This book is a natural extension of the SCOPE (Scientific Committee of Problems on the Environment) volumes on the carbon (C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) biogeochemical cycles and their interactions (Likens, 1981; Bolin and Cook, 1983). Substantial progress in the knowledge of these cycles has been made since publication of those volumes. In particular, the nature and extent of biological and inorganic interactions between these cycles have been identified, positive and negative feedbacks recognized and the relationship between the cycles and global environmental change preliminarily elucidated. In March 1991, a NATO Advanced Research Workshop was held for one week in Melreux, Belgium to reexamine the biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P and S on a variety of time and space scales from a holistic point of view. This book is the result of that workshop. The biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P and S are intimately tied to each other through biological productivity and subsequently to problems of global environmental change. These problems may be the most challenging facing humanity in the 21 st century. In the broadest sense, "global change" encompasses both changes to the status of the large, globally connected atmospheric, oceanic and terrestrial environments (e. g. tropospheric temperature increase) and change occurring as the result of nearly simultaneous local changes in many regions of the world (e. g. eutrophication).

Klappentext

This book is an up-to-date synthesis of the biologicallyinterlinked global biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P and S.Processes and models involving the flow of these elements inand between the global reservoirs of ocean, atmosphere,biosphere and land are emphasized. Human-inducedperturbations to the global cycles are discussed and therole of these space scales of global change is considered,from the geologic to the present and the future. Feedbackmechanisms that enchance orameliorate global change are animportant feature. The book is strongly interdisciplinary inscope.

Inhalt
General.- C, N, P, S Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Modeling of Global Change.- Terrestrial.- The Coupling of Carbon and Ion Cycles Including N, P and S in Soils of Terrestrial Ecosystems.- Territorial, Continental and Global Aspects of C, N, P and S Emissions From Agricultural Ecosystems.- Rivers.- C, N, P Export Dynamics in the Amazon River.- The Phison River System: A Conceptual Model of C, N and P Transformations in the Aquatic Continuum from Land to Sea.- C, N, P and S in Rivers: From Sources to Global Inputs.- Ocean.- Interactions of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles in the Coastal Zone.- Productivity and New Production of the Oceanic System.- Air-Sea.- Air-Sea CO2 Exchange in Coastal Ecosystems.- Air-Sea Exchange of CO2 and Its Relation to Primary Production.- Air-Sea Exchange of Sulphur and Nitrogen and Their Interaction in the Marine Atmosphere.- Atmosphere.- Origins, Atmospheric Transformations and Fate of Biologically Exchanged C, N and S Gases.- Multi-Phase Processes in the Atmospheric Sulfur Cycle.- Sediments.- Organic Matter Oxidation in Marine Sediments.- The Nature of Phosphorus Burial in Modern Marine Sediments.- Recycling Efficiencies of Organic Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Reduced Sulfur in Rapidly Depositing Coastal Sediments.- Biogeochemical Transformations in Sediments: Kinetic Models of Early Diagenesis.- History.- Nonlinearities in Phosphogenesis and Phosphate-Carbon Coupling and Their Implications for Global Change.- The Coupling of the Carbon and Sulfur Biogeochemical Cycles Over Phanerozoic Time.- Working Group Reports.- Working Group 1: C, N, P and S Biogeochemical Dynamics and Cycling in the Geologic Record.- Working Group 2: Interactions of the Cycles of C, N, P and S in the Recent Past (The Quaternary) and Present.- Working Group 3: C, N, Pand S Biogeochemical Dynamics and Cycling: Future and Human Dimensions.- List of Workshop Participants.