An Introduction to the Earth-Life System

by Charles Cockell , Richard Corfield , Nancy Dise , Neil Edwards , Nigel Harris

• ISBN13: 9780521729536
• ISBN10: 052172953X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

This concise undergraduate textbook brings together Earth and biological sciences to explore the co-evolution of the Earth and life over geological time. Written for a one-semester course, it explores the Earth system at and above the surface of the Earth by examining the interactions and feedback processes between the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. It also explains how the Earth's surface environment involves a complex interplay between these systems. Through a wealth of features and student questioning, the book allows students to understand how physical controls make our planet hospitable for life, investigate the processes of global change that operate on a range of timescales, understand important cross-disciplinary connections and explore how the whole Earth system has evolved. Finally, it assesses how and why the climate of the Earth has varied over geological time, and considers whether life itself is passive or an active agent for change.

Table of Contents

A habitable planet

The emergence and persistence of life

The carbon cycle

Plate tectonics, climate and life

Mountains and climate change

Life in the Phanerozoic

The Earth at extremes

Summary

Answers to questions

Appendices

Further reading

Glossary

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.