Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Books
  4. Ebooks in ecology and environment

Refine listing

Refine listing

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2285 results in Ebooks in ecology and environment

Page 29 of 115

  • 15 - Plant Canopies

  • 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 260-279

  • Summary

    Terrestrial biosphere models scale physiological and biophysical processes such as photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and energy fluxes from individual leaves to the entire plant canopy. Critical to this is an understanding of leaf gas exchange, plant hydraulics, radiative transfer, and a theory and numerical parameterization to scale over all leaves in the canopy. This chapter focuses on the latter requirement and considers how to scale leaf fluxes to the canopy. Three general approaches to do so treat the canopy as: analogous to a big leaf with a single flux exchange surface without vertical structure; a dual source with separate fluxes for vegetation and soil; and in a multilayer framework in which the canopy is vertically structured and fluxes are explicitly resolved at multiple levels in the canopy.

  • Case D - Angry Bulbs

  • 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 117-125

  • Summary

    This case on lily bulb farming and the risks experienced by local residents demonstrates the role uncertainty can play in environmental issues. It is an example of a complex situation in which stakeholders resort to experts for conclusive evidence and definite answers, yet this can rarely be provided. The case illustrates that in such situations with various problem definitions, limited knowledge, and variability at multiple levels, creating room for deliberation between stakeholders is a more productive strategy to create knowledge for action. Trust and acknowledgement of each other’s interests are key for such deliberative processes.

  • 16 - Scalar Canopy Profiles

  • 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 280-300

  • Summary

    Vertical profiles of temperature, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other scalars within plant canopies reflect a balance between turbulent transport and the distribution of scalar sources and sinks. Scalar sources and sinks depend on leaf biophysical and physiological processes, as well as at the soil surface. Vertical transport depends on turbulence within the canopy. This chapter develops the theory and mathematical equations to calculate scalar profiles in plant canopies. A common approach calculates scalar concentrations from one-dimensional conservation equations with a first-order turbulence closure in an Eulerian framework. Analytical solutions are possible with some assumptions. A more general numerical method requires an iterative solution because of the coupling between fluxes and concentrations. An implicit solution is possible for temperature and water vapor using the leaf energy budget as an additional constraint. An alternative approach represents fluid transport with a Lagrangian framework, either directly through use of a dispersion matrix to characterize turbulent motion or through use of localized near-field theory.

  • 9 - Hydrologic Scaling and Spatial Heterogeneity

  • 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 134-151

  • Summary

    The hydrologic cycle on land includes infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration. This chapter reviews the principles of infiltration and runoff and discusses parameterizations to scale runoff over large regions with heterogeneous soils. These parameterizations rely on statistical distributions to characterize soil moisture variability. A similar statistical approach accounts for nonlinearity in soil moisture effects on evapotranspiration using either continuous or discrete statistical distributions. Snow cover is particularly patchy, and models divide land into snow-covered and snow-free areas when calculating surface fluxes. Many models additionally account for heterogeneity in vegetation and soils by dividing a model grid cell into several tiles.

  • 11 - Leaf Photosynthesis

  • 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 167-188

  • Summary

    Photosynthetic carbon dioxide assimilation provides the carbon input to ecosystems from the atmosphere and also regulates leaf temperature and transpiration through stomatal conductance. Current representations of these processes in terrestrial biosphere models link the dependencies of leaf biophysics with the biochemistry of photosynthesis. This chapter develops the physiological foundation and mathematical equations to describe photosynthesis for C3 and C4 plants. While the equations that describe C3 photosynthesis are fairly well understood, key parameters are less well known. Moreover, terrestrial biosphere models can differ greatly in how they implement the photosynthesis equations. C4 photosynthesis is less well understood for global models.

  • 19 - Vegetation Demography

  • 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 344-364

  • Summary

    Terrestrial ecosystems undergo temporal dynamics in plant populations, community composition, and ecosystem structure. These changes in ecosystems are driven by demographic processes of recruitment, establishment, growth, and mortality and require models distinctly different from biogeochemical models. This chapter provides an overview of this class of models with three specific examples. Individual-based forest gap models track the birth, growth, and death of individual trees in an area of land. Dynamic global vegetation models simulate changes in the area occupied by discrete patches of plant functional types. Ecosystem demography models define patches based on age since disturbance and simulate the dynamics of cohorts of similar plant functional types rather than tracking every individual. Common to each model is the representation of vegetation demography, with age- and size-dependent growth and mortality and in which growth is constrained by allometric relationships of stem diameter with height, sapwood area, leaf area, and biomass. Rather than biogeochemical cycles, vegetation demography provides the dynamical core for the next generation of terrestrial biosphere models.

  • 5 - Soil Temperature

  • 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 64-79

  • Summary

    The diurnal cycle of soil temperature and seasonal variation over the course of a year are important determinants of land surface climate. This chapter reviews the physics of soil heat transfer. Heat flows from high to low temperature through conduction. Thermal conductivity and heat capacity are key soil properties that determine heat transfer. These vary with the mineral composition of soil and also with soil moisture. In seasonally frozen soils, it is necessary to account for the different thermal properties of water and ice. Additionally, the change in phase of water consumes or releases heat during melting and freezing, respectively.

  • 10 - Environmental Knowledge in Democracy

  • 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 247-256

  • Summary

    The position of science is shifting. While in the old conception, science was considered to be outside of policy and society, engagement and participation are increasingly valued in science and knowledge production. Yet, at the same time we also see a parallel trend in which the authority of science is increasingly being questioned. In the context of these developments and trends, it is urgent to reconsider the relation between science, policy, and society. This chapter considers this relation from the perspective of democracy. Such a perspective highlights the importance of thinking about the position and role of science not just in instrumental terms, for example as in improving the uptake of knowledge or organising efficient science–policy–society interfaces, but also in terms of legitimacy and associated democratic values. The chapter will discuss three such democratic values – accountability, diversity and contestation, and humility – to serve as guidance for strengthening the contribution of environmental knowledge to policy and society.

  • Preface

  • 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 xiii-xiv

  • Summary

    Earth system models simulate climate as the outcome of interrelated physical, chemical, and biological processes. With these models, it is recognized that the biosphere not only responds to climate change but also influences the direction and magnitude of change. Earth system models contain component atmosphere, land, ocean, and sea ice models. The land component model simulates the world’s terrestrial ecosystems and their physical, chemical, and biological functioning at climatically relevant spatial and temporal scales. These models are part of a continuum of terrestrial ecosystem models from models with emphasis on biogeochemical pools and fluxes, dynamic vegetation models with focus on individual plants or size cohorts, canopy models with focus on coupling leaf physiological processes with canopy physics, and global models of the land surface for climate simulation. This latter class of models incorporates many features found in other classes of ecosystem models but additionally includes physical meteorological processes necessary for climate simulation. This book describes these models and refers to them as terrestrial biosphere models.

  • 10 - Leaf Temperature and Energy Fluxes

  • 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 152-166

  • Summary

    Extension of the bulk surface energy balance to include vegetation involves formulation of leaf fluxes. Energy from the net radiation absorbed by a leaf is stored in biomass or is dissipated as sensible and latent heat, and the balance of these fluxes, as influenced by prevailing meteorological conditions, leaf biophysics, and leaf physiology, determines leaf temperature. This chapter develops the biophysical foundation and mathematical equations to describe leaf temperature and the leaf energy budget. A critical determinant of leaf fluxes and temperature is leaf boundary layer conductance, which depends on wind speed and leaf size.

  • 8 - Lay Expertise

  • 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 184-199

  • Summary

    Lay expertise is a term that can be used to typify non-scientific forms of knowledge. Lay expertise is recognised as important for conservation and for sustainable resource management in both Western and non-Western contexts. Yet, it is also often considered inferior to science, and this hampers its inclusion in conservation and management practice. In this chapter, we will discuss the contribution of lay expertise, how it can be harnessed effectively, and how participatory approaches can be used in knowledge production. We will do this by advancing a symmetrical perspective that focuses on commonalities and complementarities between different scientific and non-scientific forms knowledge while at the same recognising and respecting difference and diversity. This chapter is complemented with cases about public engagement in botanical gardens and about a participatory process in Loweswater in the English Lake District.

  • Case I - The Loweswater Care Project

  • 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 210-221

  • Summary

    Environmental protection is not just a technical issue but also a social concern to which local inhabitants can make an important contribution. This case documents a participatory approach, involving natural scientists, social scientists, and other local stakeholders, to develop a joint understanding of an environmental problem in Loweswater, one of the lakes of the English Lake District. The approach was specifically developed to prevent some of the problems of participation discussed in Chapter 8, and it offers important lessons about how to ensure meaningful collaboration and how to co-produce environmental knowledge.

  • 13 - Plant Hydraulics

  • 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 213-227

  • Summary

    Additional understanding of stomatal behavior comes from transport of water through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum based on the principle that plants reduce stomatal conductance as needed to regulate transpiration and prevent hydraulic failure. As xylem water potential decreases, the supply of water to foliage declines and leaves may become desiccated in the absence of stomatal control. Stomata close as needed to prevent desiccation within the constraints imposed by soil water availability and plant hydraulic architecture. This chapter develops the physiological theory and mathematical equations to model plant water relations.

Climate Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Modeling
  • Gordon Bonan
  • Published online:
    08 February 2019
    Print publication:
    21 February 2019
  • Climate models have evolved into Earth system models with representation of the physics, chemistry, and biology of terrestrial ecosystems. This companion book to Gordon Bonan's Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications, Third Edition, builds on the concepts introduced there, and provides the mathematical foundation upon which to develop and understand ecosystem models and their relevance for these Earth system models. The book bridges the disciplinary gap among land surface models developed by atmospheric scientists; biogeochemical models, dynamic global vegetation models, and ecosystem demography models developed by ecologists; and ecohydrology models developed by hydrologists. Review questions, supplemental code, and modeling projects are provided, to aid with understanding how the equations are used. The book is an invaluable guide to climate change and terrestrial ecosystem modeling for graduate students and researchers in climate change, climatology, ecology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, meteorology, environmental science, mathematical modeling, and environmental biophysics.

Page 29 of 115