The Dance of Air and Sea : How Oceans, Weather, and Life Link Together

How can tiny plankton in the sea just off Western Europe be affected by changes in the Gulf Stream four thousand miles away, on the other side of the North Atlantic Ocean? How can a slight rise in the temperature of the surface of the Pacific Ocean have a devastating impact on amphibian life in Costa Rica? How can the temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean help predict the yields of maize far away in Zimbabwe? In The Dance of Air and Sea , oceanographer Arnold Taylor illuminates the extraordinarily vast and powerful forces driving the world's ecosphere, revealing the astonishing ways that the atmosphere and oceans interact, and revealing how ecosystems in water and on land respond to changes in weather. Ranging through the fields of oceanography, meteorology, and ecology, Taylor sheds light on the immense variations of the atmosphere which can span a whole ocean, the best known of which is the El Niño cycle of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a colossal see-saw in which atmospheric pressure rising over Australia mirrors a fall thousands of miles away in Tahiti. And as he explores this remarkable dance of sea and air, Taylor conveys the enormous power of these forces--for instance, the Gulf Stream carries as heat the energy of about 20 million power stations--and he tells colorful stories of the many scientists working in this field, such as the two researchers who used the records of an annual gambling pool in Alaska (the Nenana Ice Classic) to track the local effects of global warming. Packed with engaging anecdotes, this mind-boggling account of the enormous forces at work around the globe also highlights how understanding these forces will enhance our ability to tackle global warming. How can the tiny plankton in the sea just off Western Europe be affected by changes 6000 km away on the other side of the North Atlantic Ocean? How can a slight rise in the temperature of the surface of the Pacific Ocean have a devastating impact on amphibian life in Costa Rica? Living populations across the globe are connected by great swayings of the world's atmosphere and oceans, the largest of which is El Nino. For almost half a century, the numbers of some of the smallest animals in the North Sea have gone up and down as the Gulf Stream has moved north and south 4000 miles away at the coast of the USA. This connection has happened because the weather patterns over the North Atlantic are intertwined by a phenomenon first described by a Danish missionary in the eighteenth century, the North Atlantic Oscillation. In The Dance of Air and Sea Arnold Taylor focuses on the large-scale dynamics of the world's climate, looking at how the atmosphere and oceans interact, and the ways in which ecosystems in water and on land respond to changes in weather. He tells stories of how discoveries were made, and the scientists who made them; and he considers the crucial issues of how the discoveries aid our response to global warming. A 4000-mile plankton riddle The ways of the ocean At the behest of the weather The snake in the mathematical grass Every wind has its weather The tangled skeins of the world's weather Action at a distance Lighthouses on the shores of the climate Drunken trees in the greenhouse As the tempo of the dance heats up. We are familiar with the periodic impact of El Nino on the earth's weather. Now Arnold Taylor unravels the much wider story of the connection between the world's atmosphere and oceans, demonstrating the scale and importance of this vast coupling, and its profound effect on the biosphere. Looks at the connections between the atmosphere, the oceans, and life all over the world, describing how these oscillations came to be recognized and the impact they have on the delicate balance of the Earth's biological populations