volcanic basins. These sequences have provided an opportunity to develop long records of vegetation change, sometimes extending over hundreds of thousands of years. In the marine realm, sedimentary records from the Mediterranean Sea are not only providing palaeoceanographic information but also beginning to yield palynological information, which can be placed directly within a chronological and palaeoclimatic framework. However, it is only in the uppermost part of the geological column (i.e. in the Quaternary) that there are enough records to construct a continuous thread of vegetation changes and allow meaningful comparisons between sites to determine local differences and transregional similarities (e.g. Magri et al. 2004). Moreover, the majority of terrestrial records extending before the Holocene are located in southern Europe, while the coverage of the Near East is low and of North Africa even lower. The information available for earlier periods anywhere in the Mediterranean is fragmentary at best, with large parts of the record not represented. This means that despite the relative wealth of information, the palaeobotanical record from the Mediterranean region remains very much incomplete, with significant temporal and geographical gaps. Thus, instead of providing a linear narrative of the last c.65 Myr, the approach followed here is to structure this review into separate sections, each representing different scales of environmental variability, and attempt to establish the general pattern of vegetation responses to it. These environmental regimes are here defined as (1) mega-scale (long-term climate trends), (2) macroscale (orbitally driven (Milankovitch) changes), (3) meso-scale (sub-orbital variability), and (4) micro-scale (interannual variability).

This chapter gives a description of the main characteristics of present-day climate. In describing the mean state and its variability, attention is also given to the underlying causes. For comparison, there is a short summary of early European climate, from the last glacial maximum, through the Holocene and up to the Little Ice Age (the period AD 1400–1850). The chapter finishes with a comprehensive section on climate change, with emphasis on the anthropogenic causes of recent changes. The climate of western Europe has a maritime character. The weather mainly originates from the North Atlantic Ocean and its neighbouring seas. Further inland, in what is usually called central Europe, climate changes to a more continental type, but certain maritime features are still present. It is therefore called an altered maritime climate. Only in the most southern part, southern France for instance, is the Atlantic character lost and several new features are present. These features are characteristic of a Mediterranean climate. Climates may be called cold or warm, dry or wet, gloomy or sunny, depending on the prevailing temperatures, amount and frequency of precipitation, and the number of hours of bright sunshine. Such terms, however, are not objective unless certain, generally accepted, reference values are used. In the past different sets of reference values were proposed, each of them defining a system of climatic types. A well-known classification system was the one developed by Köppen (1936). The Köppen system distinguished eleven main climate types, based on well-defined temperature and precipitation characteristics. These were mainly referring to the response of vegetation, natural as well as cultivated, to climatic conditions. The eleven Köppen climates are indicated by the letters A–E, with some subdivision, using other letters. In the Köppen classification the whole of western Europe has a Cf climate, which means a moist, temperate climate, without a specific dry season. Cf climates occupy 22% of the globe (oceans included). A second method to describe climate is by using the well-known definition of climate as being the average weather conditions in a certain area, over a given period of time. In practice, however, there is no direct information about weather conditions.