Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
Climate, Climate Variability, and Impacts in the Mediterranean Area:
An Overview
H.-J. Bolle
5
1 Introduction
5
2 Characteristics of the Mediterranean Environment
8
2.1 Climatological Mean Values
8
2.2 Spatial Variability of Mediterranean Climate
9
2.3 Vegetation and Soils
12
2.4 Contemporary Human Drivers
17
3 Past Climates and Vegetation in the Mediterranean Basin
20
3.1 Late Cretaceous Period to Pliocene Epoch (135 Ma - 1 Ma B.P.)
20
3.2 Pleistocene (1 Ma - 10 ka B.P.)
21
3.3 Early Holocene
21
3.4 From the Roman Period to the Little Ice Age
22
4 The Complexity of the Mediterranean System: Interactions at
Various Scales
24
4.1 Scales of Interaction
24
4.2 Large Scale Processes
24
4.3 Synoptic Scales
27
4.4 Processes and Interactions At Meso- to Local Scales
27
4.5 Experimental Strategies to Deal with the Hierarchy of Scales
31
4.6 The Role of the Mediterranean Sea
33
5 What Does the Mediterranean Basin Contribute to the Global
Carbon Budget and Atmospheric Pollution?
41
5.1 Fluxes of Biogene Volatile Organic Compounds
41
5.2 Carbon Fluxes
45
5.3 Forest Fires
47
5.4 The Role of Aerosols
48
5.5 Unknown Budgets
50
6 Will Mediterranean Water Resources and Vegetation Sustain Dramatic
Climate Changes?
51