The global carbon cycle and climate change : scaling ecological energetics from organism to the biosphere

__The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change__ examines the global carbon cycle and the energy balance of the biosphere, following carbon and energy through increasingly complex levels of metabolism from cells to ecosystems. Utilizing scientific explanations, analyses of ecosystem functions, extensive references, and cutting-edge examples of energy flow in ecosystems, it is an essential resource to aid in understanding the scientific basis of the role played by ecological systems in climate change. This book addresses the need to understand the global carbon cycle and the interrelationships among the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics in a holistic perspective. The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change is a compendium of easily accessible, technical information that provides a clear understanding of energy flow, ecosystem dynamics, the biosphere, and climate change. Dr. Reichle brings over four decades of research on the structure and function of forest ecosystems to bear on the existential issue of our time, climate change. Using a comprehensive review of carbon biogeochemistry as scaled from the physiology of organisms to landscape processes, his analysis provides an integrated discussion of how diverse processes at varying time and spatial scales function. The work speaks to several audiences. Too often students study their courses in a vacuum without necessarily understanding the relationships that transcend from the cellular process, to organism, to biosphere levels and exist in a dynamic atmosphere with its own processes, and spatial dimensions. This book provides the template whereupon students can be guided to see how the pieces fit together. The book is self-contained but lends itself to be amplified upon by a student or professor. The same intellectual quest would also apply for the lay reader who seeks a broad understanding. Cover The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change Copyright List of figures List of tables Author Bio Foreword Suggested Reading Acknowledgments 1. An introduction to ecological energetics and the global carbon cycle 1.1 Recommended Reading 2. The physical and chemical bases of energy 2.1 Energy, work, and power Calories and Joules 2.2 The different forms of energy Chemical energy Radiant energy Heat energy 2.3 The Laws of Thermodynamics The First Law of Thermodynamics Work Enthalpy The Second Law of Thermodynamics Entropy 2.4 Gaia hypothesis 2.5 Carbon and energy The forms of carbon Measures of carbon Carbon chemistry 2.6 Recommended reading 3. Energy relationships between organisms and their environment 3.1 Energy balance 3.2 Functional interrelationships affecting leaf temperature 3.3 Solar 3.4 Thermal energy 3.5 Energy balance of a leaf 3.6 Radiative energy balance of a forest 3.7 Energy exchange of animals 3.8 Recommended reading 4. Biological energy transformations by plants 4.1 Solar radiation 4.2 Photosynthesis The Light Reaction in photosynthesis The Calvin Cycle Energy-rich molecular bonds 4.3 Strategies for coping with environmental constraints Photosynthetic adaptations Modified structures 4.4 Energy conversion efficiencies 4.5 Recommended reading 5. Energy processing by animals 5.1 Metabolism 5.2 Free energy 5.3 Respiration 5.4 Energy value of foods 5.5 Digestion and assimilation 5.6 Respiration rates 5.7 Energy costs of digestion 5.8 Food energy budget for an individual 5.9 Why pork is cheaper than beef and chicken costs least of all 5.10 Recommended Reading 6. Species adaptations to their energy environment 6.1 The limits of survival Thermal properties of water Specific heat of water Chemical reaction rates 6.2 Adaptation to the energy environment Adaptive mechanisms Adaptive strategies 6.3 Phenological relationships Phenology 6.4 Extreme environments 6.5 Recommended Reading 7. Food chains and trophic level transfers 7.1 Food chains 7.2 Population dynamics and food chains 7.3 Food webs 7.4 Trophic levels 7.5 Trophic level efficiencies 7.6 Trophic structure of different ecosystems 7.7 Recommended reading 8. Energy flow in ecosystems 8.1 Ecosystem energetics 8.2 Ecosystem production equations 8.3 Measurement of pools and fluxes 8.4 The carbon cycle in ecosystems 8.5 Comparison of carbon metabolism among ecosystems 8.6 Net ecosystem production and net ecosystem exchange 8.7 Emergent properties of ecosystems 8.8 Recommended Reading 9. Ecosystem productivity 9.1 Terrestrial ecosystems 9.2 Freshwater ecosystems 9.3 Marine ecosystems 9.4 Secondary production 9.5 Global biome-scale production 9.6 Factors affecting global productivity 9.7 Scaling from stand to the planetary boundary layer 9.8 Recommended reading 10. The global carbon cycle and the biosphere 10.1 The components of the global carbon cycle 10.2 Carbon cycle regulators 10.3 Units of measure for the global scale 10.4 History of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 10.5 Uptake of carbon dioxide by the oceans 10.6 Carbon exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems 10.7 Modeling carbon in the biosphere 10.8 Recommended reading 11. Anthropogenic alterations to the global carbon cycle and climate change 11.1 Changing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 11.2 The greenhouse effect 11.3 Climate change 11.4 Greenhouse gases 11.5 Anthropogenic contributions to atmospheric CO2 11.6 Where are the CO2 emissions being generated? 11.7 Carbon cycle model projections of future atmospheres 11.8 Climate changes and climate model projections for the future 11.9 The effects of climate change 11.10 Recommended Reading 12. Carbon, climate change, and public policy 12.1 What are the potential consequences of inaction? 12.2 Do we know enough? 12.3 International accords 12.4 Mitigation and adaptation 12.5 The economics of clean energy 12.6 What has been the impedance? 12.7 Is it too late to act? 12.8 Recommended reading 13. Postscript 14. Suggested classroom uses of this book Bibliography Author Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z Subject Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Back Cover The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change examines the global carbon cycle and the energy balance of the biosphere, following carbon and energy through increasingly complex levels of metabolism from cells to ecosystems. Utilizing scientific explanations, analyses of ecosystem functions, extensive references, and cutting-edge examples of energy flow in ecosystems, it is an essential resource to aid in understanding the scientific basis of the role played by ecological systems in climate change. This book addresses the need to understand the global carbon cycle and the interrelationships among the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics in a holistic perspective. The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change is a compendium of easily accessible, technical information that provides a clear understanding of energy flow, ecosystem dynamics, the biosphere, and climate change. "Dr. Reichle brings over four decades of research on the structure and function of forest ecosystems to bear on the existential issue of our time, climate change. Using a comprehensive review of carbon biogeochemistry as scaled from the physiology of organisms to landscape processes, his analysis provides an integrated discussion of how diverse processes at varying time and spatial scales function. The work speaks to several audiences. Too often students study their courses in a vacuum without necessarily understanding the relationships that transcend from the cellular process, to organism, to biosphere levels and exist in a dynamic atmosphere with its own processes, and spatial dimensions. This book provides the template whereupon students can be guided to see how the pieces fit together. The book is self-contained but lends itself to be amplified upon by a student or professor. The same intellectual quest would also apply for the lay reader who seeks a broad understanding." --W.F. Harris| Deputy Assistant Director, Biological Sciences, National Science Foundation (Retired); Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Retired)Provides clear explanations, examples, and data for understanding fossil fuel emissions affecting atmospheric CO2 levels and climate change, and the role played by ecosystems in the global cycle of energy and carbonPresents a comprehensive, factually based synthesis of the global cycle of carbon in the biosphere and the underlying scientific bases Includes clear illustrations of environmental processes