Bioclimatology - Examples of Relevant Processes

Examples of Relevant Processes

Climate processes largely control the distribution, size, shape and properties of living organisms on Earth. For instance, the general circulation of the atmosphere on a planetary scale broadly determines the location of large deserts or the regions subject to frequent precipitation, which, in turn, greatly determine which organisms can naturally survive in these environments. Furthermore, changes in climates, whether due to natural processes or to human interferences, may progressively modify these habitats and cause overpopulation or extinction of indigenous species.

The biosphere, for its part, and in particular continental vegetation, which constitutes over 99% of the total biomass, has played a critical role in establishing and maintaining the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere, especially during the early evolution of the planet (See History of Earth for more details on this topic). Currently, the terrestrial vegetation exchanges some 60 billion tons of carbon with the atmosphere on an annual basis (through the processes of photosynthesis and respiration), thereby playing a critical role in the carbon cycle. On a global and annual basis, small imbalances between these two major fluxes, as do occur through changes in land cover and land use, contribute to the current increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Read more about this topic:  Bioclimatology

Famous quotes containing the words examples of, examples, relevant and/or processes:

    Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
    Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.
    André Breton (1896–1966)

    Amongst the learned the lawyers claim first place, the most self-satisfied class of people, as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether relevant or not, piling up opinion on opinion and gloss on gloss to make their profession seem the most difficult of all. Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes.
    Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)

    All the followers of science are fully persuaded that the processes of investigation, if only pushed far enough, will give one certain solution to each question to which they can be applied.... This great law is embodied in the conception of truth and reality. The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real.
    Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)