Description: Plants have colonized and modified the world's surface for the past 400 million years. In this book the authors demonstrate that an understanding of the role of vegetation in the terrestrial carbon cycle during this time can be gained by linking the key mechanistic elements of present day vegetation processes to models of the global climate during different geological eras. The resulting interactive simulations of climate and vegetation processes tie in with observable geological data supporting the validity of the authors' approach.
Review Quotes: "Readers will learn about the changing dynamics of atmospheric oxygen, temperature, and carbon dioxide during different geological eras. In addition, readers will understand relationships among atmospheric changes and current global climate change, carbon sequestration, and predicted warming. An important resource for graduate students, scientists of climatology, geoscientists, ecologists, and the general public interested in global change." Choice