Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Earth System
- 2 Components of the Earth system
- 3 Global cycles
- Part II Global Physical Climatology
- Part III Soil Processes
- Part IV Hydrometeorology
- Part V Biometeorology
- Part VI Terrestrial Plant Ecology
- Part VII Terrestrial Forcings and Feedbacks
- Index
- Plate section
- References
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core
2 - Components of the Earth system
from Part I - The Earth System
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part I The Earth System
- 2 Components of the Earth system
- 3 Global cycles
- Part II Global Physical Climatology
- Part III Soil Processes
- Part IV Hydrometeorology
- Part V Biometeorology
- Part VI Terrestrial Plant Ecology
- Part VII Terrestrial Forcings and Feedbacks
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Chapter summary
Earth's climate must be understood in terms of a system of several interacting spheres and the energy, water, and biogeochemical cycles that link these spheres. The main components of the Earth system are: atmosphere, air; hydrosphere, water; cryosphere, frozen portion of Earth; biosphere, living things; pedosphere, soil; and humans. People are important agents of environmental change through land use and land cover change and co-option of the hydrologic cycle and biogeochemical cycles. Greater understanding of Earth and its climate requires that all components of the Earth system – physical, chemical, biological, socioeconomic – be considered.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is the air that surrounds Earth. It is comprised primarily of nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2), which together account for 99% of the volume of the atmosphere (Table 2.1). Many other gases occur in trace amounts that when combined comprise less than 1% of the volume of the atmosphere. Although they occur in minor quantities, some of these gases play an important role in Earth's radiation balance through the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouses gases are poor absorbers of solar radiation, but are strong absorbers of longwave radiation. As a result, the Sun's radiation passes through the atmosphere and heats the surface, but the longwave radiation emitted by the surface is absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The majority of this longwave radiation is emitted back to the surface, warming the surface. This re-emission of longwave radiation back to the surface is the greenhouse effect that warms the surface.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ecological ClimatologyConcepts and Applications, pp. 15 - 27Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
, , and , 2000. Effect of stream channel size on the delivery of nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico. Nature, 403, 758–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and , 1997. Atmospheric aerosols: biogeochemical sources and role in atmospheric chemistry. Science, 276, 1052–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , 2004. Grazing systems, ecosystem responses, and global change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 29, 261–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1975. The World Water Balance: Mean Annual Global, Continental and Maritime Precipitation, Evaporation and Runoff. Elsevier, 179 pp.Google Scholar
, , , and , 1998. Circum-arctic map of permafrost and ground-ice conditions. National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, Colorado.
, , and , 2004. Impact of changing land use practices on nitrate export by the Mississippi River. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 18, GB1028, doi:10.1029/2003GB002093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1994. Fragmentation and flow regulation of river systems in the northern third of the world. Science, 266, 753–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 1997. Satellite inventory of human settlements using nocturnal radiation emissions: a contribution for the global tool chest. Global Change Biology, 3, 387–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2004. U.S. constructed area approaches the size of Ohio. EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 85, 233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2005. Global consequences of land use. Science, 309, 570–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al., 2007. Changes in atmospheric constituents and in radiative forcing. In Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ed. , , , et al., Cambridge University Press, pp. 129–234.Google Scholar
, , , and , 1999. Temperature trends of the U.S. Historical Climatology Network based on satellite-designated land use/land cover. Journal of Climate, 12, 1344–8.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and , 2004. Trends in night-time city lights and vegetation indices associated with urbanization within the conterminous USA. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 25, 2003–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , , and , 1995. Nitrogen fixation: anthropogenic enhancement–environmental response. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 9, 235–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2004. Nitrogen cycles: past, present, and future. Biogeochemistry, 70, 153–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 1997. Effects of anthropogenic intervention in the land hydrologic cycle on global sea level rise. Global and Planetary Change, 14, 147–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2001. A closer look at United States and global surface temperature change. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106D, 23 947–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1999. The annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use 1850–1990. Tellus, 51B, 298–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2003. Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850–2000. Tellus, 55B, 378–390.Google Scholar
, , , et al., 1996. Regional nitrogen budgets and riverine N & P fluxes for the drainages to the North Atlantic Ocean: natural and human influences. Biogeochemistry, 35, 75–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 2006. Exploring global patterns of net primary production carbon supply and demand using satellite observations and statistical data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 111D, D22S12, doi:10.1029/2006JD007377.Google Scholar
, , , and , 1997a. A technique for using composite DMSP/OLS “city lights” satellite data to map urban area. Remote Sensing of Environment, 61, 361–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 1997b. Using nighttime DMSP/OLS images of city lights to estimate the impact of urban land use on soil resources in the United States. Remote Sensing of Environment, 59, 105–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2004a. Global patterns in human consumption of net primary production. Nature, 429, 870–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al., 2004b. The consequences of urban land transformation on net primary productivity in the United States. Remote Sensing of Environment, 89, 434–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 2005. A projection of severe near-surface permafrost degradation during the 21st century. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L24401, doi:10.1029/2005GL025080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 2005. A synthesis of information on rapid land-cover change for the period 1981–2000. BioScience, 55, 115–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1990. Ecosystem structure and function along urban–rural gradients: an unexploited opportunity for ecology. Ecology, 71, 1232–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and , (eds.), 1993. Humans as Components of Ecosystems: the Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and Populated Areas. Springer-Verlag, 364 pp.CrossRef
, , , and , 2005. Fragmentation and flow regulation of the world's large river systems. Science, 308, 405–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
and , 2006. Global hydrological cycles and world water resources. Science, 313, 1068–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, 2003. Assessment of urban versus rural in situ surface temperatures in the contiguous United States: no difference found. Journal of Climate, 16, 2941–59.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 1999. Global rural temperature trends. Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 329–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 1996. Human appropriation of renewable fresh water. Science 271, 785–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and , 1999. Estimating historical changes in global land cover: croplands from 1700 to 1992. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 13, 997–1027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 2001. Human appropriation of photosynthesis products. Science, 294, 2549–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, 2000. Global physical effects of anthropogenic hydrological alterations: sea level and water redistribution. Global and Planetary Change, 25, 39–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 1994. Direct anthropogenic contributions to sea level rise in the twentieth century. Nature, 367, 54–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1997. Biogeochemistry: an Analysis of Global Change, 2nd edn. Academic Press, 588 pp.Google Scholar
, 2004. Global population distribution and urban land use in geophysical parameter space. Earth Interactions, 8, 1–18.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and , 2005. Spatial analysis of global urban extent from DMSP-OLS night lights. Remote Sensing of Environment, 96, 277–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and , 2005. Impact of humans on the flux of terrestrial sediment to the global coastal ocean. Science, 308, 376–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, , , et al., (eds.), 1990. The Earth as Transformed by Human Action: Global and Regional Changes in the Biosphere over the Past 300 Years. Cambridge University Press, 713 pp.
and , 1991. Changes in Mississippi River water quality this century and implications for coastal food webs. BioScience, 41, 140–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and , 1994, Coastal eutrophication near the Mississippi river delta. Nature, 368, 619–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1994. Beyond global warming: ecology and global change. Ecology, 75, 1861–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and , 1986. Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis. BioScience, 36, 368–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , and , 1997a. Human domination of Earth's ecosystems. Science, 277, 494–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , , et al., 1997b. Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: sources and consequences. Ecological Applications, 7, 737–50.Google Scholar
, , , , and , 1999. Statistics and characteristics of permafrost and ground-ice distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. Polar Geography, 23, 132–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar