Books | Gordon Bonan

Gordon Bonan, Senior Scientist

A Systems Analysis of the Global Boreal Forest (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

Shugart, H.H., R. Leemans, and G.B. Bonan (eds). 1992. A Systems Analysis of the Global Boreal Forest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 565 pp.

The boreal forests of the world, geographically situated to the south of the Arctic and generally north of latitude 50 degrees, are considered to be one of the earth's most significant terrestrial ecosystems in terms of their potential for interaction with other global scale systems, such as climate and anthropologenic activity. This book, developed by an international panel of ecologists, provides a synthesis of the important patterns and processes which occur in boreal forests and reviews the principal mechanisms which control the forests' pattern in space and time. The effects of cold temperatures, soil ice, insects, plant competition, wildfires and climatic change on the boreal forests are discussed as a basis for the development of the first global scale computer model of the dynamical change of a biome, able to project the change of the boreal forest over timescales of decades to millennia, and over the global extent of this forest.

Ecological Climatology, 3rd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Bonan, G.B. 2002. Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 678 pp.

Bonan, G.B. 2008. Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 550 pp.

Bonan, G.B. 2016. Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 692 pp.

Ecological Climatology introduces an interdisciplinary framework to understand the interaction between terrestrial ecosystems and climate change. Written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying ecology, environmental science, atmospheric science and geography, the textbook reviews basic meteorological, hydrological and ecological concepts to examine the physical, chemical and biological processes by which terrestrial ecosystems affect and are affected by climate. The 3rd edition has expanded the scope beyond its initial focus on energy, water, and carbon to include reactive gases and aerosols in the atmosphere. This new edition emphasizes Earth as a system, recognizing interconnections among the planet's physical, chemical, biological, and socioeconomic components, and emphasizing global environmental sustainability. New chapters include: nitrogen, chemistry, and climate; aerosols, chemistry, and climate; climate intervention and geoengineering; and coevolution of climate and life.