Global Climate Change and Cold Regions Ecosystems

by Rattan Lal (editor), Bobby A. Stewart (Editor)

Global Climate Change and Cold Regions Ecosystems provides information on soil processes and the carbon cycle in cold ecoregions as well as the soil carbon pool and its fluxes in the soils of cold ecoregions. Filling a void in this area of soil science, this resource explains soil processes influencing C dynamics under natural and disturbed ecosystems.The soils of the cold region ecosystems serve as a net sink of atmospheric C. However, an increase in global temperature could render them a net source. In the event of global warming, the cold regions ecosystems-arctic, sub-arctic, alpine, Antarctic, boreal forests, and peatlands-will undergo radical changes. Potential environmental change could drastically increase the active soil layer and influence the large C pool found in them. Topics soil C pools in different cold ecoregions, the impact of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on the soil C pool, the method of assessment of C and other properties of soils of the cold regions ecosytems while focusing on the fate of C in permafrost soils. Global Climate Change and Cold Regions Ecosystems covers the current and possible future effects of the cold ecoregions soil C pool on the global carbon pool.

Genres: Science

280 pages, Paperback Bunko

First published November 30, 1999

About the author

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at The Ohio State University, as well as an Adjunct Professor of University of Iceland and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), India.