Today, climate-related processes and problems are referred to as Global Change by nearly everyone including scientists, politicians, and economists; citizens worldwide are anxious about the often ob­ served disorientation of our environment under the influence of man. Better information on the Earth's natural systems and their possible alterations is necessary. The topic itself is so wide that sound scien­ tific descriptions of it as a whole are rare. For the non-specialist infor­ mation from relevant fields is not easy to obtain; and often, the pro­ gnostic models presented are contradictory and even for specialists difficult to evaluate. Therefore, this book on Climate, Earth Processes and Earth History by Richard Huggett fills an important gap. It discusses the great, climate-related areas of the Earth's environment. The atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the sediments as products of weathering and geomorphic processes, the relief as landforms and soils, and the biosphere are thoroughly treated as the prominent sub­ systems which are greatly affected by climate. These subsystems not only control the visual and internal aspects of our landscapes, but they are themselves especially influenced by climatic changes which can be due to either changes in the natural system or anthropogenic changes. Thus, our landscapes will be subject to significant altera­ tions, if climatic variations exceed certain thresholds. The plan for the present book by Richard Huggett was originally discussed in regard to the Springer Series on Physical Environment.

1 Introduction.- 1.1 From Thermometers to Satellites.- 1.2 The World Climate System.- 1.3 Climatic Change.- 1.4 Scales of Systems.- 2 Air.- 2.1 Solar Forcing.- 2.2 Short-Term Gravitational Forcing.- 2.3 Medium-Term Gravitational Forcing.- 2.4 Internal Dynamics of the Climate System.- 2.5 Geophysical Forcing.- 3 Ice and Water.- 3.1 Terrestrial Systems and the Water Cycle.- 3.2 Short-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 3.3 Medium-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 3.4 Long-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 4 Sediments.- 4.1 Weathering.- 4.2 Denudation and Deposition.- 4.3 Short-Term Forcing of Denudation-Deposition Systems.- 4.4 Medium-Term Forcing of Denudation-Deposition Systems.- 4.5 Long-Term Changes in Sediments.- 5 Landforms and Soils.- 5.1 Soils and Climate.- 5.2 Landscape Morphometry and Climate.- 5.3 Landforms and Soils During the Pleistogene Period.- 5.4 Pre-Pleistogene Soil-Landscape History.- 6 Animals and Plants.- 6.1 Climatic Influences on Life.- 6.2 Biogeographical Regularities.- 6.3 Patterns of Species Richness and Climate.- 6.4 Short-Term Climatic Change and Organisms.- 6.5 Medium-Term Climatic Change and Organisms.- 7 Biomes and Zonobiomes.- 7.1 The Coming of Ecology.- 7.2 Communities and Climate.- 7.3 Medium-Term Climatic Swings and Plant Communities.- 7.4 Long-Term Climatic Change and Biotic Communities.- 8 Synthesis.- 8.1 Relations in the Biosphere: a General Model.- 8.2 The Problem of Scale.- 8.3 The Origin of Cyclicity.- References.