Overview

In many ways the Northern and Southern Hemispheres mirror one another in geologic, climatic and biological patterns. Both regions feature a progression from low to high latitudes or arid, semiarid, Mediterranean, temperate and subpolar-to-polar climates, and both have a corresponding match of functionally equivalent biotic systems. The latitudinal climatic gradients are controlled by equivalent ocean/atmospheric circulation patterns, and similar mountain ranges produce comparable climatic and hydrological patterns west to east. This book examines the differences, rather than the similarities, between the two hemispheres. These differences are important in understanding and predicting the earth system's response to global change. One fundamental consideration is the amount of vegetative cover present - as well as the propotions of any biome - in the land masses of the two regions. This hemispheric contrast in land-to-ocean mass may mean that the rates of change in climatic patterns, as a result of a global change, may vary. Further, a different rate of change of biotic patterns may also occur.

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9780125053006

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