Summary
Contents
Subject index
This unique addition to reference literature provides an introduction to the major concepts and contemporary issues that are essential for students of environmental science and environmental studies to know. With over 200 entries authored by world-class names like Anthony Brazel, John Day and Edward Keller, this text is divided into six sections: Environmental Science, Environments, Paradigms & Concepts, Processes & Dynamics, Scales & Techniques, and Environmental Issues.
Environmental Change
Environmental Change
Environmental change includes those changes that occur naturally in response to forcing factors operating over a range of timescales, those changes consequent upon human activity including those recent changes often described as global climate change. The period since the end of the major ice age known as the Pleistocene has seen the greatest alteration of the Earth's surface by humans. This has been most obvious on the land surfaces but scientific measurements have made clear that the oceans have also been changed, for example, by the addition of pollutants and by the inroads on whale and fish populations. The findings of palaeoecology, historical ecology and environmental history have given great depth to this story of the last 10,000 years, making possible some general ...
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