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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 9, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1996

BOOKS AND PROCEEDINGS...
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE

Item #d96jan74

Aerosol Forcing of Climate, R.J. Charlson, J. Heintzenberg, Eds., 416 pp., 1995, $125 (Wiley).

Proceedings of a Dahlem Workshop (1994, Berlin) that consists of background papers and presentations from four discussion groups. The group reports cover factors influencing atmospheric aerosols (past, present and future); connections between aerosol properties and climate forcing; magnitudes and geographical variations and uncertainties of properties of tropospheric and stratospheric aerosols and their forcing; and observed and anticipated meteorological and climate responses to aerosol forcing.

Item #d96jan75

Effects of Past Global Change on Life, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources of the Natl. Res. Council (S.M. Stanley, Chair), 250 pp., 1995, $49.95 (Natl. Acad. Press).

The latest volume in the series: Studies in Geophysics. Includes 14 individually authored background papers dealing with the geologic record, plus an overview and recommendations for future research, written by a panel. The volume is intended to provide a scientific framework to assist the evaluation of the possible impacts of present and future global changes on the biosphere.

Item #d96jan76

Climate Since A.D. 1500 (revised ed.), R.S. Bradley, P.D. Jones, Eds., 706 pp., 1995, £25 (Routledge).

Reviewed by S. Gregory (Intl. J. Clim., 15, 1059, 1995), who states that the volume has become a standard reference since the 1992 first edition. A chapter has been added that reviews more recent work relating to the book's theme. It includes ice-core and tree-ring analyses, coral records, forcing factors, GCM evaluations, and estimates of temperature change. Even with the length of Northern Hemisphere summer temperature records (1500 a.d. to the present), it is still possible to interpret recent warmth as the result of either anthropogenic greenhouse-gas-induced climate change, or natural fluctuations around a low frequency variation with a periodicity of about 1000 years.

Item #d96jan77

Proceedings of the Fourth Atmospheric Radiation (ARM) Science Team Meeting (CONF-940277), Office of Energy Research (U.S. Dept. Energy), 396 pp., 1995 (NTIS).

Consists of an introductory chapter on the history and status of the ARM Program, followed by session papers, working group reports, and poster papers from a Feb. 1994 meeting in Charleston, S.C.

Item #d96jan78

Impact of UV-B Radiation on Pelagic Freshwater Ecosystems (Archiv für Hydrobiol./Advances in Limnology, Vol. 43), C.E. Williamson, H.E. Zagarese, Eds., 1994, DM 98 (E. Schweizerbart'sche, Stuttgart).

The proceedings of a workshop (Philadelphia, Pa., Sep. 1993) with presentations by international experts in the ecology of UV-B radiation and its likely influences on freshwater ecosystems. The workshop was intended to foster collaboration among disciplines and countries, in part through a joint field experiment that was conducted. Reviewed by S. Ormerod and I. Jüttner (Environ. Pollut., pp. 425-426, 1995), who note that the papers are extremely clearly written, consistently well edited and highly informative.

Item #d96jan79

Measurement of Primary Production from the Molecular to the Global Scale, W.K.W. Li, S.Y. Maestrini, Eds., 287 pp., 1993, DKK 260 (ICES Secretariat, Copenhagen).

The proceedings of an ICES Symposium consisting of 24 invited papers and 53 abstracts of contributed posters. Among the topics are general concepts, molecular biology and algal physiology, and phytoplankton physiology. Reviewed by P. Harrison (Limnol. & Oceanog., pp. 1183-1184, Sep. 1995).

Reviews of Previous Entries: Earth System Science

Item #d96jan80

Biotic Feedbacks in the Global Climate System: Will the Warming Feed the Warming? G.M. Woodwell, F.T. MacKenzie, Eds., 436 pp., 1995, $65 (Oxford). (Previous Digest entry in Books/Earth System Science, Oct. 1995.)

Reviewed by R.E. Dickinson (Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., pp. 2497-2498, Dec. 1995), who summarizes the book's contents. Comments that the book is of unusually high quality for a compilation of workshop papers, and is a still largely up-to-date summary of issues that must be considered.

Item #d96jan81

Changes in Land Use and Land Cover--A Global Perspective, W.B. Meyer, B.L. Turner II, Eds., 380 pp., 1994, $39.96 through Dec. 31, 1994 (Cambridge Univ.). (Previous Digest entry in Books/General Interest, Oct. 1994.)

Reviewed by A.S. Mather (Prog. Phys. Geog., pp. 420-421, Sep. 1995), and by S.J. Cowell (Global Environ. Change, pp. 161-162, May 1995). Mather summarizes major points of the book, pointing out that many contributions by well known researchers are stimulating and thought provoking. The book is more than the sum of its parts and is a major contribution to the literature, despite the three-year lag between the workshop and publication. Cowell's comments are similar; she notes that one welcome inclusion is that of human settlements as a dimension of land use/cover change, since they have such influence on the flows of energy, water and materials. Missing is a chapter on biodiversity.

Item #d96jan82

Environmental Remote Sensing from Regional to Global Scales, G. Foody, P. Curran, Eds., 238 pp., May 1994, $79.95 (Wiley).

Reviewed by K. White (Prog. Phys. Geog., pp. 568-569, Dec. 1995), who notes certain difficulties with presentation of material in varying amounts of depth. As might be expected from a conference proceedings, chapters are disparate in content and approach, and no real theme underlies the book. Nevertheless, there is much for an undergraduate to learn.

Item #d96jan83

Remote Sensing and Global Climate Change, R.A. Vaughan, A.P. Cracknell, Eds., 495 pp., 1994, $214 (Springer). (Previous Digest entry in Books/Earth System Science, Oct. 1995.)

Reviewed by J.R. Miller (Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., pp. 2502-2503, Dec. 1995). Consists of 25 chapters which focus on particular parts of the climate system and the instrument systems used to study them, an approach the reviewer favors. Although there are inconsistencies in quality, depth and level of interest among the chapters, many provide excellent, comprehensive overviews. Overall, a useful reference.

Item #d96jan84

Global Precipitations and Climate Change, M. Desbois, F. Désalmand, Eds., 466 pp., 1994, $214 (Springer). (Previous Digest entry in Books/Earth System Science, Oct. 1995.)

Reviewed by S. Green (Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., pp. 1641-1642, Sep. 1995). The book offers a collection of wide-ranging papers, and as such the depth of analysis varies. But the editors have maintained a high level of quality and continuity in subject matter in the various sections. Ocean precipitation is not analyzed.