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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2, AUGUST 1988

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
OF GENERAL INTEREST

Item #d88aug13

"Once More on a Possible Impact of CO₂ on Climate," K.A. Kondratyev (Lab. Remote Sensing, Inst. Lake Res., Sevastyanovstr. 9, 196199 Leningrad USSR), Z. fur Meteor., 37(6), 305-314, Dec. 1987.

The international conference held in October 1985 in Villach, Austria, addressed the problem of anthropogenic impacts on climate, aiming to make a clear distinction between observational data showing the growth of CO₂ and results based on approximate simulation modeling. It concluded that the reliability of available information is inadequate for global climate trends to be accurately determined, and the complicated nature of the variability and causal character of climate hinders the detection of the CO₂ signal. The state of numerical climate modeling is briefly analyzed; much work will be needed to understand present climatic changes.

Item #d88aug14

"Terrestrial Metabolism and Atmospheric CO₂ Concentrations," R.A. Houghton (Ecosystems Ctr., Marine Biol. Lab., Woods Hole MA 02543), BioScience, 37(9), 672-678, Nov. 1987.

Calculations of net seasonal carbon flux and its year-to-year variation are potentially useful for measuring and predicting the mid-term (1-50 yr) response of terrestrial systems to changes in land use, CO₂ concentrations, and climate. An observed increase in the amplitude of the seasonal oscillation of CO₂ concentrations has been interpreted as evidence that northern temperate and boreal forests are accumulating carbon. This article reconciles estimates of global net primary production of carbon with the net seasonal flux of carbon calculated from geophysical models, and demonstrates quantitatively how the net seasonal flux for each hemisphere is related to its terrestrial metabolism. Beyond balancing the modeled carbon cycle, the study shows that the net uptake or release of carbon by terrestrial ecosystems, in response to increasing concentrations of CO₂ and changing climate, could provide either positive or negative feedback on the anticipated warming trend, and either hasten or delay its consequences.

Item #d88aug15

"Chlorofluorocarbons and Stratospheric Ozone," S. Elliot (Univ. California, Irvine CA 92717) F.S. Rowland, J. Chem. Ed., 64(5), 387-389, May 1987.

Written to help the non-atmospheric scientist evaluate the issues involved. Strong circumstantial evidence suggests that the so-called "ozone hole" discovered recently over the continent of Antarctica is caused by photodecomposition products of synthetic chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The atmospheric physical chemistry behind CFC-ozone relationships is reviewed from a historical perspective, and the new developments in Antarctica are described.