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2285 results in Ebooks in ecology and environment

Page 27 of 115

  • Case A - Framing Climate Change

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 58-67

  • Summary

    The case study on framing in the climate change debate demonstrates how profound variations in the understanding of climate change underlie some of the current disagreements. Various framing processes are at work in this example, including scale frames or metaphors. Mike Hulme shows how analysing these frames can clarify assumptions, as well as help to map what disagreement is about, such as by pointing to very different root causes of climate change. He shows how frames operate even in climate science and the world of climate models.

  • 20 - Canopy Chemistry

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 365-380

  • Summary

    Terrestrial ecosystems exchange many chemical gases and particles with the atmosphere. These emissions alter atmospheric composition and affect climate through radiative forcing. Some flux exchanges (CH4, N2O) alter the concentration of long-lived greenhouse gases. Others alter short-lived gases that affect atmospheric chemistry and air quality. Chemistry-climate interactions from these short-lived climate forcers (NOx, biogenic volatile organic compounds, O3, secondary organic aerosols) are significant and comparable in magnitude to other climate forcings. Stable isotopes are useful to diagnose biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles. A research frontier is to link the biogeophysical and carbon cycle influences of terrestrial ecosystems with a full depiction of biogeochemical feedbacks mediated through atmospheric chemistry

  • 9 - Environmental Experts at the Science–Policy–Society Interface

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 222-233

  • Summary

    Environmental experts are found in many different places and organisations. They not only work for universities or research institutes, but also companies, consultancy firms, governmental departments, advisory bodies, and non-governmental organisations. The different institutional contexts in which experts operate together, the variety of the tasks and activities they undertake, and the responsibilities they have means that experts have a wide array of options at their disposal in deciding about their role at the science–policy–society interface. This chapter discusses those different options and presents three general modalities that experts can employ: servicing, advocating, and diversifying. Each of these comes with challenges and opportunities and involves ethical choices that require careful reflection. This chapter is complemented with a case about the different roles that one expert played in a recent controversy around CO2 capture and storage

  • 11 - Conclusion

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 257-262

  • Summary

    The concluding chapter of the book reiterates the main claim and recaps how each chapter contributes to the overall argument. In the end, the key question for how to provide environmental expertise is not just about how to be neutral, methodologically sound, and timely, but also how to have respect for democratic values. These include accountability, respect for value and knowledge diversity, the right to contest expert claims, and, ultimately, appropriate expert humility. Accommodating knowledge diversity fairly and respectfully is not just a secondary obligation, but a core challenge for environmental experts and a way to distribute power more fairly.

  • 14 - Radiative Transfer

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 228-259

  • Summary

    Absorption and reflection of solar radiation by plant canopies are related to the amount of leaves, stems, and other phytoelements, their optical properties, and their orientation. This chapter develops the biophysical theory and mathematical equations to describe radiative transfer for plant canopies, incorporating these concepts as well as accounting for the spectral composition of light and distinguishing between direct beam and diffuse radiation. Key derivations are the extinction coefficients of direct beam and diffuse radiation in relation to leaf angle, solar zenith angle, and leaf area index. Equations for radiative transfer describe horizontally homogeneous, plane-parallel canopies in which variation in radiation is in the vertical direction. The distinction between sunlit and shaded leaves is also important. Similar equations pertain to longwave fluxes.

  • 3 - Fundamentals of Energy and Mass Transfer

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 40-52

  • Summary

    Energy and materials cycle throughout the Earth system. Heat in the atmosphere is exchanged by radiation, conduction, and convection. These fluxes determine the balance of energy gained, lost, or stored in a system and relate to temperature. A system that gains energy increases in temperature; a system that loses energy decreases in temperature. Convection similarly transfers materials in the movement of air. This transfer of materials is measured by the amount (mass or moles) and is commonly seen in gas diffusion (Fick's law). This chapter introduces the fundamental scientific concepts of energy and mass transfer needed to understand biosphere-atmosphere coupling.

  • 18 - Soil Biogeochemistry

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 322-343

  • Summary

    Soils store vast quantities of carbon, more than in the atmosphere or in plant biomass. Decomposition loss of soil carbon is a large term in the global carbon budget and mineralizes nitrogen and other elements needed for plant growth. This chapter develops the biogeochemical foundation and mathematical theory to describe litter decomposition, soil organic matter formation, and nutrient mineralization. The DAYCENT model is used to illustrate the basic details of soil biogeochemical models. Advanced modeling concepts include vertically-resolved soil carbon, microbial models, and competition among multiple nutrient consumers.

  • 2 - Quantitative Description of Ecosystems

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 25-39

  • Summary

    Terrestrial biosphere models characterize ecosystems by features that control biogeochemical cycles and energy, mass, and momentum fluxes with the atmosphere. These include the following: leaf area index and its vertical profile in the canopy; the orientation of leaves, or leaf angle distribution; the vertical profile of leaf mass and leaf nitrogen in the canopy; the profile of roots in the soil; the size structure of plants; and the distribution of carbon within an ecosystem. This chapter defines these descriptors of ecosystems.

  • Case H - Lay Expertise and Botanical Science

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 200-209

  • Summary

    This case describes several programmes at botanical gardens throughout the world that bring together scientific and lay knowledge of biodiversity. Lay expertise of gardeners and volunteers operate in complex cooperation patterns with professional scientists, such as ecologists and botanists. Neves shows that it is neither easy nor fruitful to try and draw a sharp line between these communities and that complex forms of cooperation have developed, even though some knowledge hierarchies may still be present. These stories of the interaction between lay and professional expertise show how productive collaboration is possible, with important contributions to areas such as biodiversity conservation, horticulture, and restoration ecology.

  • Case E - Expertise for European Fisheries Policy

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 141-151

  • Summary

    The fisheries case study shows how relevant, timely, and actionable expertise develops over a period of decades in a concrete policy field. It shows how such arrangements get embedded in organisational procedures and even mathematical models, the so-called Total Allowable Catch Machine. The case illustrates how the usefulness of expert advice depends on for whom and what the advice is supposed to be useful. In fisheries policy, this usefulness was historically dominated by concerns for fishing right conflicts, and far less by concerns for sustainability. Some science advice has been ‘useful’ in criticising the assumptions of this system.

  • 17 - Biogeochemical Models

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 301-321

  • Summary

    Carbon gain from gross primary production is the single largest term in the terrestrial carbon budget, but the carbon balance is controlled not just by photosynthesis. Allocation of carbon to the growth of leaves, wood, and roots, loss of carbon during autotrophic respiration, and carbon turnover (comprising litterfall, background mortality, and disturbances) are critical determinants of carbon storage. Litter decomposition and resulting soil organic matter formation provide a long-term carbon store. Associated with the flows of carbon through an ecosystem is the parallel flow of nitrogen and other nutrients. This chapter develops the ecological foundation and mathematics to describe ecosystem carbon dynamics using biogeochemical models. The CASA-CNP model is used to illustrate the basic details of biogeochemical models

  • 8 - Soil Moisture

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 115-133
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  • Summary

    Water flows from high to low potential as described by Darcy’s law. The Richards equation combines Darcy’s law with principles of water conservation to calculate water movement in soil. Particular variants of the Richards equation are the mixed-form, head-based, and moisture-based equations. Water movement is determined by hydraulic conductivity and matric potential, both of which vary with soil moisture and additionally depend on soil texture. This chapter reviews soil moisture and the Richards equation. Numerical solutions are given for the various forms of the equation.

  • 5 - The Limits to Knowledge

  • Esther Turnhout, Wageningen Universiteit, The Netherlands, Willemijn Tuinstra, Open Universiteit, Willem Halffman, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
  • Book:
    Environmental Expertise
    Published online:
    22 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 104-116

  • Summary

    This chapter deals with the limits to our knowledge. In spite of our high expectations of science for the solution of environmental problems, scientific results are fringed with uncertainties. Measurement equipment always has a limited precision, even though it is continuously improving; shifting oil prices make it difficult to assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative energy sources; unpredictable human behaviour might off-set potential ingenious technical solutions; and so on. We show the differences between risk and uncertainty and provide you with the conceptual tools to distinguish different types of risk and uncertainty. We also describe the consequences of uncertainty for environmental policy and of the social response to uncertainty in environmental knowledgeThis will provide you with the tools to recognise forms of uncertainty, to recognise typical reactions, and to understand strategies and debates addressing uncertainty and risk.

  • 4 - Mathematical Formulation of Biological Flux Rates

  • Gordon Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book:
    Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
    Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019, pp 53-63

  • Summary

    Fick’s law describes many rate processes in environmental physics, including diffusive fluxes, conduction, and water flow. Many biological fluxes are biochemical rather than biophysical and require formulations other than Fick’s law. For example, the rate of photosynthesis increases with higher irradiance and higher CO2 concentration. The rate of carbon loss during respiration increases with higher temperature. Rates of plant productivity and soil organic matter decomposition vary with temperature, soil moisture, and other factors. Common formulations for these processes are the following: the Michaelis-Menten equation for a biochemical reaction; the Arrhenius equation to describe the temperature dependence of a biochemical reaction; minimum, multiplicative, and co-limiting rate multipliers; and first-order, linear differential equations to describe mass transfers within an ecosystem. In addition, mathematical principles of optimization provide a formal method to frame many ecological processes.

Page 27 of 115